This article is written by Raja and Pamir Harvey, fellow enthusiasts of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in sites like lyricstrans.com and ibollywoodsongs.com etc then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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Raja’s article
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Whenever this blog reaches a milestone of sorts, we , readers and contributors of this blog, feel a sense of tremendous elation.
It doesn’t matter whether it is a blog post count, or an artist post count. The milestone has been reached, song post by song post. And that means, the audio/video of the song, its full lyrics, its various tags – and a write-up. All of this constitutes ONE song post on this blog. And all of us recognize how fulfilling it is, when we have all these components in place.
And that is why, it is the JOURNEY that we celebrate, as much as the milestone itself. To borrow from a famous song of yesteryear, “raah bani khud manzil…”. :-)
Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce that we have an opportunity to celebrate yet another milestone on this blog. This one relates to an artist who not only revolutionized Hindi film music, he not only won millions of hearts with his compositions during his time, but seems to have only gained in popularity since his death over 20 years ago.
I am talking about the one and only R D Burman. Or Pancham, as he was known to his fans and those close to him. Or RD, as I’ve always referred to him.
And the milestone we are celebrating today is R D Burman’s 500th song on this blog.
R D Burman.
Where do I start?
Should I start with how he, as a 9-year old, composed “Aye meri topi palat ke aa” (Funtoosh) which his father, the legendary S D Burman then used in the film?
Or, his composition of “sar jo tera chakraaye” which his father again used for Pyaasa?
Or, his now-very-famous mouth organ tune for “hai apna dil to awaara”, another of his father’s compositions?
Clearly, even when RD was a young boy, there was no doubt about his musical sense. Clearly, the apple hadn’t fallen far from the tree.
And that was just the start.
In fact, RD assisted his father in several films before he got a chance to branch out on his own.
RD’s first opportunity to compose independently for a film (that did get released, there was a film that didn’t) came to him by default. Mehmood, the actor, approached his father, SD Burman, to compose for his film Chhote Nawab. But SD didn’t have dates. Mehmood happened to notice RD playing the tabla, signed him on – and thus did RD Burman finally get to be seen with full music credit in a Hindi film. That was 1961.
This early bonding between Mehmood and RD blossomed further. Whether it was Bhoot Bangla (1965), Padosan (1968) or Bombay To Goa (1972), they had a fruitful partnership together. In fact, in Bhoot Bangla, RD not only composed the music, he also played a cameo. I remember being very impressed by it. :-)
The music of Bhoot Bangla became fairly popular and, especially with songs like “aao twist karein” and “pyar karta jaa”, should have given a hint of what was to follow. For good measure, the film also had “jaago sone waalon”, in a different tune, but which also gained popularity.
But it was with Teesri Manzil (1966) that RD really hit gold.
RD almost didn’t get to do Teesri Manzil. He was recommended by Majrooh Sultanpuri, the lyricist, to Nasir Hussain, the producer of the film. Nasir was impressed by RD. But Shammi Kapoor, the film’s hero, wasn’t too familiar with RD and wanted his usual composer duo, Shankar Jaikishen with whom he had tremendous rapport and who had delivered him several hit songs. So Shammi Kapoor had to be persuaded to listen to this “new guy”.
Shammi has himself said that he was flabbergasted when RD presented his tunes to him. Immediately, Shammi signed up. And the music of Teesri Manzil was made. And to this day, remains immensely popular.
Teesri Manzil might have kicked it off, but the Majrooh-RD Burman – Nasir Hussain partnership went from strength to strength, giving us hit after hit music in films like Baharon Ke Sapne, Pyar Ka Mausam, Caravan, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, Hum Kisi Se Kam Nahin and Zamaane Ko Dikhaana Hai.
Teesri Manzil definitely got RD noticed but Baharon Ke Sapne (1967), Padosan (1968) and Pyar Ka Mausam (1969) ensured that Teesri Manzil wasn’t seen as a fluke. In each of these films, the music is easily one of the highlights of the film. In fact, songs like “ek chatura naar”, “mere saamne waali khidki” and “tum bin jaoon kahaan” are evergreen – I remember them being hugely popular when I was a kid. And to this day, they are popular.
I’d like to think that this was the “first” phase of RD’s career. The phase of “start-up”,of “establishing himself”. In a time, the mid-late 1960s, when music was dominated by Shankar Jaikishen, SD Burman, Madan Mohan and Ravi. With Laxmikant Pyarelal beginning to make their mark and Kalyanji Anandji around as well with their share of good music.
By the time the decade ended, RD had established himself. It was time to up the ante.
And how!
From 1970 onwards – for at least the next decade and a half – RD was king of Hindi film music.
