Rahul: Naam toh suna hoga?
Have you noticed that while we can’t remember last year’s songs, the popularity of RD Burman’s music is expanding every day? Asks Javed Akhtar, who wrote the words for Pancham’s last major film score 1942: A Love Story besides the lyrics of RD soundtracks like Saagar and Gardish.
Let’s forget the plethora of remix albums and how the DJ Aqeels and Bally Sagoos made a career out of them, but when you look at the teaser trailers of the new Ranbir-Deepika-Bipasha movie Bachna Ae Haseeno, the snazzy locales don’t hit you, it’s still Manohari Singh’s trumpet which does the melting job.
The new Saregama album RDX, with the twin versions (Bengali and Hindi) of 25 of his songs, are flying off the racks faster than a Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic. There are more books being written about his music than on Indian cricket. International string quartet Kronos Quartet still plays Mera Kuch Saaman in their concerts.
Sad that it may sound, the 15 years since RD Burman’s death in 1994 has opened up Panchamtantra in all its glory. The few years before that fateful night of January 4, the orchestral sounds of Laxmikant Pyarelal had sidelined the genius of the man who could make music out of rotating ceiling fans and classroom desks.
Today, those who die to hear Saagar’s Jalpari theme from RD’s guitarist Bhanu Gupta and Sholay’s theme from the saxophone of Manohari Singh, didn’t care that the man was dying inside. He would tell his friends in the industry like Shammi Kapoor and Gulzar that never has gone a time when he hasn’t recorded for three months. Fathom his desperation to get back to music when he would call up Indrani Sen, still a nobody, and even come down to Calcutta to record a Puja album with her.
It was not that RD was finished and was only borrowing from his own music or from the West for his new compositions. Has love ever taken birth any better than Ek ladki ko dekha? Or rain fallen more rhythmically than Rimjhim rimjhim? Music had never sounded purer than 1942: A Love Story. RD knew he was logging out.
Not that he couldn’t stir up something for the future. Those who had heard the track Pinky Darling (from his unreleased private album Time Limit), swear that Pancham was ready to herald programmed music for the first time, the likes of which Rahman and Pritam are championing today.
But see the irony, amidst all the noise, amidst all the hip-hop and the neo jazz, we just want a slice of the good ol’ RD. Just that one familiar slap of the guitar, that spoon hitting the glass in Chura liya, the rush of breath at the top of Piya tu, the twin guitaring of Chingari koi bhadke.
So, a sincere request to all the organisations and fan clubs out there. There’s no need to “revive” RD Burman by making him 71 when he is still 70 (he was born in 1939) and request his ailing assistants to strum up and blow out that old magic. For every ear that has ever been regaled with the Pancham grunt, he is in our blood, alive and singing.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
long live the legend! great post!
pratim da, bhalo likhechho, and long overdue as well. it was time someone wrote abt pancham da afresh.
i didnt know abt that indrani sen pujo album. hmmm, can i get it easily? or do i hv to come to kolkata?
Superbly written Pratim ji…
Bahut Achche …
Thats why PFC rocks bcoz ppl here live to keep the legends alive …
Nice post Pratim da.
Just wanted to add, there is another compilation called “Pancham Beats”, A 2 CD compilation which was created based on a AIR conversation with Gulzar, Asha Bhosle and RD; One gets to hear the genius in his own words.
Gems like “O manjhi teri naiyya se chhote kinara” from Aar Paar, “yeh zindagi kucch bhi sahi” from “Romance” and all the tracks of “Harjaee” and “Sitamgar” never got their due;
Nice post pratim…Rahul Dev Burman was a visionary…clairvoyant.
Thanks Magik! Yes he will live forever!
Thanks Satyendra… I will try and find out for you how to get the Indrani Sen album…
Yes Avi, PFC rocks! My sincere apologies to the readers and to the PFC editors for staying away from the site for so long… Promise to make it up!
Yes Sourav, he was God! You should hear the new music directors baffled at how he could do come up with such tunes, that took from Indian ragas and yet was completely Western in arrangement…
Hey Magik ,a comment out of scope here ,is PFC always going to stay a closed circuit ? I think all avid users of PFC should gather in every city and discuss ideas and do something……I for one have some fantastic ideas lined up on which I am working currently ,would like to share it with everybody ,can we have a get together or something ,u are from Bangalore right….
hi pratim. nice post. and yes, RD is the Boss, and no doubt about it. it won’t be a bad idea to actually bring out a CD collection of the theme compositions of RDB (like the Jalpari theme of Sagar you mention). What say?
great idea Utpal, I am sure HMV can come out with such an album… what are the other themes you suggest…
@ pratim: dada, kothay chhile eto din.. u r also an SXC alumni, so it gives extra pleasure to finally see u back on PFC. im in pune, and will try to go to Landmark to check out for the indrani sen album.
now that u hv vowed to be moreregular, what better way than to do a separate post dedicated to the BOSS… it wud b such a welcome post…
@ vineet: u r more than welcome oye! i had sent u an email when oz bhai was here too! god knows y u didnt reply then… u & other PFCites from B’lore can mail me so that we can catch up some time: magikworx@gmail.com
it is true that most of the remix songs and most of the oldies played by FM Stations now-a-days are of R D Burman’s. I’ve read that he was struggling to get work in the years before his demise. oh…so sad.
really good post
well written.
I don’t like all the posts here.
Most of them I feel are written by wannabes
But yours was really good.
@ Pratim – Welcome back & good to read this post on “boss”.All said & done I liked Jhankaar Beats primarily because of the fact that the movie paid homage to Panchamda.He still lives in all of us for sure!!!
@Sethumadhavan
I think it was Dil Vil Pyar Vyar.
Lets not forget the fabulous documentary about RD Burman titled “Pancham Unmixed”! http://www.brahmanandsingh.com/RDB.htm.
Not a coincidence in this whole resurgence of this genius’ music…
@ Jahanpanah- No Jhankar Beats pays complete homage to Panchamda.The 3 protagonists are big time “boss”fans & even sing his numbers right in the competition at the end too.and they keep going to Panchamda’s house & pray there as they treat him so highly.What better way of showing their homage?
As far as Dil Vil Pyar Vyar is concerned the movie used a lot of Panchamda’s songs remixed, but the movie otherwise is not on the same level as a homage to Panchamda when compared with Jhankar Beats.
Great post. I have been collecting Pancham’s background music for many years. In the days of cassette tapes, they used to add fillers in the end using generic names – title music, dance music, drum music etc. But with CDs, they are more rare to find. But its not just the commercially available stuff I am talking about. There is a lot of treasure buried in the background scores, those 1-2 minute snippets interspersed in small measure throughout the movie. There is some amazing background score in films like Samundar, Musafir, Deewar, Mil Gayee Manjil Mujhe. In order to discover this music, you have to play the video/dvd and listen without watching the screen.
I haven’t frankly heard much of RD, but going by the list of song he had ‘copied’ (including ‘chura liya hain’) from different sources, would it be right to call him ‘the best ever’?!
@Sriram(22,23),
Please listen to the creations as a music lover or best like a skilled music lover who can differentiate between good, average and below average music.
Pancham’s creation has left a vast heritage, if you have not heard much of it, it will take time. Just have a plunge in his creative world.
Rest regarding inspiration etc, I have been believing in a hypothesis, and many masters have proved this hypothesis as a true one, “That for those who can create original things and have created many such, words like inspiration or no inspiration do not matter, they are much above this futile game or war of words”.
There is a difference between a mimicry artist and an artist who may get inspiration from any where as he has liked something and can create something which has his own seal all over.
Words having bases in man created languages keep no real meaning in the world of enlightened ones. True and lies as people understand in common sense have no meaning for them as they have reached beyond these things.
One may be enlightened in any field.
It does not matter Kamal Hasan makes a Chachi 420 by getting inspiration from Mrs Doubtfire as he is capable to make this character of his own, he is capable to create original things and he has created. It does not matter we find similarities in some of the acting ranges of Amitabh Bachchan and Dilip Saab as AB is capable to create his own originality and he has proved it time and again.
Those who are mere clones they dont excel and never create space for their own creativity. Many tried to become like Lata Mangeshkar, Kishor Kumar or Rafi but they could not succeed because they were good in imitating only and had very less skill in creating their own originality.
RDB thrives on his own creative energies, construction and ability.
Inspiration angle is immaterial in his and such cases. It cant be used to degrade him and alike creators. Its futile.
