Let's bring back the spirit of the golden - Page 5

Rahul Dev Burman

The Road to Success

-By Sachin Dev Burman (Circa 1955, Filmfare)

"You enter a garden house with beautiful garden and congratulate the gardener. What about the master of the house?" Thus said Shri Ramakrishna. In our film world the same question is often asked, though in different words.

However, let me assure you that as a director of film music, I do not envy the film stars or the playback singers, except when I am called a bundle (a word of unknown origin heard in Bombay which means a good-for-nothing fellow)

One day I had some business at Kardar studio. A fairly big crowd was waiting at the gates for a glimpse of the stars and I drove in, in my car. "Who is it?" they anxiously asked and peeped in. "Oh!" came the loud voice of a disappointed fan, and then, "Aarey he is a bundle."

But I have my admirers, too. Once I was waiting at Bandra Station to catch a train for Malad. Suddenly, I discovered that the train had come, halted and left. I did not know. What was I doing? Well, I was lost in the enjoyment of my own tune of a song from Shabnam which a gang of labourers were singing to the rhythm of the movements of their hammers and shovels.

Talking of rhythm, I am tempted to repeat an old story. I had just joined Filmistan and at an informal gathering at Malad I was giving a recital of my songs before S. Mukherji, the Filmistan Chief, Ashok Kumar (Dadamani to all of us), Pradeep, the lyric poet, and others. In the midst of it I heard a jarring sound which was supposed to be a message of appreciation from an admiring listner. Who could it be? I looked in the direction of the sound and turned pale. The culprit was none other than my boss, Mr Mukherji, whom I knew to be a true lover of music and whose style of singing was like my own. – How could I satisfy his ears?

As days went by, I made further discoveries regarding his sense of rhythm and harmony. Everyday after lunch I had to carry my harmonium to his room. Lying comfortably on a sofa, he listened to my compositions, then closed his eyes, and presently snored! The snore was a signal that my composition was disapproved.

This ordeal continued for nearly two months and I came to the end of my patience. I also came to the conclusion that if I could not please my boss, there was no point in my staying on at Filmistan, just to sing lullabys to him. The next day I went prepared for a showdown.

As usual I started playing the harmonium and went on humming my new tune till my boss's eyes closed. There was nothing more to do. I had only to wait for the inevitable snore. But suddenly the boss woke up and said, "Mr Burman, why don't you get it recorded?"

"Record what?" I asked

" I mean this tune. You may call the musicians and start rehearsing right now," he said.

I was puzzled and wondered why of all the tunes I composed for him all this time he liked this one. I found out the same evening. As I was coming out of the rehearsal room the "room-boy" (door-keeper) was humming the tune and quite correctly too! This gave me an idea. From that day I made it a point to get my tunes "approved" by the "room boy". It worked. In almost all cases the room-boy's approval carried.

The secret of Mr Mukherji's judgment was, as he told me one day, the formula of universal appeal. He said. "You see, Mr Burman, you have your own style of music, which I like. By all means keep it up but present it in such a way that film lovers may like it and feel at home with it ---- not only in Bombay or Bengal but all over the country."

With this and many other pieces of sound advice the man who had apparently no rhythm or harmony guided me over the difficult road to success for which I shall always remain grateful to him.

My present work is nothing but trying to weave patterns of universal appeal in my own style, and in this, I think, I am doing my duty to the film industry and no disservice to the country. For me no reward is bigger than the pleasure of hearing my tune from the lips of a stranger.

Fishing is one of my hobbies. Once, I was fishing at a village about twenty miles from Calcutta. It was an unlucky pond, and at the end of a fruitless day I had only my patience to flatter. Thoroughly disappointed, I was about to call it a day, when a boy of about ten jumped into the pond and started singing my Bazi song (Tadbeer sey bigrhee whui taqdeer banaley) not knowing that the man who composed it's music was on the opposite bank with his fishing rod. It was the biggest catch of my life.

It is not the composition of music alone that makes a "hit" song. One is on tenterhooks for fear that a thousand and one calamities may spoil the song. For instance, imagine everything set ready for the final "take" but the singer nonchalantly enjoys ice chips before singing an important song. And who could it be but Dadamani? The idol of the Indian screen was to sing a song in Shikari and he had been ordered that he should have ice before singing my song to improve his voice! But, believe it or not, to my great amazement and unbounded relief, Dadamani's voice did improve and become more and more steady as lumps of ice went down his throat.

I cannot explain the medical theory, but I would like to tell my friends the playback singers who sing my songs: "For heaven's sake, don't ever try Dadamani's trick on me. I am already a "bundle" ----- of nerves!"

Creativity in Motion! Sachinda conducting his orchestra

The Burmans with Asha Bhosle : (L to R) Asha Bhosle, RD Burman, Meera Devi, Sachinda

On Record

Sachin-Dev Meloduo

Some Choicest Flowers

by Raju Bharatan

A compilation of Navketan Hits was released in 1969 to commemorate 20 years of the film company. The songs in this LP were hand-picked by SD Burman himself. This article by Raju Bharatan is a review of that selection.