Sure, there were other big-name music directors too in Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Kalyanji Anandji. And to a lesser extent, Ravindra Jain, Rajesh Roshan and Bhappi Lahiri. And to be fair to all of these, they composed a lot of wonderful music too.
But RD Burman was recognized as THE composer who revolutionized Hindi film music. The end of the 60s and the heralding of the 70s was like the passing of the baton in more ways than one. Rafisaab gave way to Kishore as the voice of the youth, Shammi Kapoor gave way to Rajesh Khanna as the face of the youth – and Shankar-Jaikishen/SD Burman gave way to RD Burman as the music of the youth.
Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Kati Patang, Amar Prem, Caravan, Paraya Dhan, Buddha Mil Gaya, Jawani Deewani – all films whose songs became superhits!!! And this was just between 1970 and 1972!
There was no looking back. RD was already in top gear.
Some of the best, softest music of the 1970s came from the Gulzar stable. And it had RD right at its centre. Gulzar has himself said that with RD everything was just instinctive. Gulzar would (usually) pen the lines and RD would string them together into music so beautiful that it would linger on and on in one’s psyche. If I may say so, the same can be said of Gulzar saab’s lyrics.
This combo gave us Parichay (1972), Aandhi (1975), Khushboo (1975), Mausam (1975), Kinara (1977), Kitaab (1977), Namkeen (1982), all the way to Ijaazat (1987). All films memorable in their own right, but also significantly enhanced by their music.
Another partnership that RD forged was with Dev Anand. And although, after Hare Rama Hare Krishna, they never quite scaled the same level of success together, Dev did frequently use RD in his films.
A different sort of partnership developed for RD with Asha Bhosle. Initially it was just a professional relationship, with her singing for his compositions, but this developed into love and marriage.
Through the 70s, RD kept delivering hits – it was as if, whether a film did well or not, its music would. Having lived my schooldays through that decade, I can vouch for RD’s popularity. I remember, when I’d be watching the credits of a film on screen, the cheers would be extra loud whenever RD’s name came on screen.
The 80s started in much the same way. In 1981, he had hits like Kudrat, Rocky, Love Story. In 1982, he had Satte Pe Satta, Sanam Teri Kasam, Yeh Vaada Raha. In 1983, he had Betaab, Agar Tum Na Hote and Masoom. In 1984, he had Sunny, Manzil Manzil and Jawaani. In 1985, he had Saagar.
And yet, things were changing for RD. Until then, his success rate used to be so high that his films would invariably have at least one big hit song, if not more. Rarely would we see an RD Burman film go completely unnoticed for its songs.
This began happening. And not just with one or two films, but with more of them. This was the period of Himmatwaala and Tohfa – I call that the “ice cream khaogi” period. There was a spate of Hindi films made by South Indian producers – and I somehow feel their music sense did not quite match RD’s style (I might be wrong!). Perhaps it had also to do with lyrics of the time. (After all, the one stand-out film for RD in the late 80s was Ijaazat – and we all know how high-quality the lyrics were!).
Anyway, there followed a dark period in RD’s career – and life. I remember reading that he felt so low at one point in time, that he seriously doubted his own abilities. Imagine! RD Burman – doubting himself! That’s what failure can do to someone, even if he is of the caliber of RD Burman.
It is ironic and, to some extent, sad, that after a dark period in his life, when RD’s music again reminded us of his magic, it was only after his death. His 1942-A Love Story (1994) music became hugely popular – but by then, RD had left us.
It is now 21 years since he’s gone – but he has left some of the most wonderful music for us to enjoy. Like I said earlier, he seems to be even more popular with the youth now, after his death. So much so, that a film, Jhankar Beats (2003) was made as a tribute to him. Today RD Burman enjoys a sort of cult status in India.
Ok…
Now to the song for today. His 500th song on this blog.
It is a song that is trademark RD. It has all the typical early 1970s ingredients – and nobody combined them as well as RD did, in those days.
It is from the film Bombay To Goa (1972) – best-known for the hit song “dekha na haaye re”. It was a remake of a Tamil film Madras to Pondicherry (1966) with the famous Tamil film-comedian Nagesh. Mehmood had earlier played many of his roles in their Hindi remakes like Pyar Kiye Jaa (1966), Humjoli (1970), Main Sundar Hoon (1971) and Lakhon Mein Ek (1971). There is the rumour that Mehmood offered Amitabh’s role in Bombay to Goa first to Rajiv Gandhi, who 12 years later would become the Prime Minsiter of India. He politely refused and recommended family friend Amitabh.
The film is a comedy about a bus journey from Bombay to Goa. Aruna Irani is the heroine, running away from a scene of crime with Shatrughan Sinha (the villain) hot on her trail. She boards this bus which has Mehmood as conductor and Amitabh Bachchan as co-passenger. Much of the film is about the journey, with many of the co-passengers being quite eccentric / funny in their own way.
