RMIM Archive Article "256".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Pacham Passion
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# Posted by: Satish Subramanian (subraman@cs.umn.edu)
# Source: Screen
# Author: Subhash K Jha (for Screen 1997)
#
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Pancham Passion
HMV's Golden Collection - The Genius of R D Burman
by
Subhash K Jha
for Screen '97
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Three years have gone by since R D Burman left us (January 1994).
In the years preceding his sudden and irreplaceable demise his
longstanding friends and admirers in the film industry had more-
or-less dismissed the Burmanesque mystique as out of step with
the times. R D Burman didn't live to see the revival of interest
in his music. If he had lived to experience the upsurge of
laurels in the wake of "1942-A Love Story" he would have been
more saddened than gladdened by our tendency to write off
artistes of illimitable aptitudes when they hit a dark spot in
their careers.
After being in his father's shadow for several years and having
ghost composed some of the senior Burman's most successful compo-
sitions in the ate sixties, junior Burman proved he was 'beta'
than the best. RD made an immediate impact with two back-to-back
antithetical scores in long-standing friend Mehmood's "Chhote
Nawab" and "Bhoot Bangla". While the former contained such
effulgent classical nuggets as "Ghar aaja ghir aaye badra
sanwariya", the latter found RD doing a tantalising twist that
branded him as the most modern composer of our times.
One wonders what the shape of RD's career would have been if
early in his career Nasir Husain's "Baharon Ke Sapne" had been
the decisive blockbuster instead of Husain's "Teesri Manzil". If
Baharon Ke Sapne had clicked RD would have had the chance to com-
pose more compositions closer to his heart like "Aaja piya tohe
pyar doon"; "Kya janoon aajan hoti hai kya" and "zaamane ne
maarey jawan kaise kaise". Wisely, the anthology released to
observe the third year without RD Burman selects "zaamane ne
maarey jawan kaise kaise" from "Baharon Ke Sapne". This Burman
score was brilliantly collaborated in the inceptive years of his
career.
The collection lives up to the promise of delivering a rare
largely obfuscated side of the Burmanesque genius. The side that
never overcame hurdles imposed on the composer after the success
of the rock n roll score in Teesri Manzil. One number out of
fifty one selected for the collection alone suffices to lend a
tonal multiplicity to RD's enduring image as a versatile com-
poser.
Listen to Lata Mangeshkar sing "O ganga maiyya paar laga de mere
sapnon ki naiyya" for the long-forgotten Meena Kumari in April
1967. This precious composition from RD's vast ditty-kitty is as
purely Indian as the Ganga. One of Lata's most cherishable songs,
"o Ganga maiyya" has seldom been put in any anthology of RD'S or
Lata's songs.
The thrill of rediscovering a large number of RD's nuggets that
were sidelined by the failure of parent films, is sustained
almost to the end of the anthology. There's a telltale Rafi
number from a pre-Zanjeer Amitabh Bachchan starrer. "Koi aur
duniya mein tumsa" from "Pyar Ki Kahani" not only sounds very
similar to RD's "Maine poocha chand se" in Abdullah, the two com-
positions are similarly worded and sung by the same singer
Mohammed Rafi.
This collection stresses the more reflective artistry of Burman
than previous collections. In this era when RD's songs are being
remixed and restructured to suit the chart's purposes it is a
pleasure beyond words to hear the originals. Without the untold
benefits of multi-track recording facilities, R D Burman created
edifices of enigma like "O hansini" in "Zehreela Insaan"; "Ni
sultana re" in "Pyar Ka Mausam" and "Acchi nahin sanam dil lagi
dil-e-beqaraar se" in "Rakhi Aur Hathkadi". All these composi-
tions of classic modernism co-exist happily in this sun-kissed
anthology.
When the prolonged lean phase set into RD's career circa the
early Eighties RD was at the acme of his composing skills. The
films that Burman composed for during the decade of doom,
flopped. But were his longstanding filmmaker-friends like Meh-
mood, Rahul Rawail, Ramesh Sippy, Nasir Husain and Raj Sippy
impervious to the elevated quality of music that RD composed for
these disastrous films? If they missed the point earlier on
here's their chance to catch up with the irrefutable convictions
that Burman poured into songs from his flop phase. "O meri jaan"
in Nasir Hussain's "Manzil Manzil"; "Jeene de yeh duniya chahe
maar dale" in Lava. "Kabhi palkon pe aanson hai" in "Harjaee"
are among the choicest, most fluent and filigreed compositions of
RD Burman's career. They were also the essence of creativity in
film music of the Eighties.
Why did RD Burman's career get relegated to the back rows of the
charts? It's a pity he was born in an era when the fate of a film
and its music scores were inextricably linked to each other.
Today his imitators Jatin-Lalit become chart-ka-badshahs by echo-
ing RD's style in "Khamoshi-The Musical" even though the film is
a disaster at the box-office.
"The Genius of RD Burman" album doesn't do full justice to the
composer. No single anthology can ever do that. What it does is
familiarises listeners with some of the crucial career-defining
make-or-break songs from RD's repertoire. Back in 1979 when Hema
Malini's literary semi-classic Ratna Deep flopped its music too
went down the drain. Today when one listens to RD's "Kabhi kabhi
sapna lagta hai" from the film one is filled with wonderment and
admiration. Was the multi-talented RD Burman a mere dream?
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From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian