A Hurricane in making....

50's and 60's was the period of melody in Indian Music as the revolution of Pancham was yet to happen. Pancham the able son of much able father revolutionize the Indian music such that he became synonymous to Indian Music. The extent of the experiments he has done with sound is just unparallel. He never hesitated in acknowledging the global inspirations he had for his music.

Chronologically I was writing about 50s-60's and I believe, I could still write few more pieces there but I have been getting various requests on putting Pancham's score here, and Pancham being my favorite music director of all time. I thought of taking a break from 50's and 60's and put something on Pancham. The only problem is I can go on and on when it comes down to Pancham, People around me know exactly what I mean to say here.

Pancham has been an integral part of my life, there is not a single day in my life where I have not been in touch with Pancham whether it is Pancham from Sholay ( Honestly I can keep on talking about this movie forever ) or Pancham from Ijaazat, the list is endless.

I think I got introduced to Pancham when I was 7 or 8 and Love Story (Kumar Gaurav and Vijeta Pandit) movie was released. There was no CD Player or even Cassette Player in the normal household back then and we would rely on Radio for our piece of daily entertainment dosage. And as a Kid, I loved the musical programs on Radio whether it was Fauji Bhaiyoon Ke Liye or Binaca Geetmala. There was this song which my Masi Dr. Shobha Vaidya, Retired Dean School of Education DAVV,  always remember as "Ghar me ladai nahi karenge"  and then whoever is around her had to guess the song. Well this Song would be always playing on Radio back then and I remembered its word and I just loved the Song with no understanding of music. If you haven't guessed the song till now,  Shobha Masi will not be impressed, and you might not be her in good books, But Can I let that happen to you people? 😉, So here is that song Dekho Maine Dekha Hai Ek Sapna

Then there was a Movie called Sanam Teri Kasam (1982), whose soundtrack just drove people crazy and made the film, musical blockbuster, It also awarded  Pancham his first Filmfare award for best music director. All the songs were hits, but the song which I loved most was Dekhta Huin Koi Ladki Haseen, Years later there as a movie called Aatish (If you have seen recently released Movie Sanju, then Aatish was the movie which was shot in Mauritius and Baba was jailed as soon as he came from Mauritius) and it had a song Ya Mustafa Ya Mustafa which when released and religious fanatics caused a big controversy around the wordings and was recorded with modified wordings Ya Dilruba Ya Dilruba, Sung by Jolly Mukherjee, Alka Yagnik, and Mukul Agarwal. Music was by Nadeem- Shravan. Mukul Agrawal completely went into oblivion, later on, He had few songs in his belt from Salman's Dil Tera Aashiq and few other movies in 90's. He started his career under the wings of Laxmi-Pyare for Mr. India (technically the last movie of Salim-Javed, it is said that they wrote Baghban but uncredited) singing the parody song (remember Mera Naam Hai Calendar). He was last heard in Deewar - let's bring Our Heros Home (2004).

Coming back to our songs of interest, Years later after Aatish, I was watching a Shammi Kapoor Classic China Town (1962), by Shakti Samanta who was instrumental in Rajesh Khanna's Career with Aradhana on youtube whose music was composed by Ravi Shankar Sharma, popularly known as Ravi. I was completely taken aback when I heard the song Yamma Yamma with Stunning Helen and Shammi Kapoor dancing. It was during the middle of the song when again I heard Ya Mustafa.

I remembered that during Aatish days, Nadeem-Shravan was alleged of copying this song, and they openly admitted that they took the inspiration from an Egyptian Number. But then R D B in 1982 and Ravi in 1962. I realized the song has to be earlier than 60's. or had to be a folk music of some sort.

My finding ended with the Egyptian Number, which was composed by Egyptian Musician Mohammed Fawzi, but become popular when Bob Azzam sang it in late 50's, and I think Ravi took it from here and used in middle for like 40 secs or so. RD being RD took the inspiration for initial few notes and improvised and finally created a completely different track from the original (that's what geniuses are). Nadeem Shravan, on the other hand, were heavily inspired.

Now comes an interesting part, The words Yamma Yamma from Chinatown were taken in Shaan (Urban Sholay), and Ravi's tune was inspired from traditional Persian folk song Mastom Mastom said to be at least 200 years old. Ravi actually used inspiration from two songs in a single song and created Yamma Yamma with awesome mixing capabilities.

Coming back to Pancham, The first ever song which was composed on Pancham's music Aye Meri Topi Palat Ke Aa, when he was still in his teens. This was from movie Funtoosh (1956) under the wings of Dada Burman.  Pancham was music arranger for Dada and played that role up and beyond. Whenever Dada would go sick and could not complete the music, it was Pancham who would come to rescue. It is said that a lot of tunes which Pancham used in his music were of Dada's and vice-versa. I mean come on they were father and son and lived in the same household and worked with same musicians. Pancham helped Dada in Aradhana (1969), Prem Pujari (1965) (when he was a music director himself) and ended up finishing Mili (1975) for him when Dada went to Coma.

I will continue more on Pancham, as this is closest to my heart. But that's all for now, Maybe I am not able to put anything on weekend (I will try though). If not then, will meet you guys on Monday.

Un till then...