Celebrating The ‘Happy Burday To Sunita’ Actress Babita’s Birthday

Babita Shivdasani-Kapoor is not counted among the legends. But she gave the 1960s some of its biggest hits. And that counts. Baar baar din yeh aaye baar baar dil yeh gaaye tum jeeyo hazaaron saal yeh meri hai aarzoo, Happy Burday to Sunita….

When Jeetendra lip-synced this Mohd Rafi memorabilia to Babita, he had no idea the song would be such an enduring chartbuster.

Recalls Jeetendra, “During one schedule in Ooty, we shot four songs including the superhit Happy Birthday To Sunita. Little did we know that this song would become the staple for all birthday parties for all times to come. The song and Babita became a rage. We did several other films together. But nothing like Farz.”

Babita, whom I met over lunch with her daughter Kareena, once said,  “I was flooded with offers. But I was never interested in my career. Not that I was disinterested in my work. I gave my hundred percent to my career until I married Daboo (Randhir Kapoor) and quit to never look back. After my daughters (Karisma and Kareena) were born, they were my only interest. Waise bhi, Kapoor khandaan didn’t like their daughters-in-law to work.”

Farz was a blockbuster opening up the floodgates for the spy thriller in Hindi cinema. The film contained  the  chartbuster Baar baar din yeh aaye …Happy Birthday to Sunita.” The  ‘Sunita’  in the song was played by none other than Babita.

How did she feel about being iconized in a song? “That’s Sunita, not me,” Babita had laughed throatily.

She went on to do three other hit films with Jeetendra: Aulad, Ban Phool and Anmol Moti, the last-mentioned marketing itself as  India’s first underwater film, and one flop Bikhre Moti.

The fact is, cinema history has been unfair to Babita. Not much of an actress, I know. But out of the 19 films that she did between 1966 and 72, MOST OF HER FILMS WERE HITS!!! In fact,  Babita’s success ratio is higher than that of any other leading lady of the  1960s, and yet she is not even mentioned in any evaluation of  Hindi cinema of the decade.

Babita’s first release Dus Lakh in 1966 with Sanjay Khan as her co-star was a big hit. It immediately stamped her as a lucky heroine. And heroes were falling over each other to work with her. In 1967 she was Jeetendra’s leading lady in the biggest hit of his career Farz. They paired up again in Aulad Bikhre Moti, Anmol Moti, Banphool all hits.

She was also Rajesh Khanna’s first heroine in Raaz which flopped. But their second film together Doli was a hit. In 1968, she teamed up with her future uncle-in-law Shashi Kapoor in Haseena Maan Jayegi which was a massive hit one of the biggest hits of his career unmatched by any of the innumerable films he did with Babita’s Samdhan Sharmila Tagore.

Fun trivia: Babita’s daughter Karisma also did a film entitled ‘Haseena Maan Jayegi’.  During the same year, she was paired opposite Biswajeet in one of his last successful films Kismat, remembered for its hit song  Kajra mohabbat wala to this day. She also starred opposite the fast-fading Rajendra  Kumar in Anjana in 1969, one of his last hits, and with her future father-in-law Raj Kapoor’s brother Shammi Kapoor in one of his last successful films as a leading man Tumse Achcha Kaun Hai.

In 1971, she was paired with her soon-to-be-husband Randhir Kapoor in his family film Kal Aaj Aur Kal which starred Babita with three generations of the Kapoor clan Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor and Randhir Kapoor.

Besides these blockbusters, she also sang many timeless chartbusters on-screen: Bekhudi mein sanam (Haseena Maan Jayegi), Aao huzoor tumko sitaron pe le chalun (Kismat), Kab tak huzoor roothe rahoge (Aulad), Jeevan path pe pyar ne chedi madhur madhur sargam (Ek Shriman Ek Shrimati), Sajna saath nibhana (Doli), Rimjhim ke geet sawan gaye (Anjana), Ho gayee teri ho gayee (Kab Kyun Aur Kahan), Aap yahan aaye kis liye (Kal Aaj Aur Kal), Yeh jo ladki hai (Bikhre Moti), Aahen na bhar thandi (Banphool), Sheeshi bhari gulab ki (Jeet) and Do qadam tum bhi chalo (Ek Haseena Do Diwane).