Like values, music also belongs to generations. ‘My music is better than your music’ is a refrain that we often hear at homes, colleges and baithaks. However, R.D. Burman is one composer who transcends these borders. You want to celebrate loss? Plug into “Tere Bina Zindagi” and if life’s philosophy is on your mind play “Zindagi Ke Safar Mein Aa Jaate Hain”. And if you are looking for sheer romance nothing can best “Kuch Na Kaho”. R.D. has a song for every mood, every emotion. He is as relevant in a pub as in a pooja room. And perhaps that’s why his tunes continue to inspire. They are not only remixed but are used as such in the background sound and scripts have been written around his songs.
However, what if I tell you that there are a number of R.D. songs and tunes still lying somewhere unused? Won’t it send his multitudes of fans in a tizzy? Yes, in his book “R.D. Burman: The Prince of Music” (Rupa), Khagesh Dev Burman says that these are songs from unreleased or shelved films, uncut non-film songs and songs composed in that short phase when he had little work. “After the heart attack, he claimed to have stored 2000 new tunes in his memory while recuperating.” Khagesh, who comes from same Tripura royal family as R.D., reminds that the composer’s career started on a jinxed note with an unreleased film Raj. “It was shelved after two songs were recorded. Mehmood offered to take them but Guru Dutt refused to part with them. Nobody ever heard these songs.”
Khagesh traced two songs of the unreleased Abhi Abhi directed by Lekh Tandon. “Both are very good songs. ‘Aaj Ki Raat Na Guzre Dekho’ sung by Shabbir Kumar and Asha Bhosle is a gem. The pauses between Rakh Lo and Chakh Lo and Rakh Do without any instrumental support create a vacuum of soundlessness.” Similarly, Khagesh has come across songs from Gulzar’s Devdas which was shelved midway. “R.D. had this habit to record those tunes as well which were rejected during music sessions. This collection would be quite voluminous. Nobody knows the whereabouts of these songs. The producers, the directors, Asha Bhosle and the secretary of R.D. were asked to locate these songs but everyone failed. Everyone put the blame on others.”
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Khagesh doesn’t deny the possibility that these tunes might have already come to the market in somebody else’s name. “It has already happened once in his lifetime when one of his unreleased soundtracks reached the table of producer Raj Sippy who informed R.D. in good faith. R.D. was miserable about the whole incident.”
His critics say that there was too much influence of S.D. Burman’s music in his works and perhaps that’s why juries of popular awards ignored him for a long time. Even Amar Prem went unrewarded.
Khagesh holds that juries failed to fathom the depth of his work and when they did they gave him back to back Filmfare awards in the same year (Sanam Teri Kasam and Masoom) as if to cover up for the injustice done in the ’70s when so many singers who sang his compositions were rewarded but he was ignored. “If you listen to the songs of Teesri Manzil, you will realise that he belongs to a different gharana altogether. So there is no question of him relying on the strengths of his father from the beginning. To me ‘Sar Jo Tera Chakraye’ was the instance of Rock music in Hindi cinema. In the ’70s he was a bigger name than S.D. There is an instance when S.D. went for his morning walk, someone pointed at him and said there goes the father of R.D. Burman.”
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S.D. took some time to come to terms to it but eventually felt proud of the exploits of his prodigious son. Khagesh says there was a reason. Hailing from different times and coming from a different school of music, it took him time to understand his son’s penchant for western music. “Dev Anand offered ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ to both father and son keeping in mind S.D. for the classical portions and R.D. for the youthful side. It was S.D. who said that his son no longer needs his cover and is ready to handle both sides of the music. However, when “Dum Maro Dum” was being composed S.D. was in the studio and before the recording was over he came out of the studio with his head down. He felt for some time that his son has betrayed his musical inheritance.” Even if he borrowed from his father or from a western composition, after the first stanza R.D. would make it his own.
Khagesh asserts that the world has taken recognition of R.D. as a composer but the experts are yet to give him his due as a singer. “His singing is not limited to just ‘Mehbooba Mehbooba’. Of course it is timeless but there was more to him than just rasping voice. Both ‘Dhanno Ki Aankhon Main (Kitaab) or ‘Yeh Zindagi Kuch Bhi Sahi’ (Romance) prove it.”
Talking about his fall, Khagesh says it was not about the quality of his music, it was the box failure of the films he composed for. “The music of Mehboba , Shalimar , Shaan and Saagar is still remembered fondly but the industry goes by the box office status only and it affected his status. Also physical ailments and a tumultuous personal life took its toll.”
The book also brings out R.D.’s kinks and quirks. Gulzar reminisces how he would pick up a cup of tea and finding it too, would pour cold water in and gulp it down without a show of distaste. He used to smoke by putting a clove at the burning end of the cigarette. Talking of Gulzar, Khagesh says the two were made for each and brought out the depth in each other’s work. “Only a Gulzar could comprehend R.D.’s depth of feeling in an Ijaazat vein of ‘Qatrah qatrah’.” Time to hold on to the pieces, time to rewind to R.D.!