RD Burman: Talented since birth

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Pakhi Hussain

27 June, 2011

The famous Rahul Dev Burman, who inspires people even now, is one of those musicians who was way ahead of his times. He used to explore the unknown path to bring something nice and memorable to his music.

SER JO tera chakraye ya dil duba jaye...the all-time favourite massage song, which is known to every Indian was composed by a child. Even the harmonica (the most memorable part of the song) played in the song ‘hai apna dil to awara’ was by the same child. Although, music was in his blood as he was the son of Sachin Dev Burman (a great composer of his time), yet he was gifted on his own as was seen from his childhood. As per some some anecdotes he even cried in a musical way or the pitch of his wails used to hit the fifth note of Sa Re Ga ma and hence the pet name Pancham (as it means five in Bengali). Thus, Rahul Dev Burman made his presence felt from a very tender age.

We might forget his birthday but everyone admits that the golden Era of Indian Music would have not have been possible if not for our very own panchamda. He started out as an assistant to his very talented father and also apprenticed under his expert eye. When he was learning tricks of the trade he assisted his father in two films namely Chalti Ka naam gaadi and Kagaaz Ke phool. His first break as a composer under his father’s watchful eyes was the song Jaane Kya Tune Kahi, which was sung by the melodious Gita Dutt.

RD Burman, an inspiration for many bought in a new genre of music in the Indian cinema. Although he did slow romantic songs like O mere dil ke chain, tum bin jaun kahan and Rhimjhim gere sawan - yet he specialized in the hip hop and the racy numbers. All of us remember the song Mehbooba, which was sung by the composer himself. Apart from that Dum maro Dum is an all time favourites, and so is nahin nahin abhi nahin.

He was a very creative man and would love to experiment with music in his songs. The most memorable of such experiments was the glass and the spoon sound, which became so famous with chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko. He used to make such fine addition to his songs that would make a song from good to special for we adore the song chura liya hai for that tinkling glass sound.

After he divorced his first wife he married Asha Bhosle, and both of them made a wonderful pair, and became famous for their songs. She lent the proper voice to Rahul Dev Burman’s songs soulful compositions. Witnessing immense fame as a composer in the later part of his life he suffered from financial problems. He also composed a lot of songs during the later part of his life but many of these remaines unsung as he died of a heart attack at the age of 55. He got his third and last Filmfare award after he died for his film 1947 A love story.

He was inspired by the musical styles of ABBA, the popular Swedish Band. Apart from film songs he also did songs in Bengali, Marathi and non-filmy songs. Even till date some musician or the other is inspired by the great musician.