Category Archives: Masters of the trade

Legends in their own rights … we can only try and learn from them.

Rahul Dev Burman and his unique composition techniques!

Rahul Dev Burman and his unique composition techniques!

written by Souranath Banerjee.

The King of the 70s, the super-talented composer, a passionate singer, an actor, son of renowned singer/composer Sachin Dev Burman – the legend – Mr. R.D.Burman (Rahul Dev Burman) popularly known as Pancham Da is the man who revolutionized Bollywood Music Industry!

rahul-dev-burmanHe composed musical scores for 331 films (including Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Oriya and Marathi ) and four non-film albums; he was nominated 16 times for Filmfare awards and won thrice.

Not only did Rahul Dev Burman created new-age songs that has influences from Western, Latin, Oriental, and Arabic music,  his unique techniques  of composing music is legendary till date!

Here are some of his innovative and most unique music recording ideas that will remain with us forever:

1. In the song Chura Liya hai tumne from the film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) Rahul Dev Burman used the sound of a spoon hitting a glass as a prelude!

2. In O Manjhi Re from the film Khushboo (1975), Rahul Dev Burman used bottles filled with water at different levels and by blowing into them created a hollow sound that was used as the background music throughout the song!

3. Rahul Dev Burman blew into beer bottles to produce the opening beats of melodious Mehbooba Mehbooba song in the blockbuster film Sholay (1975)!

4. In Master Ji Ki Aa Gayee Chitthhi from film Kitaab (1977) Rahul Dev Burman brought some desks from a classroom in the recording studio and banged them to compose the rhythm of the song!

5. In Rajesh Khanna, Zeenat Aman starer film Ajanabee (1974) Rahul Dev Burman improvised all the train sounds and interludes himself in the famous song Hum Dono Do Premi.

6. The mouth-organ played by Dev Anand in the famous song Hai Apna Dil To Awara from the film Solva Saal (1958) sung by Hemanta Mukherjee is actually played by Rahul Dev Burman himself.

7. Once Rahul Dev Burman made the singer Annette Pinto gargle to produce a unique type of background music while other times he created music by rubbing sand paper or hitting bamboo sticks together. 

Perhaps words like ‘legend’ and ‘genius’ were invented only to describe such personalities like Rahul Dev Burman.

And finally one of my all time favorite composition from the film Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973) – the famous singing competition sequence with super-hit musical-numbers one after another!

The genius of Ritwik Ghatak

The genius of Ritwik Ghatak

written by Souranath Banerjee.

Renowned Indian Film Director Ritwik Ghatak made his first film Nagarik in 1952 (even before Satyajit Ray filmed Pather Panchali) but unfortunately the film was released twenty four years later, after the death of the director himself.

Probably Nagarik was the first art film of such caliber in the history of Indian Cinema but certainly never got the recognition it deserved.

Did Ritwik Ghatak himself got the recognition he deserved?

Well, I guess so.

Ritwik Ghatak was awarded Padma Sri for Arts in 1970 by the government of India.

His name is always taken in the same breath along with Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen considering them as the Best Indian/Bengali directors of all times.

Bagged the National Award for the story of his film Jukti Tokko Aar Goppo (Reason, Debate and a Story).

The popular film Madhumati (staring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala, directed by Bimal Roy) got nominated in the Film Fare Award for the Best Story category and guess who wrote the story – Ritwik Ghatak.

Some of his films especially Meghe Dhaka Tara, Komal Gandhar, Subarnarekha, Ajantrik, Jukti Tokko Aar Goppo and Bari Theke Paliye are immensely appreciated and analysed by all the students in all the major film schools (especially in India).

Isn’t that enough recognition?

May be. May be not.

But one thing i can say with certainty – in this world some people doesn’t give a damn about other’s recognition and Ritwik Ghatak was one such genius.

His unique faming and composition techniques, his innovative sound designing, his realistic take on the society challenged the regular norms of film-making in that era.

In both conceptual and practical levels Ritwik Ghatak dared to be artistically different and he redefined Cinema in his own way.

Probably Ritwit Ghatak’s biggest recognition would be the influence he had (i am sure he still has) on the future generations of film makers including the likes of Kumar Shahani, Mani Kual, Mira Nair, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Ketan Mehta, John Abraham among many others.

The genius of Ritwik Ghatak, his dedication towards cinema and his vision can be best expressed in his own words –

Film-making is not an esoteric thing to me. I consider film-making – to start with – a personal thing. If a person does not have a vision of his own, he cannot create.

I believe in committed cinema.
I mean, commitment in the broadest sense of the term.