Bollywood playback singer Mohammed Aziz dies at 64
MUMBAI: Veteran Bollywood playback singer Mohammed Aziz, best remembered for songs such as ‘My Name is Lakhan’ and ‘Aap Ke Aa Jane Se’, passed away on Tuesday after reportedly suffering a heart attack .
Aziz, 64, collapsed at the Mumbai airport after landing from a Kolkata flight on Tuesday afternoon.
He was rushed to the Nanavati Hospital in Vile Parle where he breathed his last a short while later.
“He was brought dead to the hospital at 3.17 pm. The body has left from Nanavati hospital for post-mortem,” a hospital official told PTI.
Aziz died of cardiac arrest, a family member said. His body will be taken to his suburban Kandivli home.
Aziz, who has over 20,000 songs to his credit, has sung in Bollywood, Bengali and Odia film industries. He has recorded several devotional bhajans and Sufi songs as well. Born in West Bengal’s Ashok Nagar as Syed Mohammed Aziz-un-nabi in July 1954, he started his career as a restaurant singer in Kolkata till he got a singing break in a Bengali film, ‘Jyoti’ (1981), before he shifted to Mumbai and sang for the Hindi film ‘Ambar’ (1984).
Later, he got a break when music director Anu Malik asked him to sing the song ‘Mard Taangewala’ for the Amitabh Bachchan starrer ‘Mard’ (1985).
Subsequently, he sang for top music directors like Naushad, OP Nayyar, Kalyanji-anandji, Laxmikant-pyarelal, Bappi Lahiri, RD Burman, Rajesh Roshan, Ravindra Jain, Raam-laxman, Usha Khanna, Nadeem-shravan, Jatin-lalit, Aadesh Shrivastava and others.
Songs sung by him were picturised on Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakravorty, Rishi Kapoor, Govinda, Anil Kapoor and other leading actors.
Deeply inspired by the legendary singer Mohammed Rafi, at one point of time, Aziz was considered the musical heir to his idol for his versatility and range of singing.
Some of his memorable Bollywood numbers — solo and duets — include ‘Lal Dupatta Malmal Ka’, ‘Dil Le Gayi Teri Bindiya’, ‘Tu Kal Chala Jayege, To Main Kya Karunga’, ‘Patjhad Sawan Basant Bahar’ and ‘Dil Diya Hai, Jaan Bhi Denge, Ae Watan Tere Liye’.