![]() The Men Behind Gulabi AankhenAshwini Deshpande R.D. BURMAN: THE PRINCE OF MUSIC By Khagesh Dev Burman Rupa Publications, New Delhi, 2016, pp. xi 543, Rs. 795.00 MOHAMMAD RAFI: GOLDEN VOICE OF THE SILVER SCREEN By Sujata Dev OM Books International, Noida, 2016, pp. 238, Rs. 595.00 VOLUME XL NUMBER 3 March 2016 These books on the careers of two musical legends, firmly ensconced
in the galaxy of stars that adorn the firmament of
Hindi film music (HFM)—Mohammad Rafi and Rahul Dev
Burman—provide us with a glimpse into the making of the majestic
landscape of the golden era of HFM (roughly 1950 to 1980), in
addition to feeding into the readers’ nostalgia. The two men were
not only at the pinnacle of success during their lifetime, but the
contemporary remixes and re-inventions of their songs testify to the
enduring appeal of their music that still manages to touch the hearts
of a generation that may not necessarily relate to the films that housed
their original music.
Rafi was older than R.D. Burman (popularly known by his
musical nickname, Pancham, or the fifth note of the octave) by fifteen
years, but their careers intersected to produce some stunning
compositions. Both died relatively young, in their mid-fifties. Reading
the two books, one realizes that the similarity between the two
men sort of ends there. Both the starting points as well as the trajectories
of their careers were, in some senses, diametrically opposite.
Mohammad Rafi was one of eight siblings, born into a family of
extremely meager means. His landless father, whose only source of
income was cooking for others on special occasions, could not make
ends meet for this large family and moved to Lahore, from a small
village in Amritsar district, in search of better livelihood. Rafi was
being trained to be a barber in his brother’s shop, and was, thus, the
most unlikely contender for the top spot he eventually occupied, as not
only one of the best singers of his times, but as one of all-time greats.
R.D. Burman was born literally with a silver spoon in his mouth,
being the great-great grandson of the 179th Maharajah of Tripura and
the son of a musical genius, Sachin Dev Burman. With this background,
especially as he assisted his father in his early years, his life
was cut out for him, and the real surprise would have been had he not
progressed to becoming a full-fledged independent music director.
While Rafi never looked back and continued to scale new heights
of fame and popularity from the early 1950s to his death in 1980,
admittedly in stiff competition with Kishore Kumar in the 1970s,
RD’s career was more checkered. He experienced dizzy ... Table of Contents >> |