The 1970-80s was also known as Bollywood’s ‘golden era’ because of the richness of quality and class of the films produced, actors and music composers of those times and early 70s was when we were mature enough to appreciate artistic content and creativity.
In 1972, the film ‘Parichay’ was made by Gulzar as an Indianised adaptation of the old classic ‘Sound of Music’ with the main lead of ‘Maria’ (played by Julie Andrews) reprised by Jeetendra, in one his best ever performances. Naturally, music played a vital part in the film’s storyline and writer Gulzar combined his artistry with the musical genius of RD Burman, his old friend. It met with resounding success and songs became super hits.
Among the many beautiful numbers was one iconic song ‘Musafir Hoon Yaaron..’ The situation was to depict travel with no destination, picturised on the ‘out of work’ hero who was without roots. But there is a fascinating story behind the making of the song. This is based on the accounts given by singer, Amit Kumar in one of his talk shows !
It’s said that Gulzar, also producer of the film, was getting very impatient as RD wasn’t coming up with the right composition.The former managed to catch RD one evening and prevailed upon him to anyhow finalise the tune then and there. The song was eventually conceived while RD and Gulzar were actually traveling to Bombay. During the course of the journey, this piece of melody evolved through their animated discussions, but it took the entire night for the song to get its full form ! The singer was naturally Kishore Da !
In his chats Amit Kumar also explained how RD had created special musical sounds to give the effect of a horse’s hoof beats since the hero sings while travelling on a ‘tonga’ ! What we get to hear is a perfect pitch for a philosophical journey in to the unknown… That’s how those legendary writers and composers gave us such memorable creations !
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