Playback legend Lata Mangeshkar paid homage to the late lyricist on Twitter. She wrote: “Mujhe abhi pata chala ki dil ko chunewale geet likhnewale kavi Yogesh ji ka aaj swargwas hua. Ye sunke mujhe bahut dukh hua. Yogesh ji ke likhe kai geet maine gaaye. Yogesh ji bahut shaant aur madhur swabhav ke insan the. Main unko vinamra shraddhanjali arpan karti hun (I just came to know of the demise of the poet Yogesh ji whose songs touched one’s heart. The news pains me. I have sung songs that Yogesh ji wrote. Yogesh ji was a man of gentle disposition. I offer him my humble tribute).”
The veteran lyricist was not keeping well for a while now and, according to a report in nationalheraldindia.com, he was staying with a disciple in the Mumbai suburb of Nala Sopara.
Some of Yogesh’s best lyrics were in the films of Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee. He wrote classics such as “Zindagi kaise yeh paheli” and “Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye” in “Anand”. His memorable numbers include “Rajinigandha phool tumhare” and “Kayi baar yun hi dekha hai” in “Rajinigandha”; “Badi sooni sooni hai” in “Mili”; “Jaaneman jaaneman” and “Na jaane kyun” in “Chhoti Si Baat”; ”Rimjhim giray saawan” in “Manzil”; and ”Na bole tum na maine kuchh kaha” in “Baton Baton Mein”, among numerous others.
Born in Lucknow in 1943, Yogesh arrived in Bombay of the sixties to be a poet and also a lyricist in films. His first Bollywood break was as a lyricist in the film Sakhi Robin (1962). He penned six songs for the film directed by BJ Patel and starring Rajan Kapoor, Nilofar and Babu Raje.
Yogesh continued working into his late seventies. In fact, his last work is in the 2018 release, “Angrezi Mein Kehte Hain”, which featured Sanjay Mishra, Anshuman Jha and Shivani Raghivanshi. Yogesh wrote two songs for the film’s soundtrack that were composed by Pravin Kunwar.
