Pancham of the Sixties

Last week, on a number of FM radio channels and Facebook Music clubs, the birth anniversary of R.D.Burman ( fondly known as Pancham) was celebrated by playing his songs in an unending stream.While it was a pleasure listening to Pancham's 70s and 80s song, notable omissions were the songs he composed in 60s, in the early stages of his career.That was the time he was creative and experimental, despite not being famous !

The 60s was the period of stalwarts like Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, S.D.Burman, Madan Mohan, Hemant Kumar, O.P.Nayyar and Ravi. To top it, Pancham was in  shadow of his illustrious father.That he carved out a niche for himself  against such odds, is indeed ,commendable.

Today we shall see the side of Pancham which made him what he was: an experimental, maverick composer !

The 11 films which he gave music in the 60s employed almost all the established singers and ALL of them will be featured today, given the selection of the songs.

So, we start from the beginning : his debut film Chhote Nawab. Mehmood had gone to S.D.Burman but as he was not keeping well, he suggested that Pancham could be contacted. So, Pancham was in. 

Before Chhote Nawab, however, Pancham ( then only 19)  was signed by Guru Dutt for his film Raaz and publicity material  at the time of release of Kagaz ke phool mentioned Raaz and Chaudahvin Ka chand as forthcoming attractions. Since Kaagaz ke phool flopped, Guru Dutt dropped the idea of making Raaz and Pancham lost a great opportunity.

Pancham wanted Lata Mangeshkar to sing a beautiful composition, which was meant for Raaz and is believed to be his first composition ( Although, there is a story about Ae meri topi palat ke aa, composed by pancham at the age of 9, but usurped by his father for Funtoosh !).

  Lata was not in good terms with S.D.Burman in those days. When Pancham approached her, she agreed as she realised this was his debut film. The ice was broken with Dada Burman, too.

The most popular song of the film was , however, "Matwali aankhon waale", a Lata Rafi duet ( at No.6 in that year's Binaca Geet Mala: no mean achievement for  the new composer). 

This solo by Lata is more melodious.

                                       


Bhoot Bangla 1965 was Pancham’s second release. A Mehmood film of the comedy-horror genre, the project had many beautiful compositions. One of the popular songs was Kishore Kumar's "Jaago sone walon " : a great song, which indicated that Kishore had a great tuning with the new composer. Manna Dey , however, got the most popular song of the album  "Aao twist karein" , which was No.3 in that year's Binaca Geet Mala.The song which is the best composition of the album was   this exquisite Lata solo,  which remains so fresh till today.

Interestingly, the film also had Ameen Sayani and Pancham on the screen.

The third film of Pancham, coincidentally titled Teesra Kaun  was also released in 1965 and this film had the first of the only 19 songs that Mukesh sang for Pancham. The song was popular and featured dashing Feroz Khan, probably the first of many times that he has been picturised singing a song  on a jeep !

Teesra Kaun also had a North Indian folk song sung by Suman Kalyanpur, with whom this was the only collaboration of Pancham. The singers who had a one-film association with Pancham also include Shamshad Begum ( Raaton Ka Raja), Hemant Kumar ( Heeralal Pannalal) and  Rajkumai ( Kitaab).

                                            

The turning point in Pancham 's career was Teesri Manzil (1966).

Interestingly, neither Shammi Kapoor nor RD Burman were meant to be part of that superhit film. Teesri Manzil was supposed to be a Dev Anand – SD Burman film. But SD Burman was ill and he wanted to give his son a break. Dev Anand dropped out because he making Guide. In walked Shammi Kapoor. But the film almost didn't happen for Pancham. 

Shammi Kapoor's  favourite composers were Shankar Jaikishan and O.P.Nayyar. So, Nasir Husain arranged an audition  with Shammi Kapoor.

