The Sculptors of Film Songs (12): The “Lords”

Guest article by Piyush M Pandya (Gujarati original) and Ashok M Vaishnav (English translation)

(The “Lords”, i.e. the father Cawas Lord and his two sons – Kersi and Burjor Lord – have lorded over the instrumental music in Hindi film songs right from the beginning of the talkies till the 1980s when the era of live orchestra by musicians and arrangers in the music room was caming to en end. The SOY regulars will recall the review of Greg Booth’s “Behind the Curtain“. Therefore, it is very befitting that the guest authors, Piyush M Pandya and Ashok M Vaishnav, now write on the most illustrious family of instrumentalists in the film music world. The Lords have seen the zenith of the sculptors of film music to their decline and disappearance of an era of how music was made in our films. Thank you Piyushji and Ashokji for another excellent article in the series on the Arrangers and Musicians. – AK)

Even in the absence of authentic statistics, there is unanimity among Hindi film historians that, from 1947 to 1987, one or other member of the Lord family – father Cawas Lord, the elder son Kersi Lord and the younger son Burjor Lord – has, on an average, played in every third song recorded in Bombay. Jazz and Latino music became integral to Bombay film music largely due to the Lords.

Cawas Lord

Cawas Lord (1911 – 2007) was born in a very strict and traditional Parsi family from Pune. Young Cawas was so much interested in music that at the age of 12 he migrated to Mumbai. His music career at Bombay commenced with playing military drums and bagpipes under various military bandleaders. By the ’30s Cawas Lord had started playing percussion instruments for earliest talkie films. He is said to have arranged the background score for India’s fist talkie film Alam Ara (1931).

After the war, he returned to Mumbai and joined the band of the jazz trumpeter, Chic Chocolate, as a drummer. Cawas Lord soon became an integral part of bands at several clubs in the 1940s. It was at Taj (Mumbai) that C Ramchandra spotted Cawas Lord playing the drums and invited him to join his orchestra. That also was the period of prohibition in then Bombay state. Cawas Lord, too, was on the lookout for a steady source of income. Chic Chocolate and Cawas Lord were soon to become the backbone of C Ramchandra’s pioneering use of Western tunes and western instruments in Hindi films, with trailblazing songs like Gore gore o banke chhore (Samadhi, 1950), Bholi surat dil ke khote…– Albela (1951), Eena meena dika (Asha, 1957).

How did it all begin? A Latin band, The Gagimbas, did a show at the Taj. Cawas bought all their instruments before they left and went on to pioneer the use of western percussion instruments like bongo, conga and many other small Latin American instruments. Of course, initially such radical experiments met with resistance from the tradition-bound film music world. Cawas Lord patiently persisted in his effort. Entry of other Goan arrangers and instrument players also helped. He went on to play these instruments for almost every music director in his long active career.

Among many such instruments that he introduced, one that perhaps is more easily recognised as clopping, the sound beat of horse hoofs, played on an instrument called Duyuglar. In this video clip, an illustration of that instrument can be seen in O P Nayyar songs from Phir Wahi Dil Laya Hun (1963) song, Banda parwar thaam lo jigar and Naya Daur (1957) duet Mang ke saath tumhara and Tum Sa Nahin Dekha‘s (1957) path-breaking Yun to hamne lakh haseen dekhe hain @2.10 to 2.57. This video gives an idea of his innovations in instrumental music.

With Naushad, some of the now known experiments that Cawas Lord successfully deployed are: gunghroo in O jaanewale balamwa (Ratan, 1944), Mohe panghat pe Nandlal chhed gayo re (Mughl-e-Azam,1960), Madhuban mein Radhika (Kohinoor, 1960), bongo in Tara ri tara ri (Dastan, 1950), and clopping beat in Bachpan ke din bhula na dena (Deedar, 1951).

Kersi started accompanying his father from a young age and his association with films goes back to the time when he was 13. Once when he was accompanying Cawas Lord to a recording of Naushad’s song, he was fiddling with bongo. Naushad noticed and suggested that Cawas include Kersi too in the orchestra. That song was:

Lo pyar ki ho gayi jeet – Jadoo (1951) – Lata Mangeshkar – Lyrics: Shakeel Badayuni – Music: Naushad.

Some more songs in which Naushad has deployed castanets, played by Kersi Lord are: Dhadke mera dil mujhko jawani haye kasa na bhaye (Babul, 1950);  Jab nain mile nainon se (Jadoo, 1951); Tu kaun hai mera kah de balam (Deedar, 1951). Kersi Lord went on to become a known name within the film music circuit over the years.

Cawas and his sons Kersi and Burjor Lord were also quite close to father and son – SD and RD Burmans. In one interview, Kersi Lord recalls how the three played percussion in Aaye haye dilruba.. ..Pappa jamalo (Dr. Vidya, 1962). Incidentally, Dr Vidya was the film when SD had passed on the baton to RD as his full-scale assistant. Cawas Lord played for RD from his very first film Chhote Nawab (1961) till his last film 1942 A Love Story (1994):

Matwali aankhonwale – Chhote Nawab (1961) – Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Shailendra – Music: R D Burman

Cawas Lord plays bongo in a very innovatively distinctive style that helps put the motion of the song in a lilting mode, accentuated by a soft support of castanets (incidentally being played by Helen on the screen, and Kersi Lord off the screen).

Rooth na jana tumse kahun to – 1942 A Love Story (1994) – Kumar Sanu – Lyrics: Javed Akhtar   – Music: R D Burman

Cawas’s bongo sounds a fresh as it was in 1961. As it happens, the musical arrangement for the song was done by Pyarelal (of Laxmikant-Pyarelal) duo.

Kersi Lord

Kersi Lord (B: 14 February 1935 – D: 16 October, 2016) was the eldest of three children of Cawas and Banubai Lord. Banubai and her brothers were also trained musicians.  Keri’s younger sister Hilla was a talented pianist, but she never took it up professionally. The younger brother, Burjorji, was an ace percussionist.

So much fascinated was Kersi with music that he used to bunk school and attend music sessions with his father. It is said that after the recordings, Naushad would pack Kersi off to the local railway station to go to school, but that could not wean Kersi away from his love for music. He went on to master several percussion instruments and introduced these into the Hindi film songs as well. He also tried his hands with playing other instruments like vibraphone, xylophone and the glockenspiel. His playing glockenspiel, yielding the cigarette lighter sound in Main zindgai ka saath nibhata chala gaya (Hum Dono, 1961 – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Sahir Ludhiyanvi – Music: Jaidev) is just one illustration of how innovative Kersi Lord was.

Kersi had played glockenspiel previously for Nanhi kali sone chali (Sujata, 1959 – Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri – Music: S D Burman). The soft chiming we hear in the song is glockenspiel effect. And it is no coincidence that Jaidev was the assistant to SDB in the film.

Cawas Lord also introduced Kersi to playing piano accordion. His training on piano under Roda Khodaiji came in as big help in Kersi Lord’s progress on piano accordion. His expertise on piano accordion is validated by S D Burman handing over to him how to play the instrument the way he felt it best so as to reflect the mood for Roop tera mastana (Aradhana, 1969 – Kishore Kumar – Lyrics: Anand Bakshi – Music: S D Burman).

Kersi Lord blended his imagination with tough training he had undergone to learn the Indian classical music to come up with this with brisk high-low spikes mixing with long smooth slurring of the piano accordion notes.

https://youtu.be/dyEdcOhxJNQ?si=WdwovYb6Z4kpFpGD

Of course, this was not the first time that Kersi was playing accordion for S D Burman. One such well-known experiment was Achhaji main haari chalo maan jao na (Kala Pani, 1958- Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle – Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri- Music: S D Burman)

https://youtu.be/1LPtNHJckpw?si=tTLD_OUAzxxP2KJB

Kersi has played piano accordion with many other music directors.

Rut jawaan jawaan raat meherbaan – Aakhri Khat (1967) – Bhupinder – Lyrics: Kaifi Azmi – Music: Khayyam

Listening to accordion in counter music support of the song is a sheer pleasure!

Interestingly, the song has Bhupinder playing the guitar and Chic Chocolate playing trumpet (0.49 to 0.55, 2.56 to 2.59) on the screen.

Some other instruments that Kersi Lord has played in the Hindi film songs are, like,

Jaane kya tune kahi jaane kya maine suni – Pyasa (1957) – Geeta Dutt – Lyrics: Sahir Ludhiyanvi – Music: S D Burman

Kersi Lord plays Chinese temple blocks in sync with bongo in very innovative style across the whole song.

Aaiye meharban baithiye jaan-e-jaan  (Howrah Bridge, 1958 – Lyrics: Qamar Jalalbadi- Music: O P Nayyar)

Kesri Lord has played Chinese temple blocks as percussion support from 0.53 to 1.31 and similarly whenever the mukhda comes up with every interlude, in sync with O P Nayyar’s style of mixing different percussion instruments seamlessly between mukhdas and interludes.

https://youtu.be/go4ixEgnecg?si=bvynhN-LbA-GMlw4

Kersi Lord is also credited with introduction of Moog Synthesizer. In an interview with Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal (authors of RD Burman: The Man, The Music) he recalls having used Moog in the second interlude – 2.27 to 2.42- of Ye dosti na todeinge – Sholay (1975) – Kishore Kumar, Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics:  And Bakshi – Music: R D Burman

How ironical it is that the innovative experiments of use of instruments like Moog or tools like programmed music that RD-Kersi brought in to add freshness to the music in the new genre action films went on to sound the death-knell of live music in the music room with the rise of digitally created sounds in the music labs!

