{"id":1917,"date":"2015-06-27T02:15:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-27T02:15:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/?p=1917"},"modified":"2019-06-27T07:18:25","modified_gmt":"2019-06-27T01:48:25","slug":"music-of-rd-burman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningandcreativity.com\/silhouette\/music-of-rd-burman\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pathbreaking Non-conformist \u2013 The Music of RD Burman"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than two decades of music has flown through the main stream Hindi Film Music (HFM) after the passing away of RDB or Rahul Dev Burman and he has well and truly established himself as a Pathbreaking Non-conformist. Knowing the dog-bite-dog industry that HFM is, this is no mean achievement. My comment is valid as he was not given his due while he was alive. It was mentioned here and there, but at\u00a0large, the industry shunned him, especially towards his later years. Now they revere him as an icon.<\/p>\n

\"RD

Pancham presents Jaimala for Vividh Bharti – 1971 (Pic courtesy: YouTube)<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

I had the fortune of meeting RDB only once and that too very briefly, I will refer to it in the later part of this write-up. During my really joyful learning over one hundred hours that I spent with Anil Biswas, he said to me that RDB was a real genius among all the music makers in Indian cinema for all times. Anil Da’s friendship with RD Burman’s father the music maestro SD Burman is part of film folklore now.\u00a0Understandably, Anil Da was affectionate towards his friend’s son apart from appreciating his remarkable talents as a music composer.<\/p>\n

Anil Biswas on RDB<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Anil

‘With every artist who sang for him, he (RDB) got exceptional and unheard of marvels.’: Anil Biswas
Pic courtesy: YouTube<\/p><\/div>\n

Earlier Anil da had said that he considered Sajjad Husain the only true music director, incomparable to anyone. I asked him, how did he now compare these two? Cleverly, he said they were two different worlds and yet had immense similarities. In Sajjad\u2019s composition each and every note he used was his original, never thought of by any one prior to him. With RDB, said Anil da, his treatment was totally unique, such sounds and their application to music, was never thought of by anyone prior to him.<\/p>\n

He added, that RDB was far, far ahead and beyond all of us music composers of HFM. Such treatment of melodies, arrangement of instruments and sounds, mixing of the Ragas<\/em>, courageously and unconventionally and yet where no ustad<\/em> could raise a finger and getting those phenomenal results from the singers was something no one man had ever attained before.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople tell me I have got Lata and Talat do some very high quality work. But RD has got better results from the same Lata and I have no hesitation in saying this,\u201d said Anil da and continued, \u201cAnd why only Lata? With every artist who sang for him, he got exceptional and unheard of marvels.”<\/p>\n

On his usage of the Ragas<\/em>, Anil da, added, \u201cThe kind of work he has done by mixing of Ragas and the final result that emerges, such as \u2018Raina beeti jaye shyam na aaye<\/em>\u2019, even I did not have courage to do this. And why only courage? In our era, this kind of thought process was not there.”<\/p>\n

Raina beeti jaye<\/strong> <\/em>(Amar Prem<\/em>, 1972)
\nSinger: Lata Mangeshkar<\/span><\/p>\n