Guest article by Moti Lalwani
(Which comes first – the lyrics or the music – has been a recurring debate in any discussion on film music. In the continuing series on celebrating October 2019 as the month of SD Burman, Moti Lalwani writes the third guest article after his last two articles showing how Burman Da had his way on selection of singers and gave Hemant Kumar and Geeta Dutt great name and fame. In this article he says that SD Burman was the pioneer of composing tune first, and the lyricist was asked to write the song fitting the tune.
I had my doubts on this categorical assertion, which I shared with Mr Lalwani. My impression was that composing the tune first had been the general practice from the very early days of film music. This goes back to the silent era when as the movie ran on the screen, live musicians would sit in the ‘pit’ playing various instruments. Some of these tunes acquired popularity, and the audience would shout, मास्टरजी वो बीनवाला ट्यून बजाइए, and so on. This article should trigger an interesting discussion as we have many readers who are deeply knowledgeable.
As the SoY regulars are aware from the last two articles, Mr Lalwani, an octogenarian, is deeply passionate about SD Burman, and is an acknowledged authority on him. During his professional career, he was a Mechanical Engineer with L&T and retired from there from a high position over twenty years ago. I am happy to present the third guest article from Mr Lalwani. – AK).
In the early days, a director would narrate the scene to the songwriter, who would then write lyrics based on the scene. The director and the songwriter then would go to the music director who would compose the tune based on the scene and the meter of the lyrics.
SD Burman realised that this system had a handicap for the music director who could not use his creativity freely. He believed that for the song’s popularity, it was necessary to have a good tune, based on which the songwriter could always fill-in the words to suit the tune.
The songs created with tune-first were more popular, and remained etched in the memory for longer period. The trend caught on with other music directors too, creating tune first followed by lyrics. It became a norm thereafter, for majority of the songs.
Dada’s Bangla Music from 1932
Burman Dada started recording his songs from 1932. His friend and Bengal’s most popular song writer Ajay Bhattacharya wrote for about 30% of Dada’s Bangla songs from 1933 to 1943, when, unfortunately Ajay expired at the young age of 37.
Besides personal loss, Dada felt the need for a writer who could write on his tunes. There were lyricists all over Bengal, queuing to write for Dada. But he was very selective. The poet, apart from the ‘music sense’, must be able to fit his words into his tune.
When the lyricist Mohini Chowdhury went to Dada’s house, Dada showed him a chair and said in Bangla, “Boshen ei khaney. Ei chair khanai Ajoy boito. Shurer opor gaan likhtey parben to?”
(“Sit in this chair. Ajoy used to sit here. Can you write on tunes?”)
“I will try”, said Mohini Chowdhury, who had tremendous respect for Ajay Bhattacharya.
(‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’ by HQ Chowdhury)
Hindi Music from 1946
Music Director Uttam Singh:
“Hamari industry mein ek usool tha, ki director, song writer ke paas jaya karte the. Aur song writer se kehte the ki yeh mera scene hai, yeh meri situation hai, ispe aap gana likhiye. Tab, us gaane ko leke, director aur writer sangeetkar ke paas jaya karte the. Aur phir sangeetkar gaane ki dhun banate the. Yeh silsila bahut saal tak chalta raha. Is silsile ko break kiya Shri SD Burman Saheb ne. Maine unke paas bahut kaam kiya, aur main unko hamesha baba kaha karta tha. Woh Dada ke naam se jaane jate the, lekin main unko baba kaha karta tha, jaise father hote hain. To (pehle) dhun banane ka jo silsila shuru hua hai, yeh Burman saheb se shuru hua hai.”
(Source: Saragama 5 CD Series ‘Legends – S. D. Burman’)
(Loosely translated: In our industry there was a trend that the director will go to the song-writer who will write based on the scene described by the director. Together they will go to the music director with the lyrics who will compose the tune. This went on for a long time. This trend was broken by Shri S.D. Burman. I have worked with him for many years, and I used to call him Baba like father, though he was known as Dada (elder brother). The trend of tune first was started by Burman Sahib.)
