His Father’s Torch
By Dr. C S Srinivasan
R.D.Burman aka Rahul Dev Burman aka Pancham was born on 27th June, 1939 and started his musical career by assisting his father, Sachin Dev Burman (1906–1975) in his films before becoming an independent music director in 1961. As a boy, he was a very versatile kid, playing the harmonica and had composed many tunes by 1956. It is said that the tune of the song ‘Ai mere topi palat ke aa’ sung by Kishore Kumar in Funtoosh (1956) was ‘lifted’ by S.D.Burman from his son.
Between 1958 and 1961 R.D.Burman officially assisted his father in many films like Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi, Solva Saal, Insaan Jaag Utha, Kagaz Ke Phool, Sujata, Bambai Ka Babu, Bewakoof, Manzil and Miya Bibi Razi. In 1961 his close friend and admirer Mehmood gave him a break to compose music independently for a film titled ‘Chote Nawab’ produced and directed by him. R.D.Burman did justice by composing several good tunes in this
movie such as ‘Matwale ankhonwale’ which was a trend setting tune sung by Rafi & Lata and ‘Ghar aja ghir aye’, an evergreen classical tune sung by Lataji. However even after this, Rahul Dev Burman failed to click in movie circles commercially, and had to wait for another 4 years till 1965 to get his next break in 2 films ‘Bhoot Bangla’ (produced by Mehmood) and Teesra Kaun. However even during this lag period, he continued to assist his father in films like Baat Ek Raat Ki, Dr.Vidya, Naughty Boy, Bandini, Meri surat teri Ankhen, Tere Ghar ke Samne and others. In 1966 his windfall started when he got a chance to score music for Nazir Husain’s Teesri Manzil in which he composed trend setting songs such as ‘Aja aja’ and ‘O haseena zulfowali’ picturized on Shammi Kapoor and Asha Parekh. He got 7 films in 1970, eleven in 1971, 18 in 1972 and so on. However he continued to assist his
father in his films till 1970.This article tries to highlight what might have been R.D.Burman’s contribution to his father’s music from 1958 and 1970 which ultimately made him strong to go ahead with his innovative music in the years to come.
S.D.Burman’s films from 1958 to 1960 with R.D. as assistant
In 1958, of the 5 films with S.D.Burman’s music, 2 (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi and Solva Saal) had R.D.Burman as assistant. In Solva Saal, the
interlude music of ‘Hai apna dil to awara’ was played by R.D.Burman.
In 1959 three films came with S.D.Burman’s music — ‘Insaan Jaag Utha’,
‘Kagaz Ke Phool’, and ‘Sujata’. Of these the first two had R.D.Burman as assistant. The song ‘Baharonse nazaronse’ sung by Asha in Insaan Jaag Utha sounds very much like an R.D.’s tune. In Sujata, R.D.Burman played the
mouthorgan in the interlude music of ‘Jalte hain jiskeliye’ sung by Talat Mehmood.
In 1960 there were 7 films with music by S.D.Burman and among them 2 (Bambai ka Babu and Bewakoof) had R.D.Burman as assistant in their titles but we are unable to pinpoint any song as distinctly of R.D. style except perhaps ‘Hum to hai tum par dil se fida’ sung Rafi in Bewakoof. In ‘Miya Bibi Razi’, although the titles do not mention any assistant, we think R.D.Burman’s style is evident in a song ‘Tune leliya hai dil ab kya hoga’ sung by Geeta Dutt and Rafi.
S.D.Burman’s films between 1962 and 1970
S.D.Burman got no assignment in 1961 since he was sick. In 1962 he got 3 films — ‘Baat Ek raat Ki’, ‘Dr.Vidya’, and ‘Naughty Boy’ — all the three of which had R.D.Burman as the official assistant. If we can make a reflection on what might have been R.D.Burman’s contribution to the music in these three films, we can recall ‘Aaj ka din hai pheeka pheeka’ and ‘Jo ijazat ho to ek baat kahun’ (both sung by Asha Bhosle and Rafi) in Baat Ek Raat Ki and ‘Pappa jamarillo’ sung by Geeta Dutt and Asha Bhosle in Dr.Vidya to R.D.Burman’s credit.
In Naughty Boy, we think almost all of the 8 songs in the movie must have had R.D.Burman’s contribution, though this is not to underrate Dada
Burman’s musical prowess in composing both serious and comedy type of songs which he has done in earlier films like Pyasa (1957) and Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi (1958). A typical R.D. tune appears in the move as ‘Tum mere pehchane’ sung by Asha but the song is abruptly cut.
Coming to 1963, S.D.Burman had 3 films — Bandini, Meri Surat Teri Ankhen and Tere Ghar ke Samne for all of which R.D.Burman was the official assistant. Naturally we are not tempted to credit any of the
songs in Bandini to R.D.Burman all of which were folk based and on which S.D.Burman had a strong grip, but in Meri Surat Teri Ankhen, we are very much inclined to credit the song ‘Tujhse nazar milane se’ sung by Asha ji to R.D.Burman and partly the song ‘Ye kisne geet cheda’ sung by Suman Kalyanpur and Mukesh. Similarly in ‘’Tere Ghar ke Samne’ we are very much inclined to credit the song ‘Dil ki manzil kuch aisi hi manzil’ to R.D.Burman.
