Rabindra Sangeet is immortal
Composers come and go but music never dies, writes RUBY LILAOWALA.
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore was born about 150 years ago. He was a multi-faceted personality who loved art in any and every form. He is famous for his literature, poetry and arts but it is his music, which is popularly called Rabindra Sangeet after him, has immortalised him more than any of the art forms he delineated.
Right from the days of ' New Theatre ' to the mesmerizing music of ‘1942 – A Love Story’, Hindi film songs have been inspired and greatly influenced by Tagore's music.
Though we all know that Tagore was never the actual composer of such songs, we find strains and ragas from his creations that has inspired many of Hindi film songs, particularly when the composers are from Bengal. In fact, a paper on the subject was presented to the Common Wealth Institute in London in 1975 by one Mr. and Mrs Seth, who were at one time students of the legendary singer, Pankaj Mullick.
In fact the number of Hindi film songs influenced by Rabindra Sangeet are so many, that it would be like rewinding the memories of music lovers to the best of the best down memory lane. Do you remember the catchy song "Bachpan ke din bhula na dena" from the film "Deedar"?
Well, the great composer Naushad Ali has based this on a tune from Gurudev's sangeet and he was honest enough to acknowledge that.
What a dejected Dev Anand sang in "Taxi Driver" in the form of 'Jaye to Jaye Kahan' was a Sachin Dev Burman adaptation of a Tagore tune. Hailing from Bengal, Sachinda was greatly influenced by this school of music and borrowed heavily from it.
'Nain Diwane' from the film "Afsar" is a classic example. Geeta Dutt's 'Mera sunder sapna beet gaya' was Sachinda's tribute to the famous Bengalee song, 'Ekodasa Tuni Priye'. Dada's composition from "Abhimaan" viz. 'Tere mere milan ki yen raina' is the best tribute to Gurdev. In Sohrab Modi's "Waris", there was a song based on this music form which was popular in its time and the mukhda was ‘Rahi Matwale’.
Hemant Kumar's 'Maan mera udta jaye' sung by Lataji in 'Maa Bete' is based on a Rabindra song called 'Shonder Shonder'.
Sachinda's 'Megha Chaaye Aadhi Raat' from film 'Sharmilee' is inspired by ' Shun-daro.' Even Bappi Lahiri, who is known for giving western tunes has depended on Rabindra-geet, the song being 'Nanhasa Panchi' from 'Toote Khilone'. Sachinda's son and my favourite composer, Rahul Dev Burman, has relied on this music form in film after film like his father. I am sure there is very little generation gap between father and son as far as music is concerned.
Rahul's 'Chotisi Ek Kali Kili Thi' from "Jurmana" is based on Tagore's famous song called 'Phool Ganthyo' whereas 'Aap ke kamre me koi rehta hai' – yes, even the pop tune from 'Yaadon ki Barat' has the mukhda right out of "Bongla Shongeet". Of course R.D. went haywire with the 'antra' and based it on Western pop inspired by the Beatles. R.D. couldn't help it. He came on the music scene in the sixties when the 'Beatle mania' was at its peak in the UK.
Pankaj Mullick, Sachinda, Rahulda, Hemant Kumar and Bappi Lahiri, being Bengalees, had great affinity with the music belonging to their part of the motherland. Probably, they grew up listening to Rabindra Sangeet and it must have subconsciously affected their compositions at some time or another. But it was surprising that even Naushad was not free from its influence. Even Rakesh Roshan could not escape its influence as heard in his "Yarana" songs.
Look at the irony of the situation. When R D Burman was nominated for the best song – ‘1942 — A Love Story’ which was his swang-song and the best he had created, he was not there to receive it and got it posthumously. All this just shows that music, being the food of love and solace of the soul, is immortal. Composers come and go but music never dies.