Some Protests:
Naturally there were some protests too, by lyric writers who were not used to writing on the tune. Well-known writer Kaifi Azmi, whose first Hindi film ‘Buzdil’ was released in 1951 with music by SD Burman, said in an interview:
Kaifi Azmi, “SD Burman sahib ke saath raat ko jaake mile hum, aur unhonein tune di. Wahaan yeh hota hai, ki gaana tune par likhna padta hai. Pehle music director ek tune banaa leta hai. Bilkul waisa hai jaise kabar khod di, aur yeh ki murda lao, is size ka murda le aao. To kabhi murda ka sar bahar reh jaata hai, kabhi paon bahar reh jaata hai. Magar hamaare us gaane mein yeh tha ki poora fit baith gaya tha. Us se log samajhe ki yeh achche achhe murde gadh lenge is liya is ko is ko rakho.”
(Loosely translated: “I went to SD Burman who made me listen to a tune. I had to write on tune created earlier by him. The same way that a grave is dug-up and one has to get a corpse to fit is. Sometimes the head remains out, and other times the feet! But in my case, the dead body fitted properly. They realised that I can fit well the dead bodies, hence they continued with me.”)
(Source: Kafi Saheb’s interview below)
Support on Tune First
Though Burman Dada was the pioneer, much later some of the stalwarts supported the trend of tune-first.
Begum Akhtar:
The queen of the ghazals and melody subsequently went on record that, “The ‘sur’ (tune) of the singer should make the desired impact. Lyrics come later”.
(Source: ‘A tribute to the queen of Ghazals’ an article by Amarendra Dhaneshwar in Mumbai Mirror dated February 22, 2009.)
Gulzar:
“I believe that in any song that becomes a hit, the primary factors are the rhythm and the tune. The words follow. In fact, the quality of the words depends on how much it matches the melody and the beat. That is why I consider the role of the lyricist as secondary to that of the composer.”
(Source: ‘Bollywood Melodies’ by Ganesh Ananthraman – Page 133)
Conclusion: It has been an accepted fact that SD Burman had the highest number of hit songs as compared to his output of his active period from 1946 to 1975. There were a number of reasons for that, this being one of them.
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
Moti ji,
Kaifi Azmi’s …is size ka ( murda) le aao…
kabhi sar baahar… kabhi paaon baahar…
made me chuckle. Shows the humorous side of the ‘ serious’ poet. What could be macabre sounds funny. Good imagination.
Was KAAGAZ KE PHOOL, 1959, their next work together after BUZDIL, 1951?
Poora fit bite gaye the!
Waqt ne kiya is a legend…tune, orchestration, lyrics, singing, picturisation …
Bichde sabhi baari baari… and
Ud jaa ud jaa pyase bhanwre
are beautiful creations.
Though not a cult song like Sar jo tera chakraye , the Guru Dutt, SDB, Johnny Walker, Rafi song Hum Tum jise kehte hain shaadi is fairly enjoyable.
SDB , Kaifi Azmi combination gave some good songs in APNA HAATH JAGANNATH, 1960, too.
I understand Sahir Ludhianvi always insisted that the music score should be composed for his lyrics and not the other way around. S D Burman apparently accommodated this temperamental genius at least for Naujawan, Baazi, Jaal and Pyaasa.
AK ji
SoY has,in the last couple of years, addressed the farmaish of the followers who asked for something regarding lyrics in the film songs. Thanks for the same.
I propose to write something on lyrics first/composition first issue shortly.
I disagree with the conclusion that SDB had the best ratio pertaining to hits/total output. Firstly the word hits could be replaced by ‘quality of songs ‘. There too, MDs like Naushad, Roshan and Madan Mohan, A’s per my personal view, are ahead of SDB.
Tyagiji,
Thanks for your acknowledgement that SoY has been responsive to the readers’ views. You might have seen I avoid using any absolute terms for discussing different aspects of film music, and I generally look at the broad trend. I agree with your view about the ‘best ratio of hits’. But let us agree that SD Burman was among the great music directors of the golden era. He had a unique style, and he gave some career best songs for all the major playback singers. For the variety of voices he used in the 50s and 60s, he holds a special place.
Sahir Ludhyanvi passed away on 25th October 1980, when he was only 59 years. Today is his 39th death anniversary. My tributes to “a poet-lyricist like no other”. He had long association with S D Burman from 1951 to 1957. 18 films and roughly 140 songs.
However Sahir Ludhyanvi’s first film was Aazadi ki Raah par (1948), music G D Kapoor. Sahir penned four songs for this film, none of them made any impact.
The first song Sahir penned for S D Burman was Thandi Hawaayein Lehra Ke Aaye by Lata Mangeshkar for the film Nau Jawaan (1951).
I would post as a tribute to both Sahir Ludhyanvi and S D Burman.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1TtVax2t-s
Moti Lalwaniji,
I think you are aware of this story and could have mentioned it in your post as an anecdote.
That gives me an opportunity to narrate the story here.
Sahir Ludhyanvi had moved to Bombay in 1949. Earlier Sahir had come from Lahore to Bombay in 1946 to pen four songs for the film Azaadi Ki Raah Par. But nothing came of it. After a protracted period of struggle Sahir finally got the break. The anecdote goes like this.
“Mohan Segal (? Sehgal) told Sahir to meet S D Burman. Acting on Segal’s tip, Sahir went to meet SDB at the Green Hotel in Khar. And as the story goes Sahir walked straight into Burman’s room introduced himself and gave his reason for being there. Sahir’s poetic pedigree proved to be an obstacle for him earlier. SDB was not aware Sahir’s stature in the world of Urdu literature. SDB greeted Sahir and gave him the tune and situation of the song he had composed for his upcoming film and asked Sahir to write the lyrics. Although poetry writing and songwriting for a film are not the same thing, Sahir undaunted by the constraints, asked SDB to play the tune once again. SDB obliged by playing the notes in his Harmonium. An inspired Sahir wrote “Thandi Hawaien, lehra ke aayein, rut hai hai jawaan, tum ho yahaan, kaise bhulayein”. When SDB heard the lyrics he was overjoyed. An impressed SDB took Sahir to Kardar Studios and as the saying goes the rest is history. This song set the SDB-Sahir combine which lasted for seven years.”
Thus Sahir penned his first tune to a preset tune and situation with aplomb.
Sekhar Guptaji @ 2
It is an established fact that S D Burman generally, first composed a tune and then asked the lyricists to fit the words to the tune. Sahir had experienced this aspect of SDB’s working when he wrote his first song for SDB for the film Naujawan. I believe there were exceptions.
Sahir was aghast when SDB turned his Ghazal into a club song for Baazi. Moti Lalwaniji, in his earlier post had referred to this incident. So we can conclude that the song was penned first as a Ghazal and then set to the tune of a club song later. Even in Pyasa, I believe, SDB had to compose the tunes for the songs “Jinhe naaz hai Hind par” and “Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai” around Sahir’s poems.
I gather that Khayyam, Roshan, Ravi, Jaidev and N Dutta that they largely composed tunes to Sahir’s lyrics.
Tyagiji has mentioned hit ratio & quality while Akji has added two more dimensions namely unique style & variety.
I think that one more important dimension of greatness of a composer is longevity of his/ her tunes.
Whether his / her songs look to be as fresh today as they were during the golden era. Therefore whether today’s generation can still relate to these songs or not. I leave it to vastly more learned writers & readers of SOY to explore this aspect
Er.Moti Lalwani ;
Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand, Raj Khosla, Shakti samant, Raj Kapoor …..all of them were great masters of filming songs in their right context ….never missing the details vis a vis lyrics. So were those ones , behind the camera who did their respective rolls in giving their best. Not to miss are those who were perfect in directing the dance numbers. Surya kumar was one of the favorite dance director with Guru Dutt , shakti samant , etc who justified the fast club numbers of various productions ….and some of my favorite songs where he appeared as dancer too are…..neele aasmani bola to yeh , mera naam chun chun choo , dil se mila ke dil pyar , hun abhi mein jawan aye dil , chori chori meri gali aana hai bura, [ and many more of such songs of OPN , SDB etc.].
Yes. Tune first and lyrics fitting the bills has been in vogue as brought in by many followers. But one thing for sure , for background music ,film Directors takes a lead to enhance the visual impact of a scene by a very appropriate background music or a piece of the highlighter of an instrumental music. Many sittings are required with MDs and editors to get the right impact. I remember in Pyaasa a beautiful but short mouth organ number was used in every scene whenever Guru dutt and Mala Sinha have an eye to eye contact. Such scenes adds to pleasure of watching films in totality . Naushad, SJ, Salil Da , SDB ….and many other MDs of Golden era were pioneer in this subject …not to forget sound recording engineers too …..for right audio effects. With Stop watch in hand , Jaikishan used to compose background music watching the rush prints in his recording studios with situation of scene in mind . Even for a good landscape scenes he would fit in best of instrumentals orchestra enhancing the visual treatment. For dance numbers Naushad and SDB were fore runners . Who can forget the Sapera dance number of Guide …..as also sapera dance of Jadoo ….that tune of Naushad was later used in one of the AIR program of the mid 50s .
