Boss kaun hai, mulum hai kya,
27th June 1939 ko SD aur Mrs SD ko ladka hua
Dubloo ya as we know him
Pancham, that’s right Pancham…
When you are born and bred in Kolkata, Kishore Kumar and RD Burman are in your blood. “Musafir hoon yaaron”, “Dukki pe dukki ho”, “Tere bina zindagi se koi, shikva to nahin”, “Kuch to log kahenge, logon ka kaam hai kehna…” What an unbeatable combination!
Very early in my life, at an age when you are looking for something you can identify with, something you feel is your own, I discovered RD Burman. And he hasn’t left me since. Starting with the Bengali albums that would come out every year during Durga Puja to the Hindi film songs that would play on Doordarshan, I grew into his music. Every song, from Kinara, Khushboo and Aandhi to Satte Pe Satta, Rahi Badal Gaye and all the Rajesh Khanna films, made me happy. Why? I wouldn’t know. There is no reason to fall in love and when you look for reasons, you fall out of love.
I have never been a part of any RD Burman fan club, but I have seen the kind of hero worship he inspired.
I have never taken part in any music competition, but as a student, I attended one RD Burman concert in Birmingham and watched the great man on stage. What a brilliant singer!
I have seen guys like Rahul Bose’s Rishi who are immature and quick to anger, and I have seen sweet, nurturing women like Juhi’s Shanti.
I have seen problems related to money, career and love.
I put all this into one pot, gave it a stir, garnished it with ten songs and out came Jhankaar Beats. The title grew out of the trend back then of adding dhinchak beats to old hits and tech-ing them up. I used ‘jhankaar beats’ to tech up the lives of three young men. The film is my tribute to ‘Boss’.
In Kahaani and Kahaani 2 also I used some of his compositions in the background. I regret I never got an opportunity to work with him, but RD Burman will always be there in all my films.
As told to Roshmila Bhattacharya.
