2 Men and Magic – LP
For sometime now we have been totally in awe & spell-bound by the fantastic music done by Panchamda (R.D. Burman). Every music discussion lately have been starting and ending with Panchamda. It’s always how he used a comb (Mere samne wali khidki from Padosan) or pieces of glass (Churaliya in Yaadon ki baraat) to get a new sound. Along the way there are number music directors that are being overlooked for their work and on very much verge of being forgotten.
This led me back to search and re-discover other music directors of Panchamda time. One pair of director completely bowled me over with the versatility of their music. I never knew that there was a talent so huge & endless in our Hindi industry as these two gentlemen. Do movies like Dosti, Milan, Amar Akbar Anthony, Bobby, Sargam, Jeene ki raah & Karz ring a bell? Every song in each of these albums is mind blowing. It will be Herculean task to say that one song is better than other. I aver that this task cannot be done without being biased to some of the songs.
Yes, my dear friends. I am speaking of Laxmikant and Pyarelal (LP as they were fondly known), the great music duo. These gentlemen were not just were known for their pure Indian instruments based music but were masters at combining desi sounds with western instruments. Rishi Kapoor would not have been able to rev-up the whole Karz atmosphere, which led to superb movie, if not for the Paisa ke paisa song. In the same movie they did a pure desi song in form of Main sola baras ki.
It was the music that made me watch B-grade mythological movie called Parasmani. I could not believe that such an atrocious movie (the actors cold not correctly lip synch to the voice of great Lata & Rafi) possessed passionate songs like Wo jab yaad aaye and Hasta hua noorani chehra.
The specialty of LP songs was the rich melody with it was generated. After the intro they let the singer take the song to zenith. In background one will only hear the sound of tabla or a dhol. They never clogged their songs with too many music instruments.
The saxophone in the song “O my love” from Night in London is absolutely out of this world. It is followed up by amazing singing by Rafi and the song just melts in your heart. Kishore Kumar was totally unusual to his character singing Mere mehmoob qayamat Hogi in Mr. X in Bombay. A Patiala session will be incomplete if songs like Hui shaam unka khayal & Chalkaye jaam from Mere Humdam Mere Dost are not played. A run of the mill movie like Ram Lakhan rode to fame due to songs like My name is Lakhan and Tera naam liya.
The tabla in Bindiya Chamge from Do Raaste is absolutely ravishing. Lata’s intro for the song Jaane kyon log mohabbet kia karte hai from Mehboob ki mehndi sends shivers down your spine and makes you wonder of God’s miracle at creating a stupendous singer and equally great directors who posses the acumen to harness that voice. Yeh galiya ye chaubara is a trail blazing marriage song composed with minimum instruments. It was big hit at the time of Prem Rog release & continues to be played during almost every Indian / Pakistan wedding.
The other aspect of their music was the autographic tunes that they gave to movies. These were the lovingly haunting sounds that became soul of movies. The banjo of Karma, the flute in Hero, the dafli of Sargam or the mouth organ of Dosti is just a minute portion of the collection. Some of you would be surprised to know that the mouth organ in all Dosti songs was played by Panchamda. And that LP did the background score for Panchamda’s first directorial venture which was Bhoot Bangla. All three were great friends. I once saw Panchamda’s stage show in which he had Kavita Krishnamurthy sing Hawa Hawaii from Mr. India because he loved the song much.
LP were two persons with one soul. As with most I used to think that LP was name of one person. It was in my in teens I read an article on them & saw their photos for the first time. That’s how I came to know that they are two human beings.
They have worked with almost all the best names of their time and have played very integral part in shaping the future of a lot of top-notch directors. Right from Raj Kapoor, Manmohan Deasi, Subash Ghai, Shekhar Kapur, J.P. Dutta, N Chandra and more.
LP were not just great music directors but humble beings as well. They never forgot the favors done by Mohammed Rafi & Lata Mangeshkar who sang for them in their first directorial assignment (Parasmani). This was the time when other singers were not comfortable lending their voice to unknown music directors. During Kishore’s hey days he was preferred over Rafi, but LP always had Rafi signing at least one song in their movies. It was sometimes against the producers and directors wishes.
I always felt that this was a correct stand taken by them. With all due respect to Kishore, some songs of LP were way out of his league. Take for instance Pattta patta from Ek Nazar. It required a very clear and subtle voice to sing stanza like “koi kisi ko chahe, to kyon gunah samajhte hai log”. It was Lata & Rafi’s versatility that made this song so refreshing to listen time and time again. Or Ek tha diya ek baati from Rajput, mere dost kissa ye kya ho gaya from Yaarana. Or Dard-e-dil from Karz. Or the ever-haunting Khilona jaan kar from Khilona. In these songs Kishore might not been able to do complete justice to LP compositions.
The other aspect of their character was the humility. They were never biased towards one singer. Every prime and up-coming singer has sung for them. Shailender crooned to the evergreen tune of Main shayer to nahin and other Bobby songs. Suresh Wadkar hit big time with Prem Rog, Vinod Rathod came of age in Khal Nayak, Shabbir Kumar rose to occasion in Pyar Jhukta Nahin, SP Bala became a household name in North India with Ek duje ke liye, Reshma floored us with Lambi Judaii (Hero), Mohammed Aziz & Lakhan became synonymous with Ram Lakhan and Kavita Krishnamurty became Miss. Hawa Hawaii. The list goes on but the accomplishments are never ending.
While conducting research for this post I happen to come across an article on Indian Express website through which I learned that LP has the highest number of complete scores sold each year. Music of most of the other directors is sold as a collection from various albums but have very few complete album compilations taken away. I do not hesitate to second this comment. With albums like Dosti, Aaye Din Bahar Ke, Milan, Shagird, Jeene Ki Raah, Do Raaste, Piya Ka Ghar, Mera Gaon Mera Desh, Shor, Roti Kapda Aur Makaan, Aan Milo Sajna, Mehboob Ki Mehndi, Imtihaan, Khilona, Majboor, Dharam-Veer, Roti, Prem Kahani, Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Amar Akbar Anthony, Asha, Badaltey Rishtey, Suhaag, Desh Premee, Sargam, Karz, Kranti, Prem Rog, Ek Duje Ke Liye, Hero, Pyar Jhukta Naheen, Aakhri Raasta, Agnipath, Hum, Tezaab, Naam, Meri Jung, Ram Lakhan, Chalbaaz, Mr. India, Khuda Gawaah, Saudagar, Khalnayak, Jeevan Mrityu, Haathi Mere Saathi, Dushman, Ek Nazar, Loafer, Aashiq Awaara and many more that I cant remember. Have a field day compiling this list in your favorites order.
It is a common knowledge that most directors start to give un-impressive music in the latter part of their careers. LP maintained their standard till the sad demise of Laxmikant. To get this point across I ask my readers to listen to albums like Saudagar, Khal Nayak, Hum, Narsimha and Agneepath. Every song in these albums is a gem and as stated earlier it very hard for anyone to list an ascending order favorites.
With their sheer dedication and love for music they have provided signature tunes to infinite number of film stars. What comes into your mind when you hear Ek, do teen from Tezaab? I bet its Madhuri dancing in short dress. Let me give one more. Does Sridevi play with your emotions when you watch the song Hawa Hawaii from Mr. India? I guarantee it does. Remember Nayak Nahin (Sanjay Dutt in Khal Nayak), Jumma chumma dede (Kimi Kathkar in Hum), Sheesha ho ya dil ho (Reena Roy in Asha), Bindya chamkegi (Mumtaz in Do raaste), Tere mere beechmein (Rati Agnihotri in Ek duje ke lye), Jhoot bole kawa kaate (Dimple in Bobby), Nindya se jaagi bahaar (Meenakshi in Hero), Zindagi har kadam ek nai jang hai (Anil Kapoor in Meri Jang), Ye galiyan ye chaubara (Padmini in Prem Rog), Saudagar sauda kar (Manisha in Saudagar), Dafli wale (Jaya Prada in Sargam), Mast baharoon ka main aashiq (Jeetender in Farz), Sheeshi bahri gulab ki (Babita in Jeet) and I am Krishna Iyer M.A (Mithun in Agneepath). Big list isn’t it. I can go on writing but this an endless sea.
In an age where most of the new songs can be listened to five times maximum, we had such great human beings who have left us an endless treasure of music. It would be very wise on the current director’s part to idolize LP and give their utmost best to achieve at least 10% of what they have done. Surpassing this totally out of question and is not possible.
On behalf of billions of music lover like me I thank Mr. Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar and Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma for everything antra, every sur and every gem of a song they left us. This is a debt that we can never repay.
I bow and thank you for it.
Before closing a trivia. The character Anthony Gonsalves (in film Amar, Akber Anthony) was the name of a Goan gentleman who taught Pyarelal to play violin. In a way this was a tribute to this master.
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Muzzy: very nice post. LP were big music composers and this is true that they gave Lata some of her memmorable songs. In semi Classical genere LP were simply great. Story says that Lata did not want to work with Raj Kapoor after he forced her to sing Budha mila gaya in his Sangam and after failure of Mera Naam Joker RK wanted Lata badly to sing for his films and thus he approached LP first time and replaced his favourite Shankar Jaikishan. Well LP gave Lata a gem – Bhor Bhaye panghat pe — in Satyam Shivam Sundaram and this film has a collection of beautiful songs.