Very interesting theme Mr Lalwani. I remember reading an article by Gulzar on the first song he wrote for films – “Mora gora ang lai le” for Bandini. He was given the tune – rather the movement: ‘da da daa da daa da dai daa’ and asked to work from there. The rest is history.
The Wikipedia page on Majrooh Sultanpuri narrates this story (although the references given do not corroborate it):
“Kardar then took him [Majrooh] to music composer Naushad who put the young writer to test. He gave Majrooh a tune and asked him to write something in the same metre, and Majrooh wrote Jab Usne Gesu Bikhraye, Badal Aaye Jhoom Ke…. Naushad liked what he wrote and Majrooh was signed on as the lyricist of the film Shah Jehan (1946).”
If true, this would predate SDB’s practice of writing the tune first by several years.
Zafar,
Welcome to SoY and thanks a lot for your comments. I have already expressed my views in the introduction.
Venkataramanji @7,
Many thanks for your clarification and elaboration.
AK ji
Lyrics first or tune first— it is a debate over a less significant matter. In creation of a film song the main thing is teamwork. Recently Shri KS Bhatia wrote about the professionals involved in film song creation. Team creates a song, hence discussion between the team members is essential —who leads the discussion is immaterial for the listeners.
The iconic song ‘Suhani raat dhal chuki ‘(Dulari 1949) utilised very different note movements in its two antaras(1. Nazaare apni mastiyaan & 2. Tadap rahe hain hum yah an). Such a creation requires several rounds of discussion between MD and the lyricist. The debate ‘lyrics first or otherwise ‘ is non-existent.
The foursome of Shankar-Jaikishan &Shailendra-Hasrat used to meet very regularly and discuss the songs of the films in hand. All participated whole-heartfelt it did not matter whether the song in question had been assigned to Shailendra or Hasrat.
SDB(and Salil Chowdhury) worked on tune first method. This was neither a service or a disservice to the world of film music.
Thanks
For whole heartfelt read wholeheartedly.
Thanks
Tyagiji
Interesting thoughts. This puts the creation of a song in perspective. But do you agree that in the final product the ‘tune,’ has primacy.
Mr. Tyagi @14. I don’t have much knowledge of whether tunes were written first or the lyrics but as far as Salil Chowdhury was concerned he wrote the lyrics for most of his Bengali compositions. So one can’t say whether the lyrics came first or the tune as it was the same person who did both. But he did say that for him the tune was sacrosanct and if required he would change words . Many of those tunes were then used later in other languages that he composed for, so lyrics were written for the tunes.
As for “Suhani raat dhal chuki”, I would have characterised the second verse as a sanchari , with a different melody which then switches back to the bridge melody similar to the first antara when Rafi sings ” hawa bhi rukh badal chuki “. Whenever I listen to that song and I absolutely love it I get the feeling there would have been a third verse that switched back to the melody of the first antara. I always feel that would have completed it.
By the way do you notice how subtly Naushad sets us up for the sanchari? In the interlude after the first antara, the muted trumpet solo comes in and plays two phrases, the first phrase follows the main scale and then in the second phrase it shifts the scale, subtly flattening one note and moving into the more sombre sanchari. That is absolutely grand. And I agree that much discussion would have taken place during any such composition.
I also believe that in an HFM song the tune is of prime importance . It is accepted that SDB finalised the tune before the lyrics . It is also understood that an HFM song begins with a prelude and ends with a postlude . So does SDB compose the tune right from the prelude till the postlude ? I presume the pre , inter and postludes etc. was left to the arrangers .
It is not very clear how much of a grip/control SDB had on the arrangers who were usually responsible for the pre, inter and post ludes etc..
Further , in a song who contributes more to the on screen situation, …. is it the singer or is it the pre , inter and postludes , obligato etc. that play a bigger role ?
Let us consider the song ‘chal ri sajni…’ from ‘ Bambai ka babu ‘
https://youtu.be/4COlOullXhE
Of the 6 minutes 49 seconds this song is played on screen, it is seen that pre and postludes take 1 minute each . The chorus humming etc. in the interludes take over a minute and the conversation of Suchitra Sen and Dev Anand take 1 minute and 20 seconds. Mukesh sings in all for a little over 2 minutes.
So in this 5 minutes and 30 seconds song only a little over 2 minutes is given to Mukesh and thus pre, inter and postludes etc. contributes more to the on screen situation. Could this on screen situation have been shown even without the singer ?
