R.D.Burman

Enough trees have been felled or keyboards been tapped to project the genius of the man. However I thought it would be a great injustice if I did not add my two bit ( or more ) to write about a man who though I have not met feel him all around.

There could have as well been a & between R D considering the kind of experimentation that he did during his lifetime. Seems surreal but almost have a karmic connection. Family folklore has it that the first song that I sang was " Yeh Dosti Hum Nahin Chodenge " ( Sholay 1975 ),the first remix song ( yes they existed even then ) was " Yamma Yamma " ( Shaan 1980 ), the first cassette listened to ad infinitum was Masoom 1983.

Haling from the royal music family of Tripura , with a father as peerless as S.D. Burman there could have been no other vocation than music. For starters the harmonica piece in Hai Apna Dil To Awara ( Solva Saal 1958 ) was by R.D. at age 19. The pupose of the blog is not eulogise the obvious but to pick up rare gems which might have skipped attention /not got their due.

a ) Heeralal Pannalal ( 1978 ) : The seventies were flooded with lost and found formula taken to another level by the master of madness Manmohan Desai. No wonder that producer director Ashok Roy embarked on this safe venture. With a very in house starcast of Shashi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Neetu Singh , Zeenat Aman and Premnath this film has 6 songs . 4 of them were written by Majrooh Saab and 2 by Verma Malik. The piece de resistance being Aaja Mere Pyaar Aaja sung by Hemant Kumar and Jayshree. The strains of the song's music can heard in the form of an alaap in Sagar 1985, the very first time that Rishi Kapoor sees Dimple Kapadia. There are other nuggets like O Padosan Ki Ladki and Kahiye Kahan Se Aana Hua.

Sample this lyric :

Seedhe Raste Chaloge To
Aisa Dhamaka Milega
Jhopdi Mein Birla Aur Tata Milega
Aur Bata Ki Dukaan Mein Bhi Atta Milega

Does raise a chuckle.


2 ) Swami Dada 1982 : Navketan films was till the 80's to Hindi film music what Bridgetown Barbados was to West Indies cricket. They simply couldnt lose out. Whatver be the fate of the movies , the music stood out. After a brief hiatus R.D came to the fold of Navketan. With Anjaan penning all the six songs, keeping the mood of the movie it was a very spiritual kind of lyrics. With a very bhajan and satsang feel two songs stand out a ) Ek Roop Kaee Naam Manmandir Tera Dhaam b ) Zindagi Yeh Kaisi Hai Jaise Jiyo Wasi Hai


Go for these two albums.

Sometime later Harjaee and Sitamgar