After Aradhana’s success Rafi saw a real tough time for atleast 3 years. He was with very low confidence because people, music directors all were demanding Kishor Kumar and his style of singing. This is a wrong fashion in hindi cine world that they dont give due credit to talent and hanker after the person who is shining at the moment. It was not possible for Kishor to sing songs for all the films and therefore filmmakers and music directors behaviour toward rafi was sad,foolish and unpardonable.
Few corrections in your post:
1)Bhoot Bangla was first Directorial venture of Mehmood and being friend of Mahmood, RD acted in that single film. and Man he was terrific with his thick glasses. a real bhondu look.
2) mere dost kissa ye kya ho gaya is from Dostana film and not from Yaarana.
Those two really were a trip in Bhoot Bangla. RD should acted in some more. In addition to being a super sexy composer he was’nt a bad actor. He should have acted in some more movies.
Thanks for correcting the movie name. Yaarana & Dostana both mean the same. Plus Amitabh is in both.
Hey, he was also in Namak HARAM & Namak HALAL.
Cheers,
‘Aa-o Twist Karen’ – that’s from Bhoot Bangla, right? Now that is a classic disco tune!
HG: thats a unique contribution from RD. Ohh Manna De wah Manna De. a real dhammal song
thnx yaar for a lovely post
Muzzy, neat post!
LP were the only complete film composers of all times. As you already mentioned, their repertoire is enviable yet uncomparable. You are right about them literally being star-makers. Many a films would not have been what they were if not for the memorable songs, be it Ghai’s or N Chandra’s films.
I go back to the early nineties when I used to wait for their music, because theirs was the onlt to-look-forward-to music in those times. I used to buy all their tapes, be it Hum, Khuda Gawah, Tezaab, Dushmani(sunny deol, manisha), Rajkumar(what a score!).
Many a great composers have mentioned LP’s indelible imprint on their music, case in point- AR Rahman worships their music, and Kehdo ke tum from Tezaab lists in his top 5 hindi songs.
Not many people know but a lot of contemporary music directors have been former LP players, eg. aadesh shrivastava(percussionist), ismail darbar.
Though comparisons with RD on the front of using western instruments might not find many favours, but I still maintain their music was the best orchestrated work in those times. Just pick up any Ghai film and listen closely to the arrangement, and you will know what I am saying.
In fact, I went bonkers when I heard Rajkumar’s music, hear Saat Samundar and you will know the power of percussion.
They have also introduced many a great singers, I am not sure but Sukhwinder’s Deewane tere naam ke, was one of his first numbers(did LP did Khilaaf?)
They also gave brilliant music in relatively lesser known films like Prem Deewane,Hum Dono,dil hi to hai, angaar,gumraah …
I guess their last ‘hit’ was sanjay dutt’s mahaanta(tapka re tapka)…
If there was any other complete film composer apart from Rahman, it would be LP.(though its foolish to compare the two).
In fact, if you notice, they were the only composers in whom film makers had so much faith and loyalty. Once an LP guy, always an LP guy.
case in point-ghai, n chandra, raj kapoor(to some extent), raj khosla, mukul anand, pankuj parasher, manoj kumar etc.
my fav – dard-e-dil from karz.
Brilliant post Muzzy ..
Seriously a wonderful and completely researched post .. thanks for taking us down the memory lane … :-)
Well written and well researched post…
Please also do a similar post on Salil Choudhary….
His music spans an entire generation (and more) and his melodies till haunt us….
Hi there!
I really like your tribute to LP. Wonderful!
Pyarelalji himself was a violin player and that totally explains the heavy string orchestration in the compositions that they made. Take for example “The Soul Of Bobby” (background score for Bobby) a rare LP release from 1973, then Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Tezaab and almost all their songs from 1970s. Remarkable! Also I would like to make a correction. You mentioned that the song “Mere Dost Kissa Ye Kya Ho Gaya” is from YAARANA. It is actually from the film DOSTANA made in 1980. The composer of Yaarana was Rajesh Roshan who was also an assistant to LP for a short period of time.
Good luck and keep writing such good stuff!
DO check out my online VIVIDHBHARATI radio station at http://anywhere.fm/vividhbharati .
With regards,
Harshawardhan Lanjewar
in fact as a child it was always LP for me… most movie i saw on TV has them as music directors and they were all i knew when it came to composing..
LP rocks on..
that of course does not mean RD was lesser… he was brilliant and undoubtedly gave huge number of hits..
ironically there is one composer who has been left.. rajesh roshan.. it’s take a lot to compose music for all these years and still give hits! Julie to Krissh – he is still going strong.