BIRTHDAY TRIBUTE: R.D.Burman drew out the best in Lata

Written by V.S DATTA (Editor , N.I.P Allahabad ) Monday, 29 June 2015 10:15

ASHA’S SONGS FELL IN ‘B’ CATEGORY- FAST BUT FORGETTABLE

Out of the father and son duo – S.D.Burman and R.D.Burman – my favourite was the elder music director. This is because I grew up listening to his music. However, RD has also left behind memorable tunes

Rahul Dev Burman was born in 1939 in Kolkota and was the only child of his parents. From his very birth he seemed to be musically inclined. Once as an infant R.D. was mumbling something. Ashok Kumar , who was closeby, heard him minutely and remarked jokingly that the infant was mumbling in the fifth scale of music – the Pancham scale. The name stuck. And so Rahul Dev Burman came to be better known as Pancham or R.D. But seldom would people take his full name, Rahul Dev Burman.

Asha Bhosle had failed marriage. Pancham too had got married in 1960 and his marriage had failed. RD is remembered by many for his jazzy style. He is also remembered for the song he sang in ‘Sholey’, ‘Mehbooba O Mehbooba’. But look at the serious numbers he composed based on classical raags. Those songs are immortal. Many might not be knowing that R.D. composed them. This is because they have a unique classical depth which is quite in contrast to

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Written by V.S DATTA (Editor , N.I.P Allahabad ) Monday, 29 June 2015 10:15 the frivolous numbers he composed for some films. In fact from his very first film, ‘Chote Nawab’ he created an exquisite impression by composing that evergreen and memorable number, ‘Ghar aja ghir aye badarva sanwariya….’ It was based on Rag Malgunji. This film came when S.D.Burman was very active. It was thus presumed that the father might have tuned the song for the son. But in retrospect that impression gets nullified. The elder Burman’;s style was different, quite individualistic. One could instantly get the Burman flavour the moment one heard those great songs composed by him.

PLENTY OF VARIETY:But R.D.Burman was gifted with a style that had plenty of variety so that sometimes it was difficult to recognize him in some of the songs he created, some on heard western tunes. But his serious songs did have a style that was quite different from some of the noisy stuff that he composed.

Coming back to his classical numbers, Lata again rendered for him the song, ‘Bada natkhat hai yeh’ in ‘Amar Prem’ which was in Rag Khamaj. Again, in Raag Lalit, RD composed for Amar Prem the wonderful song, ‘Raina beeti jaae, shyam na aye’

In ‘Chandan ka palna’ Lata again sang for RD, ‘Par lagade mere sapno ki naiya in Rag Jogiya. Then there was, ‘Karwaten badalte rahe sari raat hum’ by Lata and Kishore in Rag Pahadi in ‘Aap ki kasam’. The ‘Beete na bitaye raina’ with Bhupinder in Raag Yaman Kalyan in film ‘Parichay’ is also one of his memorable compositions; And how can one ever forget that melodious number sang in solo both by Lata and Kishore ‘Mere naina sawan bhadon’ in film ‘Mehbooba’ based on Raag Shivranjani ?

Among his earlier films, ‘Padosan’ was a big hit. And how can one ever forget that song by Kishore and , ‘Ik chatur naar badi hoshiyar’. It has comedy but is based on a very difficult classically-structured tune. Only a genius like RD could have created that fantastic number which I still regard as one of the best comedy numbers if not the best, to have ever been created. The classical base is retained even when the singers are taking liberties with their voices to suit the verses.. It was a very tough assignment. But it was not entirely original – because decades earlier Ashok Kumar had crooned the first line in the same tune , shivering under a tap, in Bombay Talkies’ film ‘Jhoola’ which was released some time in 1941-42..

WHY MUKESH ? The ‘’ songs were a treat by Lata, Kishore, Rafi: ‘Tum bin jaaoon kaha’. Is unforgettable. And ‘Kati Patang’ had a haunting Lata number, ‘Na koi umang hai’. There were three bumper hits from Kishore including ‘Yeh shaam mastani madhosh kiye jaae’. But the surprise hit in the film was sung by Mukesh: ‘Jis gali mein tera ghar na ho sajana us gali se hamen to guzarna nahin’. This was quite different from the other songs and had a

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Written by V.S DATTA (Editor , N.I.P Allahabad ) Monday, 29 June 2015 10:15 unique Mukesh flavour which probably the young music director specially created for him, apparently recalling that his father had composed some immortal numbers for Mukesh too, like ‘Chal ri sajni ab kya soche, kajra nab eh jaye rote rote’ for Bombai Ka Babu and ‘O jaane wale ho sake to laut ke aana’ for Bandini, to say nothing of ‘Bahe na kabhi nain se neer uthi ho chahe dil mein peerr’ which his father composed for Devanand in Vidya, a film made in the 1940s..

MEMORABLE NUMBERS;The Lata number in ‘Anamika’, ‘Bahon mein chale avco’ was such a treat. The softness of her appeal, the soothing lilt in the tune were mesmerizing. ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ was another landmark film in which Asha sang the super-hit title song. But Lata/Kishore also sang a tuneful number: ‘’Phoolon ka taron ka sab ka kehna hai’ . And can we forget the Lata-Kishore duet, ‘Tere bina zinadgi’ in ‘Andhi’ ? One of the most memorable songs composed by him was for film ‘Baharon ke sapne’ . And who else but Lata could have poured the gold in her voice into that immortal song! ‘’Aja piya tohe pyar dun’ did sing a couple of hit songs for him, the most notable one being from’’ with Rafi, ‘Aja aja main hoon pyar tera…’ but they were not a patch on the qualitatively superior songs, high quantitatively as well, which Lata sang. On every Holi, we can never miss the ‘Sholey’ song, ‘Holi ke din sab dil mil jaate hain’ sung by Lata and Kishore.

It is thus clear that Lata was the backbone of his music. And Asha cannot just hijack that position no matter how much she may claim to do so. The ‘Kaanta..’ number of Samadhi by Lata could have gone to Asha because that was sung more in a style that suited her more. But Lata did full justice to the assignment and I don’t see how Asha could have added to that melodious rendering of a song that was too breezy for Lata’s style.

R.D.Burman died very young. He passed away on January 4, 1994. His last film was ‘1942-A Love Story’ which was also released that year and became a musical hit. For this he received the Filmfare Award too which he had earlier received for ‘Sanam teri kasam’ (1982) and ‘Masoom’ (1983) . the only difference being that he was not alive to receive the last award in person. RD died very young, very, very young. Even so his contributions were great.He was not among the pioneers. But he certainly followed their trail, leaving his own musical footprints on the sands of time.

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Written by V.S DATTA (Editor , N.I.P Allahabad ) Monday, 29 June 2015 10:15

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