In a HFM bidai song a shehnai is a must and in this song over a minute each have been given to the pre and postludes. The humming chorus has added to the effect .
I was always under the impression that the pre and postludes instrument used in this song was the usual shehnai till one day when I tried to know who had played this dominant beautiful pre and postlude instrument that I discovered that this is not the regular Bismillah Khan shehnai although it sounded like one .
It is said here that ‘tune first’ songs are more popular and remembered longer. This is debatable, because most of the time the listener doesn’t know which song is’tune first’ and which is not. Further, an MD like Ravi always set tunes to lyrics and many of his songs are popular even now.
Some of the commenters have expressed that the ‘tune first’ method was adopted by some MD’s earlier.
Mr. Tyagi @14
I more than agree, it is more of a team work rather than competition. It is the final product that matters to all of them.
The tune is of prime importance or lyrics that would vary too, for example in Pyaasa for” Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaye”, and “jinhe naaz hai hind par woh” lyrics are, but for “Hum aapki ki aankhon me” it is tune. When both complement each other then it is सोने पे सुहागा .
True that lyrics may be important for some situations. But the popular tunes the public would carry forever. Always the common man would be singing / humming the better tunes . Also we could just compare the sales of discs for both types . Compare what plays more on the radio or what plays more on social occasions. The popular tunes would also give more mileage to the movie . That is why tune is of prime importance to the MD and all.
I agree that it is the final product that matters. Whether tune first or lyrics first would not be known to the one listening .
Ms. Mumbaikar8, Mr. Joseph , Giri ji @ 19 0nwards;
I entirely agree with all the observations and comments .
Earlier producers lined up to listen up the tunes from MDs that would fit in the narration of the story and demand of the situation . Song writers had to be clear about the story and screenplay. Success of the song got measured with the strong synchronization of meaningful lyrics and melodically measured matching tunes . Mismatched singing or not presented properly on the screen were out rightly rejected by the audience .
Later on , time came when popular MDs reserved best of their tunes for Rich and famous Producers…..and later on, and now too , some MDs lineup or rather beg producers to buy tunes. Some movies have as much MDs as songs in a single movie!! and there is a separate MD to give background score .
Selling tunes has been in vogue in pre 50s period . If one rewind watching old movies one suddenly finds a tune which was used as a full song in a much later of periodic gap movie. This too got vanished with the arrival of MTV like songs ….popularly known as Item Songs. Songs not linked to the story line just jumps in to act as if the director has forgotten the story line …..missed the bus and wants to restart afresh !
SDB had an upper hand in…tune first songs…as he himself had already sung quite a number of songs in his own composed tunes in Bengali. Quite a number of such songs are available on YT . Here is one…..
Hum bekhudi mein tumko pukare…..by SDB and Rafi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqWrsrYqD4E
This article asks us to believe that SDB was pioneer of tune first. AK has in his intro clearly stated that this was in vogue from earlier times. This has been a great quality of AK in allowing material, on which he has opposing views, to be published on this blog. I agree fully with his view that tune first was in vogue from early times. We should not forget that the folk tunes have been used from quite early times to fit them in multiple folk songs. Look at heer. This a tune system which is used for all the lyrics coming under this system. Tune of Ramcharit Manas chopais have been similar. There are other examples too.
I think these would not satisfy Mr Lalwani as also not the anecdote about Naushad which Mr Zafar has given. So here I give a irrefutable evidence, right from the bible of these SDB fans, i.e. HQ Chaudhary’s book. On page 83 of the book, is described an incident as stated by SDB himself that he used to play his tunes on harmonium to Sasadhar Mukherjea and he started to snore. After about two months he selected a tune and asked SDB to start rehearsals on the tune and record the song. Sasadhar Mukherjea must have been following this practice of selecting tune first, earlier than SDB’s coming.
On the previous page it is mentioned that SDB saw that Rattan’s songs were still very popular even after passage of two years. He has also quoted SDB in admitting that he was trying to learn from Naushad’s songs the secret of popularity. Shankar’s admission is also on record that they used to give 5 to 6 tunes to Raj Kapoor of which he would select one. We also know the incident that CR lost his diary, which had a number of tunes, when a pick pocket took it along with money. He was more worried about tunes than money. I think none of these MDs made an issue of tune first. They would use the ready tunes to the lyrics or some times ask for matching lyrics when the lyrics given were inadequate. I think Tyagi bhai has said the best thing when he said tune first “was neither a service or a disservice to the world of film music.” and also that team work was most important and only the final product mattered.
