Rahul Dev Burman with two of his best collaborators — Asha Bhosle and Gulzar

From Bachna ae haseeno’s trumpet to Dum maaro dum’s transicord, RD Burman is all around us. And there’s as much magic in Pancham’s music as there is in the stories around those songs. There have been books, CDs, documentaries and DVDs on the man and his music. And now there’s a new book by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, which tries to put on paper the Pancham phenomenon, called RD Burman — The Man, The Music. We quizzed Bhattacharjee about the man and the music.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra says about your book that “It is impossible to capture the talent, energy and dedication to craft that was RD Burman but this book comes close”. Why do you think he says that?

RD Burman is someone whom people are discovering even to this date. In my opinion, he was a very futuristic composer. Having listened to him all my life and now written this exhaustive book about him, I might still just know five per cent about him. I may have heard 95 per cent of his music, but I may not have the knowledge or expertise to truly appreciate the music to its fullest.

I listen to the same songs and I discover something new every day. Just recently it struck me that the opening four notes of Aanewaala pal (Golmaal) is similar to Sholay’s harmonica tune. Again, listen to the song in Abdullah called Lalla allah tera nighebaan which is in a completely Arabic setting and then listen to the road song from Samadhi, Jaane jaana jao kal phir aana. It’s the same mukhda but it may not strike you even after you’ve heard it many times. I think that’s what Vidhu Vinod Chopra wants to say... that you keep finding new things about his music!

But wouldn’t you call it recycling of tunes because he has famously used even his father’s compositions for many of his songs?

He doctors the notes every time. It takes a lot of skill to weave in a tune and set it to a particular milieu, for a particular film. This is not recycling, this is sheer intelligence at work. I am from IT and there is something in the world of computers called Object Oriented Programming. Similarly, RD could create discrete tunes from the same notes depending on the requirement of the scenario. There’s a lot of logic involved.

Why did you have to write a new book on him? Isn’t there enough material on the man already?

There has been no book yet which analyses his music, taking each song and understanding the notes. And there are many interesting behind-the-scene incidents and trivia which have not come out before. Also, RD Burman has always been idolised or hated. Like the old guard felt that he raped the sanctity of Indian film music. The ’70s listeners, of course, consider him god. We have tried to be objective and make the book a judicious mix of the two. We are not fanatics eulogising him. If he’s done a lot of below-par work, we have written about that in the book. We have shown him as a human being. Someone who was intelligent and had a very big heart.

Is this analysis for only for the educated music listener?

Everyone will understand it. I will give you an example. After hearing Raina beeti jaaye (Amar Prem), Gulzar had said that the use of shudh notes in the song typifies the purity of the courtesan (Pushpa, played by Sharmila Tagore). Now, if you hear the background score of Gulzar’s own film Aandhi, RD Burman uses all the seven shudh notes. So you make the connect.

A lot of his tunes are ditto those of Western tunes. How do you defend that?

Singer Shivaji Chattopadhyay (who sang Yeh safar in 1942: A Love Story) had told me that one day RD Burman played a huge collection of Western songs and made him listen to them all day. And then he told him that all these songs are ingrained in his mind... he and Usha Uthup used to sing all the songs at one point of time. So it was never a case of hearing a tune from MTV and copying it. His explanation was that the tunes which were deep inside him, in his DNA, came out in his compositions. Of course, he has also copy-pasted lots of songs.

Have you written about his personal life in the book? Also, how it affected his work?

Yes, it’s there. And his personal life did influence his music. In 1969 RD left his house and moved to the Caesar’s Palace Hotel, room no. 304, and went on to stay there for three years. It was during this phase that his best work started.... Kati Patang, Amar Prem, Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Parichay, Jawani Diwani, Mere Jeevan Saathi... all were during this phase. He loved the independence and isolation.

What do you like best about RD Burman’s music?

His sound is a very uncluttered sound. Even if he uses 15 instruments in a song, when you hear the song you can make out each one of those 15 instruments. I haven’t found that in any other music director. And it is that sound that hooked me on to RD Burman’s music.

Underrated RD

Aayi aayi re nanhe munne raja (Doosri Sita) — Pancham proves that lullabies need not be soft or sentimental. This is a chirpy tune whose connecting melody he used later in Parinda to create the song Pyaar ke mod pe.

Peene ke baad aati hai yaad (Bullet) — Classic RD composition but hardly anybody talks about this song.

Suno kahaani (Zehreela Insaan) — A very sad song but isn’t made mushy to narrate the deplorable state of affairs.

Jeena to hai (5 Dushman) — A Kishore Kumar cult song, only loved by his hardcore fans.

Kaahe apno ke kaam nahin aaye tu (Raampur Ka Lakshman) — An RD bhajan! Shows how a bhajan can be modern and yet sound respectful.