Excellent Tribute: Screen India, June 2009

by Rajiv Vijayakar

This is an excellent article in Screen India.

Yaad Aaa Raahi Hai

Rahul Dev Burman would have touched 70 on June 27. His aficionados would say that he still lives on. Screen presents rarer aspects of an immortal genius

The Millennium Icon
That Rahul Dev Burman aka Pancham is the millennium icon and is likely to remain so is a very basic truth. Having earned this status after his premature demise in 1994 rather than in his lifetime when he was castigated for dabbling in too much Western music, he has been over-promoted in recent years at the cost of his seniors and contemporaries primarily because he was different and path-breaking in his use of sound, Western elements and grooves and thus became a role-model for the tunesmiths who came in, right from Bappi Lahiri in the '70s, A.R.Rahman and Jatin-Lalit in the '90s and beyond. But while this was understandable, the hype regrettably focussed attention on this solitary aspect of his music.

But RD dared as few others even within conventional parameters - and in a far more traditional and rooted era than today. What else explains a layered song like Aaya hoon main tujhko le jaaonga (Kishore-Asha - his pet duet combo) in Manoranjan or a Baahon mein chale aao (Lata/Anamika)?

Come solos, duets or multi-singer songs and across mukhdas, antaras, choruses and hooks, Pancham was always intentionally yet effortlessly different from the breed. The unsung Raahi Badal Gaye saw Pancham render one of his finest duets with Asha - Aasmaan se ek sitara. The non-starter fate of the film put paid to the song's popular prospects. Happily, the ethereal Sili hawaa chhoo gayi (Lata/Libaas, unreleased) escaped anonymity and became one of the last celebrated masterpieces of the composer.

A less-thought-about aspect of Pancham's music was also his duets, which had RD pushing the envelope again and again when he brought two singers together, especially if one of them was Kishore Kumar, his favourite male voice right from the stunning and outre solo that was Jaago sonewalo in the 1965 Bhoot Bangla. Tu tu hai wohi (Yeh Vaada Raha), Kahin na jaa (Bade Dil Wala), Kiski sadayein mujhko bulaaye (Red Rose), Ab ke saawan mein jee dare (Jaise Ko Taisa) and Dil se dil milne ka (Charitraheen) were but a sprinkling of them and we also can add - with other singers - charmers like Jab andhera hota hai (Raja Rani), Tu rootha to main ro doongi sanam (Jawaani) and of course the Asha-RD duet O meri jaan maine kahaa (The Train).

Come solos and we had exotica like Aaj ki raat raat bhar jaagenge (Jagir), Daiyya re daiyya (The Train), Ek aankh to maare dunk (Qayamat), Chori chori solah singaar (Manoranjan), Aisa na mujhe tum dekho (Darling Darling), Chekhush nazarein (Pyar Ka Mausam), Paar lagaa do mere (Chandan Ka Palna), Aap se miliye and Aap chahe mujhko (Pyar Ka Mausam), Oye buddho lambo lambo (Buddha Mil Gaya) and many others.

Take multi-singer songs and we had extraordinary delights like Dil to lai gavaa (Asha with Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor and R.D.Burman /Bandhe Haath), Goyaake chunaanche (Lata-Kishore-Manna) and the superb Mangeshkar special Dulhan maike chali (Lata-Asha-Usha) both from Manoranjan as standout examples.

Raga To Rock
Most of these innovative songs, fortunately, got their due in the times they came in. But in today's times most of them are almost forgotten except by RD devotees and hardcore music lovers. Happily, again, most of RD's raag-based songs connected with the far-more evolved music buffs of his times, like Raina beeti jaaye (Amar Prem), Ab ke na saawan barse and Naam gum jaayega (Kinara), Aap ki aankhon mein kuchh (Ghar) and Beeti na bitaai raina and Mitwa bole meethe bain (Parichay). But sadly again, his status today as the ultimate pop icon has very little to do with these beauties, or with their less-celebrated but equally stunning cousins, Aayo kahaan se Ghanashyam (Buddha Mil Gaya), Gori tori painjaniya (Mehbooba), Wah ri qismat (Hungama), Jaaoon to kahaan jaaoon (Anamika) and Sajati hai yoon hi mehfil (Kudrat).

In the millennium, however, RD has also been celebrated in other special ways. He is the only composer to be openly honoured with two musicals - the 2002 Dil Vil Pyar Vyaar (which had a dozen of his recreated songs forming its music soundtrack) and the 2003 Jhankaar Beats, which incorporated a remix of his song Hamein tumse pyar kitna (Kishore/Kudrat) and showed its three heroes as a music band whose icon was RD. Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008) and Aa Dekhen Zara (2009) derived their titles (both relevant to their respective plotlines) and promo tracks based on his cult songs from Hum Kisise Kum Naheen and Rocky respectively and featured remixes of these songs sung by Sumit Kumar and Neil Nitin Mukesh respectively.

Star-crossed `Luck'
R.D.Burman did not live to see the spectacular success of his score for 1942-A Love Story. On the only occasion we met up he had raved about the film "Vidhu Vinod Chopra has given me". "I am going to change my team!" he had exclaimed. The motivation was obvious: too many people he trusted had written him off and he wanted to reaffirm his talent by moving away from his "hit" associates - and so came in Kumar Sanu instead of Amit Kumar, Javed Akhtar and not Anand Bakshi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Gulshan Bawra or Gulzar and Kavita Krishnamurthi Subramaniam in place of the Mangeshkars!

