A documentary film on RD Burman

Dear All,

Talking about the the documentary made by Mr. Brahmanand S Singh called "Pancham Unmixed... Mujhe Chalte jana hain"

Pancham Babu was a genius... his works are loved by majority of cine-goers and audience of Hindi Film Music...All music composers of the present age have been influenced with his style, his approach, his melodies and his rhythm, to the extent that many have taken bits and pieces from his music to compose their own music....

Which of the above mentioned facts are not known to a layman like me?

Some of it are, like how a certain song of present age has which nuances of RDBs composition.....This was brought out well in the interviews with Shankar Ehsaan Loy and Shantanu Moitra.
But,if an icon like RDB is being discussed, one opines these aspects are understood, stated many a times and can be treated as "trivial many" as on date, when even the present generation has bowed to the genius of RDB.

There were some fantastic high points about this documentary, where, Bhanu babu, Ronu babu, Kancha, Louis Banks, Shakti Samanta, Asha ji, Hari Prasad Chaurasia ji, Shiv Kumar Sharma ji and Taufiq sahab relives the music creation of RDB with live rendering of music scores..

Where making of landmark songs like "Tere Bina Jiya jaye na", "Raina Beeti jai", "ek chatur naar", "main chali main chali", "O manjhi re", "Musafir hoon yaron", "Koi diya jale kahin", "hum bewafa"... "Sholay theme" has been discussed in delicious details, the audience like me who has never had the fortune of reliving those days where RDB used to actuallly create magic in the LP records, would want to know more about some more basics of RDB music...

RDB has created magic with not only Ashaji, Manna babu, Amit Kumar and Bhupinder... but, his works with Kishore Babu, Lata ji and his on and off relationship with Rafi Sahab is nowhere mentioned in this documentary.. Perhaps it was an attempt to make this document politically correct..
But if these che-mystries are not talked about in a document that encompasses the life of the master, one opines...a lot is left unsaid..

RDBs recognition in SDB's camp and in the outer world after the debut movie "Raaz" by Guru Dutt was shelved, is no less than a fairy tale.. Asha ji and Ameen Sayani sahab very loosely touches his "Chote Nawab"... and Shammi Kapoor sahab tried appreciating RDB of Teesri Manzil and beyond in the most miserly of words that could be spared for sucn a master.. Perhaps he was at the loss of words...

The last days of RDB was well covered...without much music though, but Shakti Babu was candid enough to talk about his assistant Sapan chakraborty... & the sylish Vidhu Vinod Chopra stated how he was the saviour of RDB...Maybe in one way he was.. maybe he was returning the Parinda favour.. but whatever he spoke had substance one opines..
Yes, the few lines of "raah pe rehte hain..", "jeevan ke din..", "kal kya hoga..." & "phir kisi shaakh ne.." sure does brings tears to a RDB lover's eyes..

Gulzar's poetry was the icing on the cake in the documentary..His candid depiction of RDB's impatience and his music making was definitely a top draw and revelation...

The documentary keeps you yearning for more..maybe a discussion with Dev Sahab would have helped... or maybe a candid one to one with Amit...maybe a small discussion with Lata ji about a creation of a few songs like.."Bindiya tarse" and "Tere liye palkon ki jhalar bunu..".. rather than "Kaanta Laga"?

Too much time spent on his fans and his followers... They are there and they will be there till such time RDBs music lives on.. and RDBs music is here to live on.. as the punchline of the documentary is "Mujhe chalte jaana hain.. bas, chalte jaana.."

Thank You
Abhijit

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