In 1964, there were 3 films with S.D.Burman’s music — Benazir, Kaise Kahun and Ziddi for all of which R.D.Burman as the official assistant. In Banazir, we think the songs ‘Ghum nahin gar zindagi veeran hai’ sung by Asha ji and ‘Le gayi ek haseena’ sung by Rafi can be credited to R.D.Burman. Similarly, in Kaise Kahun, we feel the songs ‘Kisi ki mohobbat me’ sung by Asha and Rafi and ‘Zindagi tu jhumle zara’ sung by Rafi can be credited to Pancham. In Pramod Chakravarty’s Ziddi, we feel R.D.Burman was in full control and his contribution is apparent in almost all the 8 songs of this movie such as ‘Teri surat se nahin milti kisi ki surat’, Pyar ki manzil mast safar’, ‘Janu kya mera dil ab kahan khogaya’, ‘Ai meri zindagi ek pagal hawa’, ‘Raat ka sama jhume chandrama’ .
In 1965 , Dada Burman’s magnum opus movie ‘Guide’ was released and again R.D.Burman was his official assistant for this movie in spite of his 2 assignments- Bhooot Bangla and Teesra Kaun in the same year. All the songs of ‘Guide’ were hits but we are not able to pinpoint any particular song solely to the credit of R.D.Burman in this movie while people like Shammi Kapoor have told that “Gaata rahe mera dil’ was his composition. Another movie with S.D.Burman’s music released in 1965 was ‘Teen Deviyan’ with R.D.Burman as assistant. His contribution to the song ‘Are yaar meri tum bhi ho gazab’
sung by Kishore and Asha, and ‘Khwab to tum ya koyi haqeeqat’ sung by Kishore appears to be prominent.
None of S.D.Burman’s films were released in 1966 but R.D.Burman had 2 films- Teesri Manzil and Pati Patni.
In 1967, Navketan released ‘Jewel Thief’ with music by S.D.Burman and R.D.Burman was the assistant. All the songs of this film were hits and we think ‘Raat akeli hai’ and Baithi hai kya uske paas’, both sung
by Asha, might be R.D.Burman’s.
There were no films with music of S.D.Burman released in 1968.
In 1969 came the whirlwind music of Hindi cinema in Shakti Samanta’s ‘Aradhana’ with S.D.Burman as the music director and R.D.Burman as the associate music director. All the songs of this movie were super hits with Kishore’s ‘Roop tera mastana’ and ‘Mere sapnonki rani kab ayegi tu’ catapulting both him and actor Rajesh Khanna to fame. It is surprising but true that ‘Roop tera mastana’ is based on a Bengali folk song ‘Kalke jabo Shashur badi’ which S.D.Burman recalled and Pancham might have
transformed to western jazz style. ‘Kora kagaz tha ye man mera’ and ‘Mere sapnonki rani kab ayaegi tu’ are also said to have been composed by R.D.Burman.
Other two films with S.D.Burman’s music that came in 1969 were ‘Jyoti’ and ‘Talash’. We do not know who was Dada’s assistant for Jyoti. All the 5 songs of this movie are in typical S.D. style with ‘Soch ke ye gagan jhume’ sung by Manna Dey and Lata outstanding.
There were 8 songs in Talash and we think ‘Karle pyar karle ke din hai yahin’ sung by Asha and ‘ Mera kya sanam’ sung by Asha, Mahendra Kapoor and chorus were most probably composed by R.D.Burman.
Another interesting feature is R.D.Burman has given his voice in the beginning of the song ‘Aaj ko junli raat ma’ by singing his father’s famous folk song ‘Ke kash re bhati gang baiya’.
There were two films with S.D.Burman’s music which came in 1970 — Prem Pujari and Ishq par Zor Nahin for the first of which R.D.Burman was the assistant while Basu Chakravarty, Manohari Singh and Maruti
Rao were the assistants for the second. We think R.D. might have contributed for the excellent tune and orchestration of ’Rangeela re’ sung by Lata Mangeshkar.
The Final acknowledgement
The last time we see R.D.Burman’s name in a film with S.D.Burman’s music is in his last move ‘Mili’ produced by N.C. Sippy and directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee released in 1975 after S.D.Burman’s passing away, in the titles of which we see ‘Grateful acknowledgements R.D.Burman’ most probably for
conducting the orchestra.
Thus we see that out of a total of 32 films credited with S.D.Burman’s music between 1958 and 1970, R.D.Burman was the assistant in 21 and we are tempted to credit about 40 songs, either partially or completely to him, considering his style which was different from his father’s. This represents a small but significant portion of his contribution and it is rather difficult to say what role he played in others, there being such harmony and understanding between the father and son duo in composing music. At the same time we want to appreciate the freedom and encouragement that S.D.Burman as R.D.’s father gave him to move ahead with his talent, especially during the 2 years period from 1962 to 1964, when RD had no independent assignments. This way we think it was an opportunity given to him to improve
his creative skills working with his revered father.