Mr Lalwani has written this.
“The songs created with tune-first were more popular, and remained etched in the memory for longer period. The trend caught on with other music directors too, creating tune first followed by lyrics. It became a norm thereafter, for majority of the songs.”
This means he thinks Naushad and others did not follow the tune first method by then. Even then their songs were more popular than SDB’s songs. Before the advent of youtube and HFGK, we knew about very few SDB songs from the 40s. We would listen the Geeta Dutt – Do Bhai pair and similarly Suraiya’s Afsar pair and then Manna Dey’s ‘upar gagan vishal’ and occasionally Mukesh’s ‘bahe na kabhi nain se neer’. His duet from Shabnam ‘kismat men bichhadna tha’ was also popular. As against it Naushad had a long list of hits as also CR. Even Vinod had more hits from just a few films. Shyam Sunder, Husnlal Bhagatram etc have also many hits to their credit. SJ surpassed the number of hits of SDB in only one film.
So neither it is true that SDB was the pioneer of tune first nor that his tune first method produce more hits and songs which were etched in the memory of people.
Dr Pradeep Kumar Shetty ji @ 1,
This is exactly what Kaifi said in his interview on YouTube, link of which is also mentioned in the end:
5.20 Main film ka gaana likh sakoonga, is mein mujhe taajub hai. Magar itefaaq se woh gaana, SD Burman sahib music director thay, aur situation Shahid bhai ne mujhe bataayi. SD Burman sahib ke saath raat ko jaake mile hum, aur unhonein tune di. Wahaan yeh hota hai, ki gaana tune par likhna padta hai. Pehle music director ek tune banaa leta hai. “Bilkul waisa hai jaise kabar khod di, aur yeh ki murda lao, is size k murda le aao. To kabhi murda ka sar bahar reh jaata hai, kabhi paon bahar reh jaata hai. Magar hamaare us gaane mein yeh tha ki poora fit baith gaya tha. Us se log samajhe ki yeh achche achhe murde gaadh lenge is liya is ko is ko rakho.” 6.27
(Souce: Kafi sahab’s interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo5Dxye1W-A&app=desktop)
Shekhar Gupta @ 2,
Knowing SDB the way I know him now, he was not the one to accommodate Sahir or anyone for that matter in any way. Pyaasa was an exception, where poetry was important to be maintained in its original form. Thanks.
N Venkataraman ji @ 6,
With due respect to you, generally I don’t rely on internet anecdotes.
Honestly, this one is new for me.
Thanks and regards.
N Venkataraman ji @ 7,
“Khayyam, Roshan, Ravi, Jaidev and N Dutta that they largely composed tunes to Sahir’s lyrics.”
After SD introduced tune first, others followed suit.
Thanks.
ksbhatia ji @ 9,
Even in background music, SDB would use in least instruments when he could. In two his films, he used only one instrument to compose background music.
In Kala Pani (1958), he used J.V. Acharya’s single sitaar to compose background music for the last scene when the printing press is the only other sound in the scene. Acharya narrated to us in amazement in his interview, which is on YouTube.
Then in Bandini, Pyarelal narrated to us how Dada used only one instrument in a scene where Nutan is running frantically. This again can be watched on YouTube. In both cases the titles would be:
Acharya on S.D. Burman
Pyaralal on S.D. Burman
Part nombers I don’t remember. You may have to watch all parts to see it.
Then there is a third instance when Raj Khosla wanted ‘dhoom dharaake wala’ background music for a scene in a film he was directing. (Most probably Bombai Ka Babu). Pandit Ram Narayan ji in his interview told us that Dada after viewing the scnene no music is required. Everyone was stunned, but then they agreed, after is was shot. Please watch Pandit Ramnarain on S.D. Burman.
If you can’t find these please let me know.
Subodh Agrawal ji @ 10
Thanks.
Zafar ji @ 11,
No, it does not. For, SD Burman started tune first from his Calcutta days, much before his Bombay days where he came in 1944.
There is a video on YouTube S.D. Burman – Pioneer in tune first.
Thanks.
Er.Moti Lalwani ji;
In old charm cinema halls of 50s it was a great excitement and fun watching movies on canvas screen with many hanging threads from the screen …probably by the mischievous rodent attacks after the night shows. Equally enjoyable were watching movies on partial wooden seats …half of rexin gone and lots of straw threads protruding out from the partial covered seats. The wooden fold back seats…all the time making shrieking sounds….and as soon as song burst on screen the wooden seats adding to the music ….audience quick to line up for washroom visits.
