The minute Urmila Matondkar screamed Yaeee Re Yaeee Re Zor Lagake Nachee Re in Rangeela in her micro-mini Manish Malhotra outfit, she was a certifiable star. Of course in the film it took her another 175 minutes to get there. While one-half of Urmila’s Tanha Tanha number was shot in Goa the other half had to be shot in Madh Island. And no one could tell the difference.
Come to sing of it, Urmila’s liaison with lilting songs started when she was a child in Shekhar Kapoor’s Masoom crooning Lakdi Ki Kathi.
She agrees it is her most popular song to date even rivaling the Rangeela rockers. But if you ask us, Asha Bhosle did an even more wondrous vocal gymnastic for Urmila in Ram Gopal Varma’s Daud where Asha B sang the ultra-sexy Zehreela Pyar. Sheer poise-on.
During the same year as Daud, Urmila had another chartbuster Yeh Khabar Chapwa Do Akhbaar Mein in the flop Aflatoon in Sapna Awasthi’s discordant voice and Chamma Chamma, one of her two item songs for Raj Kumar Santoshi’s cinema, the other being Aa Hi Jaiye in Anuradha Sriram’s voice in Lajja.
The title song in RGV’s Mast composed by Sandeep Chowta where she danced like there was no tomorrow, lifted the spirit as only Urmila’s dance moves can. And right after there was Govinda singing to Urmila Re Urmila Urmila in Kunwara. Urmila thereby joined the ranks of Sridevi and Karisma Kapoor who had their co-stars singing their names on screen.
Alisha Chinai blew the screen apart for Urmila’s soulsearing love Rondhe Hai Tera Pyaar (Your love tramples me) in Pyar Tune Kya Kiya. We wonder why Alisha didn’t sing more often for Urmila.
Dr Chandraprakash Dwivedi’s Pinjar featured some well-crafted compositions by Uttam Singh and outstanding lyrics by Gulzar and Amrita Singh. They didn’t work. If they did, Pinjar could have been Urmila’s ticket to immortality.
Urmila’s favourite self-performed number is Geela Geela Paani in Satya. A haunting piercing Lata Mangeshkar number composed by Vishal Bhardwaj. To this day Ram Gopal Varma regrets editing the song out of Satya.
Who would edit out a song by Lataji except the filmmaker who had the audacity to make Urmila Matondkar do Helen’s Mehbooba Oh Mehbooba from Sholay in Ram Gopal Varma Ki Ugh… sorry Aag.
