By
Komal Badve (Team Creative)
Links
to the music referred to will be available at the end of the article.
Once upon a time, long, long ago, when R D Burman
was just nine years old, he composed his first song, ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraye’, for his father (and renowned music
director) S D Burman. After flunking 10th grade, he ended up
composing all the songs for the movie ‘Guide’ as a fifteen year old. Burman composed musical scores for over 331
films after that, from the 1960s to the 1990s, and continues to be one of the
most influential Bollywood music directors till this day. (So before you
proceed any further, I suggest you play ‘Mehbooba’ in the background for added
effects.)
Credited for having transformed Hindi film music, he
is known for his unique ways to produce sound, and his ability to fuse Indian
and Western music. In the song ‘Raina
Beeti Jaaye’ from the movie ‘Amar Prem’ he
combined semi-classical Hindustani music with guitar strokes.
He even made electronic rock popular within the
industry, and also mixed disco and rock elements with Bengali folk! Burman was also inspired by Latin, Oriental
and Arabic music and included elements from these in his own music as
well. Among his non-film work was his album named ‘Pantera’, which combined Latin American music
with a little bit of rock, jazz and funk.
Nicknamed ‘Panchamda’, he had a tremendous appetite
for musical experiments, and created almost weird yet matchless sounds with
ordinary objects, adding a very distinctive touch to his songs. The catchy
intro of ‘Chura Liya Hai Tumne Jo Dil Ko’
from the movie ‘Yadon Ki Barat’ was fashioned by tapping a glass
with a spoon.
For ‘Mere
Samnewali Khidki Mein’ (from ‘Padosan’), he used the guiro,
a Latin American scraper made of metal, to give the effect of scraping a comb!
Not only did he add life to movies with his songs
but his background scores also helped intensify scenes. For instance, when
Thakur sees the dead bodies of his family members in ‘Sholay’, we hear an
extremely creepy sound in the background, literally giving us goosebumps.
Burman used the differential part of a truck to create this. It’s honestly mind
boggling how inventive that man was.
One of his quirkiest ways to produce rhythm was by
thumping his music assistant Maruti Rao’s back! In the song ‘Duniya Mein Logo Ko’, he introduced rhythm through the
way we pant. Burman made singer Annette Pinto gurgle to produce the background
score in ‘Satte Pe Satta’, and rubbed sandpaper and knocked bamboo
sticks to give a running train’s effect for the song ‘Hoga Tumse Pyara Kaun’.
The genius that he was, he blew into beer bottles
for ‘Mehbooba’, and needless to say, he literally slayed with his gruff
voice. Fun fact: His signature singing style was inspired by jazz legend Louis
Amstrong. He used to say, “Meri awaaz ki
koi pehchaan honi chaahiye”, and didn’t want to be stereotyped as a
conventional playback singer.
In conclusion, all I would like to say is thank you,
Panchamda, for proving that academic failure is a small and very insignificant
part of our lives. And trust me you want to click on the link below.
Other links:
Hi Komal,
ReplyDeleteMust say that you have captured RD beautifully. Hats off.
By the way, the Satte Pe Satta & Sholay Sound links which you have provided for Pancham fans were uploaded by me on YouTube (you can see my name in the information before the Sholay Sound video). That shows that I am a RDent fan too :)
Thanks
- Ketan Samant.
Nice one!
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