It has always been a hypothetical question whether Pancham would have zoomed back to the top after this film. But there were valid pointers that seemed to indicate an affirmative. Check how in the early '80s, three L-P-oriented actors - Dharmendra, Rajendra Kumar and Sunil Dutt - chose RD (at L-P's commercial peak) for the debuts of their next generations - Sunny Deol in Betaab, Kumar Gaurav in Love Story and Sanjay Dutt in Rocky. In the same decade, Shekhar Kapur, who was to make a name internationally later, chose R.D.Burman for his debut film Masoom as well as Joshilaay (which Kapur opted out of later). In this decade, RD had also signed a film each with two of the earliest "technobrat" filmmakers Mukul S.Anand and Pankaj Parashar, though neither film took off. He was luckier with the rebel that was Vidhu Vinod Chopra in Parinda, but his luck gave way when Subhash Ghai's Ram Lakhan had its production setup changed and L-P came in for `emotional reasons'.

In the '90s came his associations with men who were to emerge as trendsetters after his death - Ram Gopal Varma (Drohi), Priyadarshan (Gardish) and Rajkumar Santoshi (Ghatak). Wasn't this evidence that filmmakers who were ahead of their times decidedly preferred Pancham despite his market low at that time?

The Child At (he)art
So many of his associates remember R.D.Burman's child-like enthusiasm and energy and his insatiable curiosity to learn. Lata Mangeshkar's and future wife Asha Bhosle's first memories of Pancham are of a young boy in shorts, who was Sachin Dev Burman's son and would be present at recordings and sittings and soon began participating in them.

The child prodigy was to be a master of the 5th Indian musical note, Pancham or Pa, which made Ashok Kumar name him so. Another belief was that his crying as an infant was amazingly dominated by this note. Whatever be the case, Pancham and kids seemed to have an uncanny connection.

For one, he seemed to compose so many songs for kids - among them Lakde ki kaathi (Masoom), Saare ke saare (Parichay), Teri hai zameen (The Burning Train), Yaadon ki ... (Yaadon Ki Baraat), Phoolon ka taaron ka (Hare Rama Hare Krishna), Ae mere bete and Tera mujhse hai pehle (Aa Gale Lag Jaa), Bada natkhat hai (Amar Prem) and others.

Pancham even introduced or utilised child-singers like Padmini and Shivangi Kolhapure (Yaadon Ki Baraat), Usha Rege and Salil Chowdhury's daughter Antara (both in Kaalia), Uttam Singh's daughter Gurpreet Kaur (later known as Preeti Uttam) and Gauri Bapat (both in Masoom), Vanita Mishra (Baseraa) and even Jatin-Lalit as child chorus singers. He also used Sushma Shrestha the most. Incidentally, today's most happening singer, Sonu Niigaam, was first seen as a child artiste in Betaab (in the song Jab hum jawaan honge) and made his first real-life appearance on stage singing the Sushma Shrestha portion from Rafi's Kya hua tera vaada (Hum Kisise Kum Naheen)! And Shaan and Sagarika sang in Parinda.

Even more interestingly, a whole lot of stars started out as child artistes or young adults in RD's films before settling in - Aamir Khan in Yaadon Ki Baraat and Madhosh, Anil Kapoor in Hamare Tumhare and Shakti, Jackie Shroff as a villain's sidekick in Swami Dada, Tabu in Hum Naujawan and Urmila and Jugal Hansraj in Masoom!

The friend in need
Easily one of the humblest people in showbiz ( was it because his struggle after his 1961 debut Chhote Nawab lasted for 9 years despite consistent quality and success?), Pancham formed a tight clique with father S.D.Burman and contemporaries Kalyanji-Anandji and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. When a Kalyanji-Anandji-Kishore Kumar show in Mumbai was in jeopardy because of the singer's sudden illness, Pancham rushed to the venue with Asha Bhosle and performed, recalled Anandji affectionately.

Laxmikant-Pyarelal wanted Pancham to sing Jeetendra's portion in Aankhon ka salaam le (the portion was finally sung by Manna Dey) with Lata and Rafi in Samraat, but somehow it did not happen. However, Laxmikant made an appearance as himself in R.D.Burman's Teri Kasam out of his admiration for the composer, whom he even declared was "much more talented than his father". RD of course had played the mouth-organ for the songs of L-P's Dosti.

But the standout illustration of their deep mutual regards and affection was how the five music wizards and RD's brilliant father would meet up once a week and have music sessions deep into the night in RD's home, even - as Pancham revealed to this writer - completing each other's songs in the style of the composer in whose film the song was going to be heard! RD's mischievous footnote to this stunning revelation was: "Only two people were jealous of us - Shankar-Jaikishan!"

Later in the '70s, of course, this friendship was tested by a complaint made by their colleagues in a joint memorandum sent to the President of India, accusing the six of them of monopolistic policies because they had jointly cornered 80 per cent of the films being made - it is another matter that this was entirely on the basis of sheer merit and track-records!