Experiments
Rahul Dev Burman is synonymous with quality music. He always experimented massively to add to the beauty of his music. His songs were not only instrumental classics but he also tried many forms of Onomatopoeia such as “ta ra ra ra pa ra ra ra”, “aha”, “zub zub” and other sounds. To ensample some of these songs are “Dum maro dum”(Hare Rama Hare Krishna), “Jeena kya aji pyaar bina” (Dhan daulat), “Aao jhoome gaaye”(Paraya dhan), “Duniya mein logon ko” (Apna desh), “Reshmi zulfen nashili aankhen”(Indrajeet) or the famous “Yeh jawaani hai deewani” (Jawaaani deewani).
R.D always believed fine feathers make fine birds and may be this was the reason he could recognize the singing talents of Danny Denzongpa and also ace cinematographer Manmohan Singh.
If we take a close look at his works we find out something new been experimented in his songs overtime. Right from the beginning he was so aesthetic. Remember the beautiful “Pyaar karta jaa” picturised on Mehmood, sung by Manna De in ‘Bhoot bangla‘? This song was recorded in 1965 and Pancham made use of almost five singers placing them at distant locations from each other to get the exact echo effect produced in valleys. Multimedia technology was an unknown phenomenon when R.D tried out these experiments which would slap right on the face of today’s techno savvy musicians.
Then the most talked about songs of his like “Koi aaya aane bhi de” (Kaala sona), “Katra Katra milti hain” (ijazat), both by Asha Tai has the double track recording USP. He observed every sound of nature and tried to implement it wherever possible. Once he heard the sound of china saucer breaking and he used the sound so beautifully in Asha Bhosale’s “teri meri yaari badi purani” in ‘Charitraheen‘. No one can imagine this song without the saucer sound in background as one sings and also tries to give the beat of the sound orally.
Then he used an instrument called the bubble generator, which was perhaps his own discovery. Bhangra pop took the world by storm as Baba Sehgal popularized it but before Baba, Panchamda had already tried his hands on Bhangra and Disco fusion in ‘Indrajeet‘, with a heavy beat this song was “main na jhooth boloo” sung by Amit Kumar and Asha Bhosale.
‘Hulchul’ was a film where any other musician would had placed a lot of songs but R.D only scored for it’s background and the film did well despite having no song at all, but the audiences hummed the music too. Isn’t this magic?
Almost every possible good thing is been written and talked about this incredible Phenomenon called Rahul Dev Burman. And these are not the only experiments he tried, every thing he did was a class apart and can only be cherished, adored and appreciated.
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