"Kuchh Na Kaho" is a romantic

Hindi Hindi ( Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

song from the film '' 1942: A Love Story''. The song was composed by

R. D. Burman Rahul Dev Burman (27 June 1939 – 4 January 1994) was an Indian music director who is considered one of the most influential composers of India. From the 1960s to the 1990s, Burman composed musical scores for 331 films. Burman did major work w ...

with lyrics by Javed Akhtar and vocals by

Kumar Sanu Kedarnath Bhattacharya (born 20 October 1957), better known as Kumar Sanu, is an Indian playback singer. He is known as the King of Melody in Bollywood. He is famous for singing thousands of Bollywood Hindi songs. Apart from Hindi, he has al ...

. It was the swan song of R. D. Burman, released three months after his death (January 1994). It is composed in the

Dadra Dadra is associated with the Hindustani classical music of the Indian subcontinent. Dadra tala This is a Hindustani classical '' tala'' (rhythmic cycle), consisting of six beats in two equal divisions of three. The most commonly accepted theka ...

taal. Ronu Majumdar played the flute. Along with ''Ek Ladki Ko Dekha'' from the same movie, the song represented Kumar Sanu's peak as a singer. He also said on interview, this song "kuch na kaho" is used as treatment for cerebral palsy patients. The song had another version, recorded by

Lata Mangeshkar Lata Mangeshkar () (born as Hema Mangeshkar; 28 September 1929 – 06 February 2022) was an Indian playback singer and occasional music composer. She is widely considered to have been the greatest and most influential singers in India. Her con ...

after RD Burman's death. This sad version was not well received by some critics. Noted film critic

Raju Bharatan Raju Bharatan (1934 – February 7, 2020) was a journalist and writer on Indian cricket and Bollywood music. He worked for a weekly features magazine, ''The Illustrated Weekly of India,'' and an Indian films weekly newspaper, ''Screen''. He also ...

, who also wrote a biography of

, remarked "we tuneful watchers agonized at the way Lata played such vocal havoc with Kuchh na kaho". Kavita Krishnamurthy had earlier recorded the sad version of the song on 15 July 1993, but her rendition was not released.

References

{{authority control 1994 songs Songs written for Hindi-language films Songs with music by R. D. Burman Songs with lyrics by Javed Akhtar Lata Mangeshkar songs