R D Burman ; prisoner of own image

It was in 1967 that the jury had decided to award Sur Singer Samsad award to RDB for his composition O Ganga maiyya paar laga de in voice of Lata for the film Chandan ka palna ( in raag Jogiya).

But next early morning the convener of the organization was forced by the founder of the award to relook at the award citing that RD image as music director is too Western hence this award (Shastriya) in nature will lose its essence & value.

Actually only an year earlier, in 1966 while deciding for the same award jury was split in 2-2 for a Nootan starring song called maine rang li aaj chunariya in raag Pilu. Nutan being head of the jury herself had no hesitation in voting her song in favour of this award…!

Coming back to the original story while RDB lost the award to the typical Madan Mohan number in raag malkauns by Asha ji for the film Meharbaan ( Sawan ki raat), RDB faced a serious problem of being locked in his own image which was desisting the connoisseurs to take him seriously.

If this thread is of any interest I shall explain in upcoming posts how this image proved counterproductive for his career. When his capability was far more.

Originally posted by: tulipbaby53

Anyways, that's some real interesting info there! So if it really were not for Dev Anand, we would not have maybe had as many of these interesting, western inspired songs we know of today!

It was in 1972 RDB got type casted as composer of youth with following hits in hand

Duniya me logo ko-Apna Desh
Dekha na haye re-Bombay to Goa
Jaane jaan dhundhta fir raha ?Jawani Diwani
O mere dil ke chain-Mere jeevan Saathi

Hawa ke saath saath (Seeta aur Geeta)

But he ranked Chanda O chanda from Lakhon me Ek (an little known film) and Gum hai kisi ke pyar me as his favorites (Rampur ka Laxman), he always found these songs better than what he was asked to do.

Taking tips from his ailing father, he worked for big banners from there on like Navniketan films,
In 1973 he had Nasir Hussain productions churning out Yadoo ki Barat & Hum kisi ne kum nahi, this was the year which rocket propelled his career to a height which dwarfed all his contemporaries, it is said in this single year he had some 27 songs in his name played on Binaca Geet Mala.

Yet Diye jalte hai (Namakhalal) & Heera ki tamanna hai (heera-Panna) were chosen over others when his top songs were charted.

It was only in upcoming years he would come in contact with Gulzar who gave him freedom he was looking for all these years.

About Gulzar_RDB later on..!