RMIM Archive Article "162".


From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian

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# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Laxmikant-Pyarelal: How they make my heart sing
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# Posted by: verma@cs.cornell.edu (Arun Verma)
# Source: Hindustan Times' Infotainment (Annual issue '95)
# Author: Chandan Mitra
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How many of you know a person who is an ardent fan of Laxmikant- Pyarelal. Well, here is one. This piece on LP certainly makes an interesting reading, even if you don't agree to most of the con- tent. Blame all typos on my keyboard :) ------------------------------------------------------------------ How they Make my Heart Sing ----Chandan Mitra ============================================= [Appeared on Hindustan Times' Infotainment (Annual issue '95)] In the Calcutta of late 60s, it was unfashionable to be a Hindi Music buff. Only bustee (slum) dwellers, we were authoritatively told, purveyed 'la re lappa' music. The cognosenti from bhadralok backgrounds despaired at the blare of 'ya ya yippi yippi' from loudspeakers at puja pandals. Bengali culture, our elders re- morsefully concluded, was under threat. The new lumpenised gen- eration had no regard for Rabindra sangeet or classical Ragas. Even as the elders sagely disapproved of our tastes, many friends violently objected to us falling prey to degenerate capitalist culture. Naxalites roamed the city's streets, plastering walls with invocations like "China's chairman is our Chairman" and blood curdling warnings of how the throats of class enemies would be systematically slit once the revolutionary masses had been around. In a sense, then, we were the misfit generation. I recall the sheer terror experienced when a group of red-scarved young men stromed light-house cinema as we were watching the first of Dev Anand's many directorial misadventures PREM PUJARI. The screen was aglow with the magnificent swiss Alps and Dev, his head cocked in characteristic style, was singing that Unsurpassably romantic Neeraj-SD Burman composition 'Phoolon ke rang se'. The angry young men smashed everything they could lay thier hands on. They set the screen on fire and turned all of us out of the hall after reprimanding us for daring to watch a film allegedly insulting to that great fountainhead of revolutionary rectitude, China. I was sad at having to meekly obey. My protest was a quiet, private one. Next day, I bicycled to my favorite music shop -Melody house on Rashbehari Avenue - and bought the 45 RPM EP record of PREM PU- JARI. In the age of CDs, one sometime misses the gentle crackling of the shelac based 78s and the handy EPs costing Rs 6.72 and Rs 13.44 respectively. Collecting them became almost a passion. And in one's early teens, discretion wasn't the hallmark of my ap- proach to Hindi music. But amid my self confessed indiscretion, I grew fond of some melodies more than others. And found myself inexorably drawn to- wards the compositions of Laxmikant-Pyarelal. That too wasn't quite fashionable. Bengalis who deigned to spare some thought for Bollywood compositions had a somewhat parochial view of things. For them, Bombay's music began and ended with Sachin Dev, son Rahul, Hemant Mukherjee and Manna dey. I was a fan of them all, but somehow fell in love with the earthy appeal of folksy compositions like 'Ja re Kare Badra balam ke paas'(DHARTI KAHE PUKAR KE), Hum tum yug yug se(MILAN) or manchi chal (AAYA SAWAN JHOOM KE) L-P were quitely gaining ground in any case, steadily displacing the reigning kings Shankar-Jaikishen. Hindi music entered my life at a sad time for SJ. Their music was degenerating and they were not even on talking terms, composing music for pot-boilers like DHARTI, PREETAM and PARDE KE PEECHAY. Rafi, too was in temporary decline, overtaken by suddenly discovered magnetic charm of post-Aradhana Kishore. What I really liked about LP was that no matter how irrelevant a movie, they never let you down on the music. It doesn't really need substantiation, certainly not for LP fans. I cite some com- positions from films that bombed at box office, films that shall be remembered only for thier touching songs : 1) Woh jab yaad aaye PARASMANI 2) Tum gagan ke chandrama SATI SAVITRI 3) Jeevn dor tumhi sang SATI SAVITRI 4) Khoobsoorat Haseena MR X IN BOMBAY 5) Mere mehboob qayamat hogi MR X IN BOMBAY 6) Yeh dard bhara afsana SHREEMAN FUNTOOSH 7) O meri maina PYAR KIYE JA 8) Aayee baharon ki shaam WAPAS 9) Payal ki jhankar raste WAPAS 10) Aaiye bahar ko hum baant le TAQDEER 11) Jaadugar tere Naina MAN MANDIR 12) Mein ek raja hoon UPHAAR 13) Sooni re sajariya UPHAAR 14) Dil ki baaten dil hi jaane ROOP TERA MASTANA 15) Taaron mein sajke apne JAL BIN MACCHALI NRITYA BIN BIJLI 16) Yeh dil tum bin IZZAT 17) Yeh kaisa gham sajna PYASI SHAM 18) Yeh jeevan hai PIYA KA GHAR 19) Teri sason ko jo mehka BADALTEY RISHTEY The list could be endless. LP have been around for 32 years and composed music for some 500 films. Critics say they are an assem- bly line, and thier tunes are ephemeral; you hum them for a few days and forget all about them. I beg to disagree. Their talent, I believe lay in the ability to compose memorable numbers throughout thier career even while composing at this stupendous pace. Its only of late, their compositions have become totally market oriented. Having tasted the blood of chart-busting success with TEZAAB they have begun to compose only for charts. Still thier recent megahits Jhumma chumma de de (HUM) and Choli ke peeche (KHALNAYAK) are indeed magnificent numbers. And they continue to occasionally come up with startling melody like palki pe hoke sawar (KHALNAYAK). I am convinced that there will never be anything like LP. This is not to be dismissive of awesome talent of A.R. Rahman today, or R D Burman and O P Nayyar yesterday. They were trailblazers, poineers, rebels. LP, on the other hand were conformists. Their simple middle class ambition was to over- take SJ. So they even worked as assistants to KA. LP may not be creative geniuses. They couldn't have produced rebellious numbers like Taarif Karoon kya uski (KASMIR KI KALI) or O haseena zulphon wali(TEESRI MANZIL) or Chingari koi bhadke(AMAR PREM) or humma humma (BOMBAY). But the consistency with the bollywood's most durable duo has entertained us, made our lives a little more enjoyable, lightened our blue moods even while capturing such mellow moments, deserves a tribute from us. When the history of popular culture in Modern India is written, LP are bound to find an honourable place in the list of those who shaped our lives through the 70s, 80s and 90s. ------------------------------------------------------------------
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian