RD Burman's success from his father's influence:
A three-part series of 'Pancham on S D Burman', an interview conducted by Raju Bharatan at the recording for the film 'Arjun' in October 1984, says a lot on the subject. The three parts are titled, 'DADA OH DADA', 'WHEN PAPA PREACHED' and 'To father with love'. These articles were timed around SDB's 32nd Death Anniversary.
These three articles were followed by the fourth article titled 'A MATTER OF FINE TUNING' by the same author. I am giving below excerpts from Part 4.
Excerpts from 4th Part:
Raju Bharatan: What's there left for Pancham to say about Dada Burman after that three-part life-and-times story? Plenty, but let's – by way of fine-tuning – concentrate upon just one RD-SD happening that space precluded me from detailing last week. Pancham was still at The Jet as director Shakti Samantha arrived to brief him on the first recording for 'Amar Prem'. "Dada too was there as Shakti outlined the song-situation to me" noted Pancham. "To an ordinary composer like me, it appeared a stock situation for which I produced a stock song. But Dada saw it totally differently. In fact, as Dada proceeded to observe:
'Your tune's absolutely straight, Pancham, where's the feeling in it? What if Shakti said a mere bhajan-style tune would do? You're a composer, Pancham, no mere tunesmith. How possibly could you place a bhajan-style tune on a prostitute, which is what Rinku (Sharmila Tagore) plays in Amar Prem.'
'This, remember, is no ordinary prostitute,' went on Dada. 'This is a situation in which the woman is a mother first, a prostitute after. So the tune you compose, Pancham, must cinematically reflect – in each note – the prostitute's mother instinct, which has suddenly been aroused by that child's straying into what's forbidden territory for such a kid.'
Feeling the music
'The tune must have a rare sentiment' added Dada. 'But your tune, if catchy, Pancham, sounds routine to the composer in me – it's taken no note of the prostitute's instant urge to mother that child. You have, here, to be sensed as feeling, evocatively, for the mother in the prostitute.'
"Saying which," continued Pancham, "Dada took over the harmonium from me and proceeded to modify the tune. Dada stayed within the same Khamaj thhaat, stuck to the same Raag Khamaj, while imparting a new feeling to my tune. The tune ultimately emerging was, if I'm to be honest, more Dada's than mine."
"I'd provided the base tune. It was left to Dada to give it a super-sensitive turn by which it unfolded the heart-tugging way it ultimately did on Sharmila Tagore – as Bada natkhat hai yeh Krishna Kanhaiya, ka kare Yashoda maiya ho.
"In that moment, I learnt from Dada that a composer's job doesn't end with preparing a mundane tune for a situation mundanely outlined to him," confessed R D Burman.
End of story
"The music-maker – as underlined by Dada – must get involved in the film's script, study the character for whom he's composing and acquire the perception to project his composing personality into the character by venturing to experience her experiences. It was this one Bada natkhat tune as reshaped by Dada," concluded Pancham, "that determined the tone I brought to the rest of the Amar Prem music – though numbers like Raina beetee jaaye, Chingaree koyee bhadke, Yeh kya huaa and Kuchch to log kahenge. The vocals of Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar did the rest."
The author (Raju Bharatan) concludes, "Can there be another Amar Prem, another Pancham? Only if there can be another Guide, another Sachin Dev Burman".
(Source: 'A MATTER OF FINE TUNING' by Raju Bharatan in HT-Caf, Nov. 5, 2007)
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