(Circa 1969, Filmfare)

If there is one composer of the old guard who blends bubble with the spirit of youth it is Sachin Dev Burman. At 64 Dada, as we know him, still brings to his creations an impish teenage twinkle. One has to only hear snappy lilts from Talaash, Aradhana, Jyoti and Prem Pujari to discern how spryly he is in tune with the jet age. Such crisp numbers of this duet king as Palkon ke peeche se (Talaash), Kora Kagaz tha yeh man mera (Aradhana) and Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye phoolon ka shabab ( Prem Pujari) prove that Dada has discovered in his art, the secret of eternal youth.

And now this elder composer has "plucked for us from the Garden of Navketan some choicest flowers whose fragrance is still fresh". These blossoms of Burman come to us on a special LP issued by the Gramophone Co. to mark the 20th anniversary of Navketan, the House of Hits .

Navketan LP

Ideally the disc should have been made up of a song each from the twelve films Dada has done for Navketan but, where the LP carries three songs from Guide and there is not one number from Afsar with which began the Burman-Dev Anand link ----- A link so aptly spotlighted in Dada's name : Sachin-Dev! Between those Afsar evergreens Manmor hua matwala and Naina diwaane ek nahin maane my pick would have been Manmor as representative of Suraiya at her sweetest.

From Baazi Dev's lilting follow-up to Afsar, Dada picks's Geeta's Tadbeer se bigdu hui, so infectious in it's gay cadence. In the process he has had to bypass such Geeta delights as Suno gajar kya gaaye, Yeh kaun aaya ke, Dekh ke akeli mohe and Aaj ki raat piya .

From Taxi Driver where Dada first revealed his facet for jazzing it up the LP features the Talat's soulful Jaaye to jaaye kahan, the song that fetched Burman his only Filmfare award. As a quality composition Dada has preffered it to such lively lilts as Dil se milakar dil, Jeene do aur jiyo, Dil jale to jale, and Yeh meri zindagi .

The resonance of Hemanta Kumar bought rare distinction to Teri Duniya mein, Dada's selection from House No 44. However no less wistful in it's own way was Lata's Phaili hui hain sapno ki baahen. Liltingly lovely too were Chup hai dharti and Peeche peeche aa kar .

Dukhi man mere is the offering from Funtoosh – a choice with which I for one am none too happy. For, apart from being a played out wail by now, the song tends to jar when Kishore scales the kisi ke aage rona roye tract. To relieve the monotony of familiarity if nothing else, Dada could have picked instead the thrilling Asha-Kishore duet Wo dekhen to unki inayat, with it's quaint Haiya ho Haiya refrain.

New Dimension

With Nau Do Gyarah Vijay Anand came on the screen to lend Dada's creations a new dimension. Dada's choice of the Aakhon mein kya ji duet from this film, in preference to Kali ke roop mein and Aaja Panchhi Akela hai, is apt enough. But it seems a pity that one of Kishore's best songs for him hum hain rahi pyar ke, should have been left out. For my part, however, I would have plumped for that ever-sweet, Dhalti jaaye chundariya hamari ho raam , as one of Asha's finest for Burman.

Hum Bekhudi Mein from Kala Paani was such a stand-out composition, with Rafi attaining a new depth of feeling that few will quarrel with Dada for putting it on the anniversary record. After all the next best numbers from the film, Dil laga ke and Nazar laagi raja , both rank way behind.

If it is Hum Bekhudi Mein at one extreme, at the other end it has to be Khoya Khoya Chaand from Kala Bazaar in the case of the Burman-Rafi combine, so that this selection will find humming approval. Once again, however it seems hard lines that the choice of Khoya khoya chaand should have to be at the expense of Apni to har aah (with it's cute adaptation of the bhajan motif to the romantic ditty), Rimjhim ke tarane leke aaye barsaat (a shower of melody to make even old hearts feel young) and sach hue sapne tere (with it's Burmanesque effect of chiki chiki chik cha cha chai )

No song from Tere Ghar ke Saame finds a place on the disc, probably because Dada did this film when he was none too well. Still Dekho rootha na karo, sun le tu dil ki sada and tu kahan yeh bata had each a pleasing lilt. With Tere Ghar ke Saamne thus ignored, Dada one feels could have done likewise with Jewel Thief, from which his pick is Asha's Raat akeli hai. If at all any song from Jewel Thief merited recognition, it was surely Lata-Rafi's Dil Pukare aa re aa re aa re .

While Kishore's Phoolon ke rang se from Prem Pujari is an excellent choice, three numbers from Guide would seem one too many, even if this film marked a new peak of achievement for Dada. The Guide songs featured on the LP are Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai, Wahan kaun hai tera and Gaata rahe mera dil . The last-named, as a duet set in Burman's now well-patented style, could have made way for Piya tose naina laage re – an audio visual treat, the way Vijay Anand filmed it on Waheeda Rehman. More arrestingly than any other number, Piya tose proves that Dada's compositional lustre remains undimmed after 20 years of Navketan melody.