The song takes place in the chronology of the film in flashback, where the character played by Aruna Irani, remembers the chain of events, which lead to her landing in this bus after having been a witness to a murder. After having a tiff with her mother she goes to a night club, where Usha Iyer is the club singer. Amitabh in a true Hindi film hero fashion is stalking her and trying to get her attention in every possible way. Well, in his defence one can perhaps say, that he is doing it with good intentions, since he is her fiancé (but unbeknownst to her). So there we have it. He wants her and she doesn’t. In this
Both Aruna Irani and Amitabh want to be one up on the other. So both of them use poor Usha Uthup (well, they do pay her handsomely for it!) to sing a song of their choice, instead of the other person’s.
The result is a combination of a series of six songs (all in English) – Usha manages to croon a few lines of each before being shut up (money talks!) to sing the next one.
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Pamir Harvey’s article
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The song is shot in the Caesar Palace Hotel, in whose Room no. 304, Pancham used to live in the late 1960s, according to his biographers Bhatacharjee and Vittal. Their book, R. D. Burman – The Man, The Music has been a gold mine of information on the maestro’s life and music. It is from this book that I’ve collected further information about this medley of songs as well.
The first song, which Usha Iyer sings on Amitabh’s behest is “Listen to the pouring rain” by the blind Puerto-Rican singer and composer Jose Feliciano . Pancham added his signature bossa nova rhythm to it. Aruna Irani then asks her to sing “Temptation” , whose original music was composed by Nacio Herb Brown. It was first sung by Bing Crosby in the film Going Hollywood (1933). To pique Aruna, Amitabh sends in the request for “I married a female wrestler” a Goan folk-lore song, which were give a more pronounced bongo beats. Aruna counters with “Fever” by Little Willie John , which in our age has also been covered by Madonna. The next song is “Be-Bop-A-Lula” from Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps, which was first recorded in 1956. The lyrics are supposedly by Donald Graves and the tune is from Gene Vincent. The last song in the list is the Cole Porter song “It’s All Right with Me” from his famous musical Can-Can , which had its premiere at the Broadway in 1953. Since then it has been interpreted by many famous singers including famous ones like Ella Fitzgerald , Frank Sinatra and George Michael.
Rumour has it that the ensuing fight-scene enabled Amitabh Bachchan to get his break-through film Zanjeer (1973).
So here is this special song from “Bombay to Goa”(1972) which becomes the 500th song of R D Burman as a music director in the blog.
Song-Listen to the pouring rain (Bombay To Goa) (1972) Singer-Usha Iyer, Lyrics-various, Arranged by-R D Burman
Lyrics
listen to the pouring rain
listen to the pour
and with every drop of rain you
I love you more
let it rain all night long
let my love for you grow strong
as long as we’re together
who cares about the weather
listen to the pouring rain
listen to the pour
lalalalala
do da do da do
you came
I was alone
I should have known
you were temptation
you smiled
leading me on
my heart was gone
you were temptation
you were temptation
hey
he he
hey
he he
married a female wrestler
As massive as can be
and She had bulging muscles
Which quite fascinated me
She said she loved me truly
she also said by heck
If I ever catch you messin’ around
I’ll break your lovely neck.
Ahy ahy yo,
what shall I do,
How shall I save my skin,
I have married a Female Wrestler
Now look at the mess I’m in
yo yo yo
aiyyo yo o
aiyyo yo
aiyyo yo
aiyyo yo
ah he he
he he
never know how much I hate you
never know how much I care babe
when you touch me, you give me a fever
you give me a fever what’s so hard to bear
you give me a fever
when you touch me
fever when you hold me close
fever
ha
my honey baby gonna treat me right
a ha ha
h ha
well
Be-Bop-a-lula
she’s my baby
Be-Bop-a-lula
Come maybe
Be-Bop-a-lula
she’s my baby
Be-Bop-a-lula
Don’t you need me maybe
Be-Bop-a-lula
sheeee’s my baby
love my baby
love my baby
love yeaah
it is the wrong time
and the wrong place
though your face is lovely
it’s the wrong face
it’s not his face
but such a lovely face
that it’s alright with me
it’s the wrong song
it’s the wrong style
though your smile is lovely
it’s the wrong smile
it’s not his smile
but such a lovely smile
that it’s alright with me
O be-bop-a-lula
She’s my baby
Be-bop-a-lula
don’t need me maybe
it’s the wrong one
and the wrong way
so now
be-bop-a-lula
She’s my baby
It’s the wrong time
And the wrong face
be-bop-a-lula
She’s my baby
It’s the wrong time
And the wrong place
Hey
Be-bop-a-lula
Waaaw!
stop it I can’t sing
