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From: ameghani@bnr.ca (Amin Meghani)
Newsgroups: rec.music.indian.misc
Subject: RDB: THE MAN IN THE MUSICIAN (Part 2)
Date: 1 Apr 1994 10:02:01 -0600
Organization: Bell Northern Research, Richardson, TX
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			AND NOW THERE IS SILENCE...
				by Gulzar


Part 2: GULZAR,RD & ASHA: THE WINNING COMBINATION

We first worked together on PARICHAY. It was important for me to sit with 
him on the music sessions. He inspired certain moments which I picturised
later, his music was that visual...I went to Rajkamal studio where he was
recording a background score for another film. I gave him the mukhDa--
'Musafir hun yaaro/Na ghar he na thikaana'--and I left. That night he woke
me up at 1 a.m. and said, "Come, come down with me to the car." He'd recorded
the tune on a cassette already. He started driving through the empty streets
of Bandra, he played the beat on the dashboard. It was my first song as a
director with him.

By the time he composed 'Saare ke saare', he had shifted from home--he was
in the process of acquiring a new flat--to Caesar's Palace Hotel. The most
beautiful song in the film--'Beeti na bitaai raina'--was also composed in 
the hotel room. It was based on a classical 'bandish'; it fetched Lata and
Bhupendra National Awards for best playback singers.

In all, we did eight films together, as a composer-director team. Besides
PARICHAY, there were: KHUSHBOO, KINARA, AANDHI, KITAAB, NAMKEEN, LIBAAS and
IJAAZAT. How did 'Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa to nahin' (AANDHI) come
about? He was recording Bengali songs for Durga puja around that time. The
lyrics were by the renowned Gauri Shanker. I liked the tune that Pancham 
was composing; I filled it up with Hindi words and said, "Look, I'm going to
use this for AANDHI."

As for 'Is moD pe jaate haiN, kuCH sust qadam raste', I gave him the words
from one of my poems. He composed the tune instantly. He never took time.
Spontaneity was his specialty. If he struggled over a song, he would prefer
to abandon it. For instance, 'Ek hi khwab kai baar yuhi dekha hai maine'
(KINARA) exasperated him. He found that metre a bit difficult, but two
months later I put it before him again. He caught the scanning, and the song 
was finally recorded.

When I gave him 'Mera kuCH saamaaan tumhare paas paDa hai' (IJAAZAT), he
waved the lyric aside and said, "Huh, tomorrow you'll bring me the front
page of *The Times of India* and expect me to compose a tune around it.
What is this blank verse you're giving me!" Ashaji was sitting there, she
started humming the phrase, "Mujhe lauta do." He grasped it immediately;
from that one phrase he developed the song, which was quite a feat! This
time Ashaji and I got National Awards. Poor fellow, he did all the work
and we enjoyed the 'kheer'.

Ashaji's and his was a superb creative companionship. He used the potential
in her voice to maximum effect. No other composer ever placed Ashaji's voice
above his music the way he did. We recorded the non-film album DIL PADOSI
HAI, and the variations from semi-classical and ghazal to pop and jazz, were
a valuable experience for each one of us. There was a three-way harmony
of voice, music and lyrics.

After his heart ailment, Pancham did feel that producers were sidelining
him. He did feel hurt. He would laugh, with a touch of bitterness, at the
new music composers who copy his tunes and make a mess of them. They would
even imitate his singing style which was unmistakably his. 'Mehbooba
mehbooba' (SHOLAY) and 'Dhanno ki aankhon meiN' (KITAAB) were his creations,
but others tried to clone his style, only to sound like amateurs.

My last meeting with Pancham was on December 30 [1993]. He went to Sahara
recording studio in Goregaon. Ashaji was recording a song for G.V. Iyer's
VIVEKANANDA. Salil Chowdhry had composed the music. Pancham and I had
gone along with Ashaji. At the end of the evening, he said in his customary
manner, "Milte hain."

We never did.

{Excerpted from FILMFARE 2/94}


--Amin