Over 3,000 members and guests gathered on the Calcutta Club lawns on November 16 to relive the magic of RD Burman. The evening — Pancham Forever — brought together singers and artistes Amit Kumar, Sachin

Pilgaonkar and Shailaja Subramaniam, all of whom had been closely associated with the symphony maestro. There was also a live orchestra to keep the Pancham fever at its peak for over four hours.

Amit Kumar (son of Kishore Kumar) got the crowd cheering and requesting for songs. He sang solos like Zindagi ke safar mein from Aap Ki Kasam and paired with Sachin for Bade achhe lagte hain from Balika Badhu and Pyar humein kis mod from Satte Pe Satta.

“The Burmans have been like family. I’d spend most of my time and days at their house. After my father, I haven’t learnt so much from any one person as I have from RD Burman. He guided me. Always. My only Filmfare Award was for my song Yaad aa rahi hai from the film Love Story and it was because of RD Burman. And it’s funny to recall that he hated the song. When I was recording the song at Film Centre he called me into an empty room and asked me— ‘Yeh gaana tereko achha lag raha hai? Ye ek love song nahin lag raha hai, mandir ka bhajan lag raha hai. I don’t like it. Main kya karoon... I’m very contradicted.’ The song went on to become a hit,” recalled Amit.

Fave Pancham song: “There are just too many.”

Sachin Pilgaonkar wowed the crowd with his rendition of Kehna hai from Padosan, and then Jete jete pathe holo (Bengali version of Tere bina zindagi se koi from Aandhi) — a first in Bengali singing for the actor-director-singer.

“As far as Panchamda’s memories are concerned, there are plenty. I first met him when I was 14-15 years old and having heard him much earlier than that, I was already his admirer. I think Panchamda is immortal. Panchamda, Kishoreda, Lataji and the likes have made music itself greater than what it was. And that’s the reason we still listen to them. His first song with Lataji was Ghar aaja ghir aaye badra from Chhote Nawab and she was spellbound to come across such a young guy composing music in such a manner,” said Sachin, who was in Calcutta after nearly 28 years.

Fave Pancham song: “This is a very difficult question! To find one drop and call it your favourite from an ocean is extremely difficult.”

The evening began with Shailaja Subramaniam taking centre stage with numbers like Mera naam hai Shabnam from Kati Patang and Aisa sama na hota from Zameen Aasmaan. “From the time I started listening to music I have worshipped Panchamda. His music is vast. When you think you’ve heard all his songs, suddenly you hear something new and you go, ‘Oh my god, yeh Panchamda ka gaana hai?’ I missed my chance to sing with the legend in 1993 in Indore and soon after, in the January of 1994, he passed away.”

Favourite Pancham song: “The two that I absolutely love are Mera kuch samaan from Ijaazat and Sili hawa chhoo gayi from Libaas.”

CLUB SPEAK:

The president of Calcutta Club, Kunal Roy Chowdhury, described his experience of ‘Pancham Forever’ as “fantastic” and “very nostalgic”. “It was great to see Amit Kumar after so many years. As youngsters, we used to go to Durgabari during Durga Puja to hear him,” added Chowdhury.

Amongst the younger members in the crowd, 13-year-old Amartya Banerjee and younger brother Agniva (10) were seen enjoying the musical performances.

Text: Gopa Pincha
Picture: Sayantan Ghosh