A colleague and friend, Uday Row Kavi, and his wife Niru, who were very close to Laxmikant and his family introduced me to the composer in 1987, to ask him for an interview for my Channel 4 TV series ‘Movie Mahal’. Laxmi ji said yes and asked us to come back the next day. Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar was born in 1937 in a modest family. At a very young age, he acted in a few minor roles. He had learned the mandolin.
As a teenager, he joined the Mangeshkars’ music academy Sureel Kala Kendra, where his friendship with Pyarelal (Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma) grew. The now famous Anthony Gonsalves—music composer, arranger and teacher—taught Pyarelal the violin. As very young players of the mandolin and violin, the duo found work as session musicians with a number of composers thanks to Lata Mangeshkar’s recommendation. After years of struggle, finally in 1963 came two of their films, Harishchandra Taramati and Parasmani , and the latter’s hit songs changed their fortune. In the decades that followed, the composing-duo, L-P, were counted among the leading names of Hindi film music, having composed for some 600 films. Laxmikant passed away in May 1998 at the age of 61.
We filmed the composer on May 1, 1987, in the music room in his Juhu bungalow, fittingly called ‘Parasmani’. His harmonium was placed in front of him, as he spoke candidly about his work. He brought the interview alive by singing some verses from the songs we were discussing. He had a lovely smile and a charming manner. We started by talking about L-P’s score for Raj Kapoor’s 1973 film Bobby .
Bobby was the first time you worked with the great Raj Kapoor.
Yes. The first thing I must say is that it was a big thrill for us to have the opportunity of working with him and composing the music for his film Bobby . Anand Bakshi saab was to write the lyrics. Although we had not worked with Raj Kapoor before, I knew which ragas he liked. For example, he was fond of Raga Bhairavi. For many years, he worked with Shankar-Jaikishan and many of their songs were based on Bhairavi. So we kept that in mind.
A music session was fixed. Before that first session, I thought it would be good if we could compose a song for Rajji, even though we did not know Bobby ’s song situations. So we spent days trying to find something to play for him.
In those days, this house where we are now sitting was being built. Very often, I would come here at 10 in the morning to see if everything was going well. One day Anand Bakshi saab came with me.
As the house was under construction, we couldn’t tell which room was where. It was hard to find one’s way around amidst the building works. I left him in one room and went elsewhere. He called to me, because he couldn’t find his way out.
When I went back to him, he asked: “What are you making? It’s like a maze. If someone gets locked in a room, no one would ever find them again.” I said: “Can we make something on this?” “What do you mean?” “Say, someone gets locked in a room and the key is misplaced.”
So we thought we could make this idea into a song. At first, we began the piece from here: Hum tum ek kamre mein band ho aur chaabi kho jaye . (You and I, locked in a room, and the key is misplaced.) When we were ready to play it to Rajji, we took it from here (Laxmi ji sings the verse):
Baahar se koi andar na aa sake
Andar se koi baahar na jaa sake
Socho kabhi aisa ho to kya ho
Socho kabhi aisa ho to kya ho
Hum tum…
Ek kamre mein band ho
Aur chaabi kho jaye .
( No one can enter from without
No one can leave from within
Just imagine what will happen
You and I
Locked in a room
And the key is misplaced. )
That’s what we sang to him. Since we had not composed the song on a given situation, Rajji then wrote the song into the story. So the song came before the situation. I think this was one of the best song picturisations I had ever seen. People felt they had never seen a song quite like it. It was so new.
Your friendship and partnership with Pyarelal ji goes back a long way.
We have been very close friends since childhood. We used to play cricket together. We were not full-time musicians at that time. We would often meet outside a film studio, near where Pyarelal ji lived. We were kids when we joined a music academy called Sureel Kala Kendra. Pyarelal played the violin and I played the mandolin.
We have been friends and colleagues for the last 35 years. People say after 12 years, even your blood group starts to match. So 35 years!
If we happen to be working on a tune separately and we meet and play the tune together, you’ll find a difference of a few notes in the composition. Or say, I am driving to the recording studio and thinking of a melody on the way, a tune that I will discuss with Pyarelal ji , but once I get to the studio, our assistants tell me, don’t say a word to him. He has composed the same thing as you. We are absolutely on the same wavelength as far as music is concerned. The music is the thinking of one man. It’s a miracle. You can’t tell whether I wrote these notes in a song or he wrote those notes—we are in every note.
What you hear is music by Laxmikant-Pyarelal. That’s how it has been and always will be.
The third of a short series of interviews with veteran filmmakers, actors and technicians that were recorded by writer-filmmaker Nasreen Munni Kabir for Channel 4 TV, U.K.