Such memories are still threaded closely and later tied up to the modernization of 60s when cinema halls introduced push back seats. people again resorted to convert front seats as foot rest….and knowingly or otherwise would accidentally push not once but many times. Chaiye, Pepsi ,Coke ,chips were the added lyrics to less heard songs.
But still the real charm of watching musical lived in us and memory seldom failing enjoying each beautiful notes that every MD wanted to attain…… for us to enjoy.
Yes the threaded song some time get noticed too. In mid 50s SDB came up with a beautiful Lata ji’s song from Miss India …..Albela mein ek dil wala….the stanza of which reappeared as mukhda of Sagina movie of the early 70s….Tumhre sang to rain beetaiye kahan bitaoon din. I do some time feel or rather wonder of the reason behind its rebirth . This has been discussed in open house earlier also and I remember Hans, R.Sharma , Mumbaikar 8, Akji[s] ….we all discussed rebirth of such songs . In current scenerio such songs comes up with twists as remix songs which just vanishes to the sky defying law of gravity. But is this the only song or few more from SDB camp.?
….In continuation , here are those two songs…..
Albela Main Ek Dil Wala Bada – Asha Bhosle – MISS INDIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKQ9mRNsRAs&t=150s
Tumre Sang Toh Rain Bitaayi – Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar – Sagina
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2yVu8dMP_A
A coorection #31….Miss India song is by Asha and wrongly mentioned as Lata ji’s song.
ksbhatia ji @ 31, 32
Churning of the old songs, sometimes only a line, has been adopted cleverly by many of the renowned composers. This brings me to what SD Burman said once in a gathering:
In Bombay (Mumbai), in the close circle of Sachin Da someone praised Salil Chowdhury. He said that Salil Chowdhury has composed music following the western tune very tactfully. One of them was, ‘Klanti Namey Go/Ratri Namey Go’ following ‘Happy Birthday to You/Happy Birthday to You’. The other was, ‘Doronto Ghurnir Tai Legechhe Pak/Ei Duniya Ghorey Bon Bon Bon’ following the song of famous western singer Pat Boon. But these were done in such a fashion that they became master pieces.
Sachin Da, who spoke little, did not speak so long. But he stopped the discussion and said, ‘That you have said the tunes were applied in a masterly way which is important. The masterly way creates the difference. Rabindranath Tagore did this, D L Roy and Kazi Nazrul have also done this. I too have done this. ‘Humne toh jab kaliya maangi/Kaanto ka haar Mila’ line of the song of the film ‘Pyaasa’ is taken from our National Anthem, ‘Punjab Sindh Gujarat Maratha/Dravir Utkal Bangal’. Could you recognize it till date until I have spoken? So, these are nothing to be bothered about’ thus expressed his views and the unparallel personality of Indian music and left the place.
(Source: ‘Kauthai Kauthai Raat Hoye Jai’, as translated by HQ Chowdhury – Author of ‘Incomparable Sachin Dev Burman’)
ksbhatiaji,
And this is what the great Hemant Kumar has said about getting inspired from an earlier song:
Hemant Kumar on Sachin-da:
I remember when he was composing for Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa, I got a phone call from him. He said in Bengali, “Are you free tomorrow… I have one song for you” and that song was “Jaane Woh Kaise Log The…” (Pyaasa).
Jha:
A very soulful song, but didn’t you use the same tune for the song of Anupama. You sang for Dharmendra in “Ya Dil Ki Suno…”.
Hemant Kumar:
There are seven ragas and 36 basic raginis and what’s wrong in that? If you see the mood of both, the scenes are quite similar and while composing, Kaifi Azmi the lyricist of Anupama liked the tune. All the songs of Anupama were soulful. It was called “The Sound Of Silence” … only music and song.
