Harsh Gupta | From editor’s desk | Before starting this article, I struggled for a day to find an adjective that suits the maestro. I couldn’t. I couldn’t in the known English (at least to me). Words fell short to do justice to the man.
Even Pancham the word, I feel, is so very incomplete because he is completeness personified. As far as music is concerned. The kind of completeness that he has, I think instead of Pancham, it should have been ‘Sargam’. In fact, his genius crossed the spectrum of ‘Sargam’, infra-wise or ultra-wise.
I must have been around thirteen or fourteen when I first heard “O hansini kaha ud chali”. It may sound immodest, but I feel I have an ear for music. I felt that the song was completely out of the world. It was different from the contemporary songs of that time. I went into the details of the song, got to know of the music, lyrics and all. In a span of two-three months, I listened to some other songs as well such as “Beete Na Bitaaye Raina”, “Bechaara dil kya kare”. The only common thing in these songs which I felt was brilliant, was R.D. Burman.
In the early seventies, an aging Dev Anand approached S.D. Burman for the music of “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna” as his “Navaketana Movies” always went with the great S.D. Burman.
The kind of music this movie required was not S.D. Burman’s cup of tea and so, he flatly refused. Disturbed Devanand left his house only to be cornered by the 21-year-old R.D. Burman. Pancham wanted to give music for the movie. Already irritated, Devanand refused. Desperate R.D. again called Devanand the next day and fortunately was given an appointment, and eventually a ‘yes’ too. Rest is history. “Hare Rama, Hare Krishna” was a movie with a very weak screenplay, starring an aging actor who was only impressed by the one whom he looked in the mirror. This movie would have been a flop but for the extraordinary music, courtesy to this 21-year-old chap. It was a runaway hit.
I wrote that Pancham crossed the spectrum as far as music is concerned because be it classical, semi-classical or western, he composed with full command and professionalism. Music is not only about melody; it needs command and at times flamboyance also. Just recollect “Dosto se pyaar kiya, dushmano se badla Llya. Jo bhi kiya, humne kiya shan se…”.
Now this song requires melody but command in voice as well (so he chose the magical woman ‘Usha Uthup’, whose flamboyance is apparent in the singing.). In the late seventies, a superhit movie “Satte pe satta” was released. It had the megastar ‘Amitabh Bachchan’ in a double role. On the appearance of the villainous Amitabh Bachchan, a peculiar, haunting music could be heard. Every scene of this character ‘Babu’ seemed so frightening. Of course, the matchless acting of the man was there but equally contributing was that particular music. What I am writing now would seem to be unbelievable to some. The base of this music that was created by the genius, was extracted from ‘snoring’. Yes, the snoring of a woman.
We have been hearing that the hindi film industry (I dislike the word ‘bollywood’; it looks subordinative to ‘hollywood’) has been copying the west, but there is an advertisement of ‘Iphone X’ that uses one of R.D. Burman’s composition which is originally from the movie ‘The burning train’
The glimpses of this said advertisement as well as the making of the ‘snoring’ music can be seen in the attached link :
Rajesh Khanna was the first superstar of the industry. It won’t be an exaggeration if his success is partly attributed to the songs featured in his movies. Most of them were of Pancham and most of them were sung by the God of voice ‘Kishore Kumar’. This trio has given us songs which were, are and would be remembered for decades.
Pancham, unfortunately, got some ailments in the late eighties. He was almost cutoff from the film industry and In 1995, he was approached by Vidhu Vinod Chopra for the movie ‘1942 – a love story’. Pancham reluctantly agreed. The music was superhit. There was a song in the movie “Ek ladki ko dekha”. Now this song is very peculiar. Peculiar in the sense that it has only ‘Mukhdas’ (The beginning. I mean the beginning stanzas) and no ‘Antaras’ (Inner stanzas). This song was penned by the legend ‘Javed Akhtar’ who cautioned R.D. that it would be a challenge. As per Akhtar himself, the ailing R.D. composed this song in flat five minutes. This was the most popular song of the movie. It’s very unfortunate that Pancham left us before the premier of this movie.
If we notice, 80 percent of the remixes of old songs are of R.D. Burman. Be it “Kanta laga”, “Main chali, main chali”, “Kahi karta hoga”, “O hansini”. All these songs are at least 40-50 years old. imagine the impact of the man on the industry till date.
I would like to end this article with few lines inked by his the lyrical genius ‘Gulzar’ in remembrance of the Great Rahul Dev Burman –
“Yaad hai, Pancham,
Jab bhee koi dhun bana kar bhejte thay
To saath keh diya karte thay,
“The ball is in your court”
Ye kaun sa ball mere court mein chhodh gaye ho tum,
….Pancham zindagi ka khel akele nahin khela jaata Hamaari toh team hai
Aa jao, ya bula lo”