Oh and am really sorry if I hurt anyone’s sentiments here about RD, I just wanted to get that ‘doubt(?)’ outta my head.
I know these comments don’t contribute much to discussion, but…
Kya baat hai…that’s what I call writing…
I love reading tributes that have qualities of the artist being appreciated…much like RD Burman, you have written it with a combination of style and knowledge…
Nice work yaar.
Nice article Pratim da..
All the songs from 1942 were exceptional..just cannot pin point one and say..yeah…this one was better than the other…Ek Ladki catches you instantly..”Yeh Safar Bahut hain Katheen magar”..takes a bit more time to grow but stays put once it does…
Keep writing more such stuff Pratim
1942 a love story heralded the return of melody to Indian movies. The 80s were horrible for their songs. I still remember the appa amma songs from Tofa…God it was pretty much pits. 1942 came with a big bang…in 1994.
movie was wonderful for Anil kapoor fans like me.
takes me to my Pune rains and walking through the university soaking as if to do justice to the songs. listening to the songs of Ghar gives me goosebumps to this day.
Freaking fantastic post! The Boss rules, forever!
DarknDusky…yeah..Ghar’s songs were awesome..the movie was crap though…maybe you or someone to do a post on Amazing songs in crappy movie…eg Neele Neele Amber se song from that crappy movie, name i keep forgetting
@Om(29),
Song, (Neele Neele Ambar par chaand jab aaye), belongs to Kalakaar, starring Sridevi and Kunal Goswami, son of Manoj Kumar.
Ghar- are you referring to Rekha, Vinod Mehra’s film? If yes, in what way you found it crap?
Shukriya Pratim da…
yesss he lives oon
Thanks everyone for such a heartwarming response… You can’t write enough about RD… I was speaking to Vishal Dadlani the other day and he was saying how he and Shekhar of Vishal-Shekhar try really hard to make the soundtrack sound non-electronic, something from the heart, something like Pancham… whose music was all soul. Even Rahman’s a huge RD fan. Talking about him being inspired, well listen to Leo Sayer’s When I need you and Parinda’s Tumse milke and you will realise they are two very different songs with a similar tune. RD’s treatment was something else, he was a brilliant arranger himself. A very important point raised by many of you on how some of his gems were wasted in mediocre films. Certainly deserves another post, let me collate more info… His stuff in Garam Masala and all are amazing… Will write for sure!
If i am asked to describe RDB in 1 word it would be Panchamrit. Truly one of the greatest composers who never ever got his due during his lifetime. Only some 1 like Gulzar could recognize his genius and exploit it to the full. Some of RDB’s best songs have come in some real crappy movies.
Take a song like Roz Roz Aankhon Tale, such a sublime one, yet wasted in an utter rubbish movie. Or they would come in movies that were not bad but not too popular.
For eg Kabhi Kabhi Sapna Lagta Hai, one of the most melodious duets ever heard, but the movie Ratnadeep was not too popular.
Can any 1 ever forget the haunting tune for Humein Tumse Pyaar Kitna in Kudrat? Or the seductive pleasure of Chori Chori Solah Singaar in Manoranjan? For me RDB’s songs are more than just melodies on a tape, they have become interwined with my pysche.
I remember once i was driving in Delhi, and suddenly in my car radio, the song Raah Pe Rehte Hain started to come. I mean the song touched me so much, it was as if reflecting my situation, as i was hitting the road. Truly one of the best road songs.
I could just go on and on about RDB. Also his BGM scores, in Sholay one of the best. But even in Satte Pe Satta, do you recall the BGM when AB’s Babu Character comes on screen, kinda creepy and haunting. Or the very moving BGM score for Masoom. Sadly not many directors really used this aspect of RDB.
I think RDB lost out in the 80’s, because his two main backers Nasir Hussain and Shakti Samanta, hit a rough patch with their movies flopping. Shakti-RDB-Rajesh Khanna tried their best to resurrect the magic with Alag Alag, but sadly the movie flopped.
Also noticed one thing, ever since Ramesh Sippy and Rahul Rawail switched over to other MD’s from RDB, their movies have gone for a toss, musically as well as otherwise. Kinda weird coincidence.
