By Anirudh Bhattacharjee & Balaji Vittal
At the outset, I confess it’s a pretty tough read unless one is passionate about Indian film music of an earlier period. For me, it was the most enriching experience savoring all the 309 fascinating pages of the truly masterly research into the oeuvre, process, psyche & innate talents of an extraordinary musical genius.
It critically explores, in depth, the ‘golden era’ of incredible songs and musical scores (in Hindi film industry) from the 1940s to the 1970s. This through the account of the life, moods and times of a singer, ‘auteur’ composer of Hindi and Bengali film songs in a classical & folk music form – ‘SD Burman’, lovingly called ‘Dada’, ‘Sachin Karta’ or ‘SD’. It deftly also lets us into the amazing backroom stories & secrets behind creation of unforgettable musical gems. The book has a lovely foreword by the great flutist, Pt Hari Pd. Chaurasia who along with renowned santoor exponent, Shiv Kumar Sharma played and assisted Dada in his many compositions and musical arrangements !
The book in great detail traces the antecedents of a real Prince from State of Tripura (in days of undivided Bengal) who moved from his native place to Kolkata, later to Mumbai, (then Bombay) and had the distinction of initially (starting in late 1920s-40s) making a stellar name in Bengali music world with his unique style of singing that had earthiness of folk & knowledge of Indian classical. It meant being influenced by Rabindra Sangeet.
Essentially the book devotes itself to huge body of work beginning 1944 that Dada built over 2-3 decades. Such was the heights he reached in his career that composers like Salil Chowdhary,Hemant Mukherjee, Madan Mohan, Roshan, Kalyanji and others, worked as his assistants or sought his guidance. His lifelong collaborations with Bombay Talkies & gifted makers like Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt & Dev Anand’s ‘Navketan’ brought about his all time great tunes in ‘Pyaasa’ (1957) and ‘Guide’ (1965) though aficionados rate Roy’s films ‘Sujata’ (1959) & ‘Bandini’ (1963) as classics too. Almost each of his tunes were work of art. His brilliance kept shining in ‘Abhimaan’ (1973) & ‘Aradhana’ (1969) which became the comeback vehicle for his protégé, maverick genius Kishore Kumar, as voice of superstar Rajesh Khanna from which never looked back and sang Dada’s last in ‘Mili’.
As an ardent music lover, this book made me fathom to some extent the depths of the ocean that is Hindustani Classical Music with profundity of ‘ragas’ and how other forms, folk & ‘bhatiyali’ of Bengal impacted the creativity of Dada Burman, as did the effect of Tagore and his songs. He’d mesmerizingly make the films he composed for come alive through beautiful idyllic tunes picturised with beauty & consummate artistry, choosing most amazing writers like Sahir, Shailendra, Majrooh and Neeraj to write verses and voices of the greatest singers of that era to render them as classics of all time.
Here was a Prince, a simple, eccentric man in love with simple pleasures like good food, fishing and ‘East Bengal’ soccer team. who for 25 years created magic and left a huge legacy that’s timeless notwithstanding that his son ‘RD’ also became a legend of ‘fusion’ in his own right. I would add that Burman Dada was ‘Tendulkar’ of film music for his sheer consistency & class, though he had preceded the ‘God of Cricket’ by decades. It’s uncanny- ‘Sachin’ ultimate batter, got his name as his Dad was inspired by Burman Dada !
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