At first, Pancham just sung the first two lines of a Nepali tune, which was later remade as ‘Deewana mujhsa nahin’, when Shammi interrupted him, completed the rest of the lines ‘Deotara mattali oina’, and said nonchalantly "Give me another one".

After a couple of perfunctory puffs on a cigarette, a nervous  Pancham   played the tunes he had reserved for the occasion: ‘O mere sona’, ‘Aa ja aa ja’, and ‘O haseena zulfon wali’.

Shammi Kapoor stopped him abruptly and said, "I don’t want to hear any more songs".
On his way out, he added, "You are my music director".

Pancham had truly "arrived" !

The “Chhote Nawab” team came together in 1966 in the film Pati Patni, whose saving grace was the music by Pancham. This was the film in which Pancham tried out his "bossa nova" arrangement for the first time in an Asha Bhonsle solo "Maar daalega dard-e-jigar". Bossa Nova is a  style of Brazilian music derived from samba but placing more emphasis on melody and less on percussion. More on this later.

However, for this anthology, we listen to a Lata melody, which  is outstandingly fresh, even after so many years. 

Chandan Ka Palna was a 1967 Meena Kumari film and while the reel and real life was converging ( remember the song 'sharabi sharabi mera naam ho gaya'), this Asha Bhonsle-Mohammad Rafi duet was a refreshing one with modern arrangement, not in vogue at that time. The Dharmendra-Meena Kumari team was in many films in the 60s.

   Baharon ke Sapne 1967 strengthened  the association of Pancham and Nasir

Husain. The film was, however off-beat and the music was a high point

having many genres in the album. The songs we still hum are "chunri sambhal gori", "aaja piya tohe pyar doon", "zamane ne maare jawan kaise kaise"and  "Kya jaanoon sanam" 

A young Rajesh Khanna was paired  with Asha Parekh, making this one of the few films he got after he had won an all-India contest to act in films.

The song included, however,  is a rarely heard/ watched song, sung by Asha Bhonsle and Usha Mangeshkar, employing the bossa nova technique which Pancham had introduced in the film Pati Patni.

With Padosan ( 1968) , Pancham showed that he was the master of all kinds of songs:

 soft romantic ( kehna hai), peppy ( bhai battur and main chali main chali),

sad ( slow version of mere saamne wali khidki mein –have you heard

it?), conventional ( sharm aati hai magar) , classical ( aao aao

sanwariya) and comic ( meri pyari bindu and the one presented in

voices of Kishore Kumar, Mehmood and Manna dey.–ek chatur naar,arguably the piece de resistance !)

Abhilasha (1968) was a low profile album, but it had beautiful songs like
"waadiyaan tera daaman", "pyar hua hai jabse", "ek janib shamme mehfil",
and the song which was Pancham’s first one with Bhupinder.
This is that comic song, based on a Goan folk tune,sung by Manna Dey and Bhupinder.

In 1969, Pancham had two releases, one of which was Pyar ka Mausam. This was another Nasir Husain musical with an all-hit score ( "ni sultana re", "che khush nazaare", "main naa miloongi", "na ja o mere humdum") and in which, Pancham re-worked the Bangla song sung by Kishore Kumar on occasion of 1967 Durga Puja in Kolkata. It was a settled convention that music directors from Bengal made out new tunes for Durga Puja and later on adapted them for Hindi films.

Thus, Ek din pakhi ure…became Tum bin jaaoon kahaan…, which was also sung by Rafi in the film. 

The last of the 11 films of Pancham in the 60s was Waris. The score got a luke-warm response, but for this  Lata-Rafi duet.

Lata, Rafi, Asha and Kishore became the most favourite singers for Pancham in his career, as can be seen from his early years, too.

The end of 60s saw Pancham as a serious contender for the type of music that was less conventional, more experimental and a judicious mix of semi-classical and western arrangements.

A promise, he fulfilled more than the expectations in the first three years of the 70s, supported with the emergence of Kishore Kumar on Rajesh Khanna.
The rest is history, as they say !