(Hemant Kumar in an interview with MRITYUNJOY KUMAR JHA)
https://www.thequint.com/entertainment/flashback/singer-composer-hemant-kumar-interview)
KS Bhatiaji,
I have to again compliment you for your poetic nostalgia trip. Let me add to that common experience. The half wood, half damaged-rexin seats also had खटमल biting you, and very often protruding nails which would pinch your bottom. Therefore, trying to sit safely on those seats was like finding a clear spot under a leaking roof. In small towns, tearing a plush seat was a favourite pastime. Since those days are gone, now people resort to vandalising and filching costly fittings on the inaugural run of prestigious trains. We do know how to have fun. 🙂
AK ji @35;
”…….The half wood, half damaged-rexin seats also had खटमल biting you, and very often protruding nails which would pinch your bottom……”
I had such experience at one of the talkies at mini hill station at Dharamshala. We were on Geological study trip of the hills and mountains of north india and had to break for two days before continuing our trip to jawalamukhi and kashmir. The guy selling hot tea near the ticket booth was all in all. He was selling tickets after we all students had cup of teas . The same guy was there for carrying us to the desired seats and on us desiring to see the movie which was already getting delayed ….made whistles for the start up. ….the same guy shouted on us to keep quite as he was going to start the projector. This one man show was amazing ….never witnessed any where.!!
The seating arrangement was of two kinds …one with rexin wooden combo and in front were five rows of wooden benches. ….costing 63 paise and 35 paise respectively.
I am waiting for such more enjoyable experiences . In Delhi cinemas like Khanna Talkies and Excelsior closely qualifies for such age old feelings.
At Dharmshala Talkies we saw two movies in two days and those were…..Barsaat Ki Raat and Nayi Umar Ki Nayi Fasal . Both belonging to Bhushan family.
KS Bhatiaji,
Then you must also have experienced watching movies in 16mm format, which came in 3 or 4 spools. At the end of a spool the projector would make ‘gr…’ sound as if gasping for breath. This would also show up on the screen, as it lost breath the film would be in slow motion, and gradually die announcing the end of ‘Part 1’. You know it was a time for tea break because the mechanic would take at least five minutes to fiddle with the projector and fix in the Part 2 of the spool. No one can narrate such nostalgia better than you.
AK ji;
Being techno minded kid , I used to watch closely working of projectors.
Our next door building in 1950 onwards was YMCA where every Wednesday cultural activities were held ranging from …..live musical orchestra ….to ballroom dances…to screening of art and documentary films . Those were in 16mm format and made sound as you have quoted.
In cinema halls where many projectors are lined up for continuation narration ….the scratches and cross symbols were the indicators for guy operator to switch on to the next projector. And additional noise in a faster mode used to come as the previous reel had to be rewound again for the next show.
While I was in Aasam I used to watch shooting of North East movies which were made using 16mm cameras. Those films were sent to calcutta for processing to 35mm format …… that was during 1979.
I am luckey to have seen in most kind of formats….from 4:3 ratios to…wide screen…to Vista Vision….to broad setup movies…etc. As a recall ….Sholay and Around the world ….were shot originally in 35mm format….but later converted to 70mm stereo format. Kagaz ke Phool , however , was shot entirely in wide angle cinema scope format.
AK ji @35;
Here is SDB’s funny song …a version of his own best…refering to KHATMAL…..
धीरे से जाना खटियन में ओ खटमल – छुपा रुस्तम
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GVrsggk4nc
Er. Moti Lalwani ji @33 onwards;
Very true . On closer listening many factors do emerge either in wordings or in composition. Only fine tuning is necessary to indulge in its rare recall occurrence. Some time Folk tune and wording overtakes you to believe so and some time regional factor plays its part.
SDB’s….Dheere se jaana bagiyan mein ….is such a beautiful song….and this song has the flavour of typical of east india echos……that takes me to not so popular but beautiful song sung by Suman kalyanpur from Sakhi Robbin …Dekho re aaya mausam suhaana. The antra of this song fadely resemble the SD B song. But again the MD of Sakhi robin is again from West Bengal….may be this is the common factor where two songs comes close to each other but never copied.
DHIRE SE JANA BAGIAN MEIN Sachin Dev Burman Music Sachin Dev Burman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7qdGNsw_LI
Dekho Re Aaya Mausam Suhana…..sakhi Robin….MD..Robin Baneerjee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbCKHL8WtLw
All said and done that the life of a song is more when it is penned on a tune. It appears to me that Sachin Dada took the path of tune first probably due to his limitation with the Urdu poetry. This may be reason that he made the tune first of that he was the master but getting the hang of good language may have been the challenge. It made his life easier and the lyrics writer had to fit words to his tunes.
It is just a thought.
Sanjeev Raja,
On this I have a different view from the Author which I have also mentioned in my introduction. My understanding is that composing the tune first has been the general practice since the very early days. If that be so, it had nothing to do with his lack of familiarity with the language.