Guest article by Ashok M Vaishnav
(We are celebrating 2025 as the year of RD Burman. He was acknowledged for his improvisations in sounds. Our guest author Ashok M Vaishnav has already covered his instrumental improvisations in percussion, string and blow (or wind) instruments. An important part of RD Burman’s orchestral improvisations was his novel vocal experiments. Ashok ji explains that these usages were different from the widely used chorus accompaniments by the Golden or Vintage Era music directors like Anil Biswas, Naushad, Salil Chowdhury and Shankar-Jaikishan. These do not refer to RD Burman’s gruff, baritone voice either, putting in words like “Monica, My Darling!”.
This would be the fourth and the last article by Ashok ji in the present series. He has been a regular contributor to SOY. Earlier he had anchored a series on Arrangers and Musicians. Thus, he was eminently suitable for writing this series on RD Burman. Ashok ji is a retired engineer based out of Ahmedabad and is now a freelance management trainer. Thank you, Ashok ji, for this excellent article as your concluding piece in this series on RD Burman’s orchestral improvisations. – AK)
While working for the present series, I observed that R D Burman has extensively used sonic effects of vocals in the orchestration of the music. These vocal usages were different than the very widely used chorus accompaniments that Anil Biswas, Salil Chowdhury, Shankar Jaikishan and other music directors of late 40s and 50 have so extensively and innovatively used in their work.
This is also not about what we now recognised as his ‘signature’ – gruff, baritone – singing style or heavy breath sounds of Mera naam hai Shabnam (Kati Patang, 1970) or Monica or Monica My Darling in Piya tu ab to aa ja (Caravan, 1971) or singing Mere Jivan Saathi, with varying modulations or other lyrical dialogues or odd sounds in the titles of Mere Jivan Sathi (1972).READ THE FULL ARTICLE
No series of tributes to RD Burman can be complete without covering his main male playback singer – Kishore Kumar. RDB-KK had forged a musical and emotional bond and an association that went way beyond the usual music composer-singer collaboration. The rise of RD Burman and the resurrection of Kishore Kumar as playback singer also coincided with the superstardom of Rajesh Khanna. It would not be incorrect to say that both the composer and the singer had a major contribution in the creation of the phenomenon called Rajesh Khanna (RK). RK brought the romantic and soulful melodies of RDB-KK alive on screen, so much so that he came to be known as the eternal romantic hero. On the occasion of Kishore Kumar’s 38th Remembrance Day (13th October), it would be a fitting tribute to discuss his songs composed by RD Burman and picturised on Rajesh Khanna. Along with RD Burman, this is also a tribute to the superstar, born as Jatin Khanna (b.29 December 1942 – d.18 July 2012).
Lata Mangeshkar’s singing-acting career started in 1942 with Marathi Nritya-Natak and Marathi films, under tragic circumstances, when RD Burman was still a toddler. Her father the famous actor-singer on Marathi stage, Dinanath Mangeshkar, passed away when she was barely 13 years. Dinanath had trained his daughters in classical music and she often performed with him on the stage. After he was no more, Lata Mangeshkar, being the eldest among four sisters and a brother, with a widowed mother, the burden of looking after the family fell on her. After about three years in Marathi films and Marathi dance-drama, she moved to Hindi films in 1945 with small acting-singing roles, but her heart was not into roles in films, her aim was to be a good singer. Within 4 years she burst upon the scene as a tornado and swept away the reigning singers of the time. She emerged as the voice of the leading ladies. RD Burman was ten, when Lata Mangeshkar established herself as the Mighty Empress of playback singing.
The three assistants who played key role in arranging the music for R D Burman were masters of three different instruments – Maruti (Rao Keer) was a percussionist, Basu (Chakraborty) was a cellist and Manohari (Singh) was an ace blow instrumentalist. It would be too presumptuous to judge that these instruments seemed to find major space in R D Burman’s music because of these three artists. In fact, as one scans through the spectrum of R D Burman’s music, quite a wide variety of instruments can be heard, many of them used quite innovatively as well. As I worked for the third article in the present series of R D Burman and His Orchestration Improvisations, with the abundance of material available on the internet, I have observed the presence of a wide range of instruments in the orchestration.
At the beginning of blogging, I remember, I made a comment, talking about the blog that, On this blog you would not find best songs of Asha Bhosle by RD Burman. Today I can say, that was a flippant and immature comment. Not because circumstances have made me celebrate this year as the year of RD Burman, but also because I have come across some songs of the combination which I can easily put among her best by any music director.
When we think of the actors on whom some of the famous songs of RD Burman have been picturised, Rajesh Khanna’s name comes foremost to the mind, followed by Dev Anand, Sanjeev Kumar, Mehmood, Randhir Kapoor, Sanjay, Rishi Kapoor, Tariq etc. And of course, Shammi Kapoor, the hero of the first successful RDB film, Teesri Manzil.
RD Burman composed over 125 songs for Rafi. He was friends with Kishore Kumar, and their personal and musical temperaments matched. Plus, post-Aradhana (1969) an era changed, and Kishore Kumar’s vocals seemed to be transformed to fit the new youthful Phenomenon, Rajesh Khanna. Kishore Kumar was the new Rafi with most big music directors adapting to suit his style. That reflects in the number of about 500 songs RD Burman composed for Kishore Kumar. Considering that Kishore Kumar in his entire career sang only 55% of the songs sung by Rafi, this is even more skewed.
RD Burman was renowned as a music director. He is credited with changing the way music was made. He was fascinated by different streams of music: Latino, Caribbean, African, Jazz, and he experimented with different types of sound and tried to assimilate these in his music. This aspect of his music comes out clearly in the opening article of the series, on 4.1.2025. He was not rated much as a singer, unlike his father SD Burman, or other Bengali singers like Hemant Kumar or Kishore Kumar. But there was something unique in his voice which was a reflection of his personality. Some songs were very apt for his voice and those songs achieved a great deal of popularity. In some songs, he added his voice for special effect, and in many songs RD Burman’s voice created a magical impact. I have not selected the songs chronologically, but in order of my preference.
R D Burman’s initial films – Chhote Nawab (1961), Bhoot Bangla (1965), Teesara Kaun (1965) and Pati Patni (1966) – seemed to mould his music into prevalent pattern of 50s – a mix of Indian classical music with shades of regional folk music. However, destiny seemed to have charted a different trajectory for him. The music that made R D Burman’s own space secure and respected was that of Teesri Manzil (1966). The success of Teesri Manzil and its music permanently branded R D Burman as the music director with western music domination even when he continued to give some excellent classical and folk based music.