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The Golden Musical Years: 1971 - When RD Burman took control!

You can watch The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey with Javed Akhtar on Zee Classic every Sunday at 8 pm

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Hare Rama Hare Krishna (1971), which was written, produced and directed by Dev Anand, is an important film in the history of Hindi cinema for several reasons. Not only did the film broach the hippie-drug culture of the 1960s and 1970s, it also served as a launchpad for a new Westernised heroine in the form of Zeenat Aman. Following her successful reception by audiences in the film, Zeenat went on to become a new pin-up girl and starred in a number of hits such as Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973), Don (1978), Qurbani (1980) and Laawaris (1981).

But an equally important aspect of Hare Rama Hare Krishna’s success was RD Burman’s ascent as the undisputed czar among music composers in the industry beginning 1971. RD, who had already made his debut in Hindi cinema with Chhote Nawaab (1961), had served notice with his brilliant compositions for Teesri Manzil (1966). But it is from 1971, with RD following up on the successful music of Kati Patang (1970), that the composer truly came into his own. His compositions for Hare Rama Hare Krishna enunciated a new youth culture. Then there was his work in Paraya Dhan (1971), where he composed a couple of beautiful romantic ballads – ‘Aaj unsey pehli mulaaqaat hogi’ and ‘Aao jhoomein gaaye’ – which became very popular. Speaking on the latter song, Javed Akhtar in the recent episode of 'The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey', paid glowing compliments to Kishore Kumar’s rendition of the song, saying, “Kishore did something new in this song, which only he could do. When he would sing ‘Aao jhoomein gaaye’, he would sing it in falsetto. He would produce such a note that can be found in his yodelling. That brought a novel feeling into this song.”

Then there was Caravan, which was directed by Nasir Husain, but produced by his brother Tahir Husain, the actor Aamir Khan’s father. The film had eight songs composed by RD and each song was a polished gem. In fact, the sizzling cabaret ‘Piya tu ab toh aaja’ has been given pride of place in Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal’s book, 'Gaata Rahe Mera Dil: 50 Classic Hindi Film Songs'. The authors write, “Between ‘Daiyya yeh main kahaan aa phansi’, which straddles a few scales, the honky-tonk Kishore solo ‘Hum toh hain raahi dil ke’, the festive and folksy ‘Goriya kahaan tera des re’, the joie di vivre of ‘Chadhti jawaani’, the frothy ‘Ab jo mile hain’, the night-of-nomads ‘Dilbar dil se pyaare’, and the conventional 1960s style ‘Kitna pyaara waada’, Pancham [RD] had covered a number of genres.” 

RD’s success didn’t mean his father SD Burman had thrown in the towel. Burman senior had not been keeping very well towards the late 1960s and early 1970s, but he could still conjure magic with his compositions. In the Vijay Anand-directed Tere Mere Sapane, which starred brother Dev Anand, Mumtaz and Hema Malini in a guest appearance, SD, keeping up with his very impressive track record, composed a couple of really mellifluous numbers – ‘Ae maine kasam li’ and ‘Jeevan ki bagiya mehkegi’.

The songs of Tere Mere Sapane were written by the great Hindi poet Gopaldas Neeraj. Neeraj had a short but successful stint in Hindi cinema during the early 1970s and of particular importance is his work with SD. He had also written some of Prem Pujari’s (1970) best songs from the year before, including ‘Rangeela re’ and ‘Phoolon ke rang se’. Then in 1971, he collaborated with Burman senior to work on Sharmeelee and Gambler. For Sharmeelee, Neeraj wrote one hit song after another – ‘Oh meri, oh meri sharmeelee’, ‘Khiltey hain gul yahaan’ and ‘Aaj madhosh hua jaaye re, mera mann, mera mann’. Neeraj’s songs for Gambler proved to be equally well-received as is evidenced by the continued popularity of ‘Mera mann tera’ and ‘Choodi nahin yeh mera dil hai’. But Javed Akhtar made an insightful observation of another Neeraj song, ‘Dil aaj shaayar hai’, from the film. Akhtar said, “Normally a song has a mukhda, then an antara. SD had previously also used the mukhda to follow the antara. But this song had a third new form. This song didn’t have any mukhda or antara, which is normally the case with Hindi film songs. This song is a single, continuous poem, which has been written very beautifully by Neeraj… If you look, you will hardly find the structure of this song in Hindi film songs.”  

You can watch The Golden Years: 1950-1975, A Musical Journey with Javed Akhtar on Zee Classic every Sunday at 8 p.m. 

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