RD at 85 – The Enigma Continues

Tarun Goswami

It was Durga Puja of 1969. In those days, basic discs sung by popular Bengali singers used to be released during this time of the year. The songs used to be played by the community puja organizers and people listened to them. Many even rushed to the nearby shops selling records to buy them. It had virtually become a ritual to buy records during the Durga Puja.

In this backdrop, a Bengali puja number written by Sachin Bhowmick and sung by RD Burman emerged as an instant hit. The song was ‘Mone Pore Rubi Roy’. The song tells the tale about a boy who waited for her lover to come. The boy imagined her woman in poetry, in dreams. Whenever the girl walked in the scorching sun in the afternoon, did she ever think why the boy was standing alone? The song had created such a frenzy that people thought it was their lives’ story. On the other side of the 78 RPM record there was another song ‘Fire Esho Anuradha’ which was sung in a unique RD style.

The inimitable style of RD made the song all the more popular.

The 85th birthday of musical maestro RD Burman popularly known as RD was observed in the city with great enthusiasm and fervour on 27 June.

The Kolkata Municipal Corporation had allotted a plot of land opposite Nazrul Mancha where Amit Kumar Fan Club installed a statue of RD, the only statue of the musical giant in the world.

Born of musical parents, SD and Mira Dev Burman, RD spent his childhood and a part of his youth in  South End Park off Dhakuria Lake in south Calcutta. He was a student of of Ballygunge Government High School and later Tirthapati Institution. RD could play mouth organ so well that SD had used him in the famous Hemanta Mukherjee song ‘Hai Apna Dil To Awara’ in Solva Saal featuring Dev Anand and Wahida Rahman.

In an interview with Tabsum, the famous Hindi side role actor, RD said that as a music director one should listen to music very seriously and try to extract the best out of them.

He narrated a story when one day, Ravi a well-known music director came to see SD Barman. SD was very happy to see him and during their conversation SD told Ravi that he had loved the tune Ravi had used in ‘Rahe Na Rahe Hum’ in the film Mamta featuring Suchitra Sen and Ashok Kumar.

Ravi immediatey told Barman dada, the song was inspired by your tune ‘Yeh Thandi Hawayein Lehrake Aaye’ sung by Lata Mangeshkar in Naujawan in 1951. RD told Tabsum that he was present at the room during the conversation of two great composers. Much later, while composing ‘Sagar Kinare’ in Sagar featuring Rishi Kapoor, Dimple Kapadia and Kamal Hasan, he took the cue from ‘Rahe Na Rahe Hum’. This is how the musical industry works, RD had told Tabsum.

RD also said that during his musical career, he had faced problem with his most bosom friend author-director Gulzar. RD faced a challenge which composing the tune of ‘Is Mode Pe Jate Hain’ in Aandhi directed by Gulzar and featuring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen in 1975. When the tune was finalised, it was found that it had become difficult to fit in the words written by Gulzar. Later, Gulzar changed the pattern of his composition and what came out had marked a milestone in the history of Hindi feature film. It took the film to a different height.

Kishore Kumar-RD duo had made some of the immortal songs in both Bengali and Hindi. RD composed a Bengali song ‘Aakash Keno Dake’ which was sung by Kishore Kumar. The song is an all time hit. Later, RD used the same tune in Kati Patang, ‘Yeh Shaam Mastani’ featuring Rajesh Khanna.

Using the same tune of ‘Mone Pore Ruby Roy’, RD composed a great Hindi song ‘Mere Bhigi Bhigi Si’ sung by Kishore Kumar in the Hindi movie Anamika featuring Jaya Bhaduri and Sanjeev Kumar. This was the title song of the movie.

Aradhana directed by Sachin Bhowmick and featuring Rajesh Khanna and Sharmila Tagore occupies a special place in the history of Hindi feature film. The film established the Kishore Kumar-Rajesh Khanna duo which ruled the industry for many years to come. The song ‘Mere Swapno Ki Rani Kab Ayegi Tu’, sung by Kishore Kumar had almost become a national anthem. The song was played in every Durga Puja pandal.

RD was a very close friend of Sachin Bhowmick and he took RD as music director in most of his films. RD who was a born genius took the films to a different height.

Sholay featuring Amitabh Bacchan, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra, Amjad Khan, Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri  opened a new era in Hindi film industry. RD’s famous song ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’ became a cult song.

Those who were born after 1970s still dance to the tune of ‘Piya Tu Abtu Aaja’, the immortal tune composed by RD Burman also popularly known as Pancham in the film Caravan. The dance sequence performed by Helen became a rage in the country.

In the film Gol Maal, RD gave a completely different type of music in a song ‘Aanewala Pal Janewala Hai’ sung by Kishore Kumar and featuring Amol Palekar in the movie. Another song of the movie featuring Amol Palekar, Utpal Dutta, Bindia Goswami, ‘Swapne Me Dekha Maine Ek Swapna’ also became a hit.

In Ham Kisise Kam Nehi we get RD in a different mood and the songs composed by him were of different type.

RD’s brilliance was that his tunes were never monotonous.  Like every great composers, RD had ups and downs in his life. There was a time when the producers did not accept his tune. Whenever he made a tune, they said no dada it would not work. This frustrated RD.

We get a different RD in 1942 A Love Story. The song ‘Kuch Na Kaho Kuch Bhi Na Kaho’, is an all time hit. It was penned by Javed Akhtar. The movie featured Anil Kapoor and Manisha Koirala, Jackie Shroff. While listening to the song one is stunned by the sound effect. Unfortunately, RD passed away before the movie was released.

RD married Asha Bhosle, and many songs composed by him and sung by Asha ji are still hummed by people. Many of the tunes composed by RD had surpassed time. In Sholay, he had used sound effects that were better than many Hollywood movies. RD was not only a great composer, he had full grip over music and had got the help of great musicians like Monohari Singh, Kishore Shoda, Homiji in percussion  and Franco Vaz in drums among others. They are so loyal to RD that after his death they conducted shows on the tunes made by RD across the country. The shows became very popular. They refused to work under other music directors.

Initially, SD Burman did not like the tunes made by RD. He requested Salil Chowdhury to take up the matter with RD. Chowdhury assured that Pancham is genius and the tunes made by him will be an asset to Indian music.

SD used to go for morning walk every day. Once he came back from morning walk and told Pancham that he was convinced that Pancham was a great and popular composer. Pancham asked what has made him to change his view. SD replied while taking morning walk he met some youths who said “ look at this gentleman in Dhoti and Kurta, he is RD’s father.”