One more facet of Kersi Lord’s musical personality was his orchestra arrangements.

Naushad invited him to arrange the songs for Saathi (1968) which Naushad wanted in totally different style since it was the beginning of his second innings. Kersi Lord’s imaginative creativity is reflected in the use of mridangam played by Palghat Mani Iyer so exceptionally melodious manner in Mera pyar bhi tu hai (Mukesh, Suman Kalyanpur- Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri).

https://youtu.be/AKHkNzEScsg?si=14r2mQ_kZeIlO3W2

Naushad also handed over background music arrangement baton to Kersi for Pakeezah (1972). Kersi Lord (and for that matter even his younger brother Burjorji) always asked for a separate credit line in the titles. Since that did not come through for even his score for Pakeezah, Kersi restricted his offerings to play the instruments only.

Some of his other arrangements that are not officially credited to Kersi Lord are:

Tum jo mil gaye ho to ye lagata hai – Hanste Zakhm (1973) – Mohammad Rafi – Lyrics: Kaifi Azmi – Music: Madan Mohan

Kersi’s creativity is reflected in deft use of two rhythms in the song to reflect the different moods.

https://youtu.be/7cQaLY4sUDo?si=HVIu30J13AV_4G68

Instrumental theme music – Dharmatma (1975)

https://youtu.be/CWqqVRmPS8c?si=4VuL6ltGwY4a3Z7I

Intro theme music (Shalimar, 1978)

Burjor Lord is on the drums, Hariprasad Chaurasia plays the flute and accordion is played by Homi Mullan.

https://youtu.be/YUtskD4jujI?si=e-yaLURmvc82TygC

Burjor Lord

Burjor Lord was also proficient in playing several percussion instruments. However, he felt that he should focus on one instrument and carve out his own space. That instrument was drum set. In this video Burjor talks from the heart.

He had earned quite a fame for his drum play in Bombay. He was ambivalent about accepting an invitation by Enoch Daniels to a West Indies tour. He considered the fee offered to him too inadequate for a drum player of his calibre. Enoch Daniels explained to him that he might be well-known in India, but no one knew him in the West Indies. He ultimately did join that tour, but after getting a fee raise. On the very first performance of that tour, his photograph was on the first page of the local newspapers!

In this video Burjor narrates his experience of that tour, flanked by his father Cawas and brother Kersi.

Of the songs in which he has played drums and other percussion instruments, in a career spanning 30 years (1958 to 1988), Burjor Lord seemed to have a special relationship with Mohammad Rafi. Just one glance at a very small sample of songs should suffice to validate this statement:

Lakhon hain nigah mein – Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hun, 1963 – Music:O P Nayyar – wood blocks

Ek haseen sham ko dil mera kho gaya – Dulhan Ek Raat Ki, 1967- Music: Madan Mohan – wood blocks

Pukaarta chala hoonN main – Mere Sanam, 1965 – Music: O P Nayyar – vibraphone

Deewana mujh sa nahin is ambar ke neeche – Teesri Manzil, 1967 – vibraphone

Ek tha gul aur ek thi bulbul – Jab Jab Phool Khile, 1965 – xylophone

Gulabi aankhein jo teri dekhi – The Train, 1970 – Music: R D Burman – drums

Kya hua tera wada – Hum Kissi Se Kam Nahin, 1977 – Music: R D Burman – drums

Burjor Lord – In conversation with Manek Premchand presents many other songs wherein he has played different instruments.

Burjor Lord decided to hang his drum sticks in 1988, because of being frustrated with the  politics of the film music world and not prepared to compromise art of instrument playing with the new age of digitally created sounds.

Rudradeep Bhattacharjee, the director of documentary “The Human Factor” aptly sums the Lords saga as, “The story of the Lords is not theirs alone. It represents thousands of other composers…….”

Credits and Disclaimers:

1. The song links have been embedded from the YouTube only for the listening pleasure of music lovers. This blog claims no copyright over these songs, which vests with the respective copyright holders.
2. The photograph is taken from the internet, duly recognising the full copyrights for the same to the either original creator or the site where they were originally displayed.

References:

The wizardry skills of Cawas Lord

The Lord’s Touch – Kersi Lord

The Lord’s Touch – Burjor Lord

Mohammad Rafi: Voice Of A Nation – Sujata Dev

Lord of the music room – Anirudh Bhattacharjee, Balaji Vittal