“A very important point raised by many of you on how some of his gems were wasted in mediocre films”
Pratim have a list of them
Roz Roz Aankhon Tale-Jeeva
Rang Le Aayenge-Bhanwar
Kya Jaano Main Hoon Kaun-Bande Haath
Neend Churake Raaton Mein-Sharif Badmash
Bheegi Bheegi Raaton Mein, Hum Dono Do Premi-Ajnabee
Bahut Door Hoke, Bahut Paas Hoke-Namumkeen( One of Hrishida’s not too good movies)
Ab Ke Saawan Mein Ji Dare-Jaise Ko Taisa
Oh yes, Pratim. I recall the late eighties and early nineties when RD’s popularity and career was at its lowest, the record sellers dotting Lenin Sarani (Dharmtalla) would offer LPs of films with his music by the kilo! I remember picking up a few for peanuts. There were simply no takers, even the record sellers would offer very little for discs if one wished to sell them. Now those very records are a goldmine. I wonder whats the reason for this transformation and this acceptance of his music. Have we become matured listeners? Back in the seventies, songs like Piya Tu and Duniya Me, now hailed as futuristic and great numbers, would be frowned upon and dismissed by the bhadralok of Bengal as cultural pollutants. Elders in many families would nod sagely and sigh, “The father was so good, look at the son.” Have we become, post-liberalisation, more liberated? More confident about being eclectic in our tastes? I don’t know for sure, any explanations?
To add to Ratnakar’s list of trashy films with unbelieveable numbers:
All the songs of Garam Masala
All the songs of Mr Romeo, had gems like Yahaan Nahin Kahoongi, Ja re ja, Na sone denge, He Mujhe Dil De and the Hindi version of RD’s Bengali hit Ke Kande. (I forget the Kishore Hindi version)
Tum bhi jhoote: Rani Mera Naam
Chanda O Chanda/Jogi O Jogi: Laakhon Me Ek
Haae re Haae re: Bada Kabutar
Ye Zindagi Hai Char Pal: Savera
Maine Tumko Chaha Pehli Baar: Double Cross
Great comments! Providing so much more insight… Thanks guys! Keep them coming…
In reply to Devdan’s query, I cannot think of a single answer. My view is that Pancham’s music was very modern in the sense that he urbanised Hindustani film music and brought it closer to world music. Indian’s have always been late in responding to change, a similie can be the disastrous state of affairs of the hockey team once astro turf repalced grass. Even in the sixties, Pancham’s music was so different from the common folk based sounds one has been brought upon that it took some time for even the musically erudite to really imbibe the spirit. The music just did not register till one had attained a certain level of listening excellance. Once people started feeling Pancham, plaudits did follow, from all quarters including old timers like Anil Biswas and Salil Chowdhury who were well versed with International music but were also looked upon as tradition bound.
Secondly, Pancham’s music almost chronicled the eras he worked in. His experimenting with new instruments, new sounds, new genres was also representative of the youth wave which followed once the mass was disillusioned with the Nehruvite principles and its fallacies and the near dictatorial regime of Indira Gandhi. It was almost like a movement like the Blues, which was born out of the sufferings of the Afro Americans; finding little acceptance among the Americans till white singers themselves stareted adapting the style which they found so close to their heart.
Furthermore, Pancham passed away at a time when he , like the proverbial phoenix, had risen from the ashes. It was probably the best time for him to die.. only to be immortalised in pure platinum (and not wax). His death renewed the interest in his music, and given the vast repositiory of melodies he had created, it had to linger on and on. Even today, the die hard Pancham fan cannot claim to have heard all his compostions, even the best of musicians cannot claim to reproduce the sounds he created. Ramesh Iyer had a very interesting tale to tell..it is very difficult to perform Pancham’s songs on stage as he was so very unconventional. Sounds which he created just cannont be reproduced to a nicety , never mind how we have forged ahead in the field of electronics.
RK – there was no point in explaining to people like Sriram, when we can see their motive, in a short statement that they make. One can easily make out the difference between a sincere question and a question with some ulterior motive. I am shocked that you culd not make out the difference
RK,
Thanks for that reply man! I haven’t really heard much of the 70/80’s and early 90’s music, heard a ‘few’ of RD’s and liked it!
My question was because I have had heard people talk about how RD was a genius, BUT had always been inspired by other musicians.
Thanks for the effort! I now want to hear more of RD.