RD Burman Birthday: Remembering Pancham and his seven Bengali 'puja' songs which became Hindi superhits

It was not easy to live in the shadows of a great legend. “Producers always wanted Sachin Dev Burman (SD Burman), nobody was willing to experiment with his son,” note Aniruddha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal in Pancham’s biography, RD Burman: The Man and his Music (2021). It would be actor-friend Mehmood who’d give Pancham a break, as the music director and with a cameo role, in Bhoot Bangla (1965).

Pancham brought jazz and Latino music, more specifically Bossa Nova, to the Hindi film song, and “dovetailed it to create a pentatonic tune for a song in Kati Patang,” note his biographers. RD Burman ushered in the aadhunik (modern) era of Bollywood music and Bengali songs. He rung in a Westernised aesthetic and pioneered the use of electronic organ in Indian film song with O mere sona re in Teesri Manzil (1966), the film and its pathbreaking music established Burman Junior as a force to reckon with.

But, in spite of his golden legacy of chartbusters and a meteoric career, ahead of his death, 30 years ago in 1994, he was branded a “flop”. When director Vidhu Vinod Chopra placed faith in the despairing artist, Burman pulled out all the stops for his last film, 1942: A Love Story — the outro to the phenomena that was Pancham — that would go on to win all the big awards that year, but that restored success Burman wouldn’t live to see.

RD Burman’s music became a symbolic marker of “change” in the Indian society, which consumed film music thanks to the proliferation of the radio. Pancham’s sound was also different from the Western classical music influences that one hears in Salil Chowdhury’s compositions. RDB made the Indian sound contemporary, distantly and diversely global. With him, “change had come to stay; the young had turned upbeat,” mentions the Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema (2003), edited by Gulzar, Saibal Chatterjee, and Govind Nihalani. It further notes, “The 1970s marked [Asha] Bhosle’s entry into electronic (and Westernised) pop, as she began singing RD Burman’s compositions. The RD Burman-Asha Bhosle duo created some of the most popular music of the time, such as Piya tu ab toh aa ja (Caravan, 1971), Dum maaro dum (Hare Rama Hare Krishna, 1971), and Jaane jaan dhoondhta phir raha (Jawani Deewani, 1972).”

The year Pancham debuted in Bollywood, the mood of the nation was sombre. In 1965, ahead of Durga Puja in Bengal, the public attention was focussed elsewhere as the country was recuperating from the immediate aftermath of a war with Pakistan. A ceasefire was announced three weeks ahead of the Puja. “The soldiers rushed back to their families leading to the reinstatement of the Puja spirit. Musically, the puja of 1965 aroused the curiosity of spirit when news got around that Rahul Dev Burman was making his ‘debut as a composer of Puja songs’,” Bhattacharjee and Vittal note in Pancham’s biography.

RD Burman was “too rebellious a name for the common Bengalis, whose musical taste were limited to sombre and solemn”. Bengali lyricist Pulak Bandyopadhyay wanted to produce a few songs for pujo, with SD Burman, who refused and passed the assignment to his son. Though Pancham was unwilling and uncomfortable composing in Bengali, but was assured of Lata Mangeshkar’s voice, who was already singing Bengali songs for composer Salil Chowdhury. Besides film songs in Bengali and Hindi for Pancham, Mangeshkar sang two pujo solo songs and Kishore Kumar sang six pujo solos, by some accounts. Along with Asha Bhosle, however, Pancham created 87 pujo songs (including both solos and duets). Pancham-Bhosle rivalled the legendary Salil Chowdhury-Lata Mangeshkar partnership, and between the four of them, produced much of the best music of modern Bengal, mentions the website Panchammagic.org.

The duo Pancham-Asha’s albums of non-film songs, released annually every Durga Puja, and live shows were eagerly awaited. Later, younger singers would sing covers from these albums during festivities. Beyond devotional songs, this pair would bring out albums of love songs, which the uppity Bengali bhadralok (gentility) with their refined classical taste would despise as “degenerate Westernisation in music”. RD Burman would go on to turn many of these songs into Hindi film songs later and use some of the tunes/compositions as background scores for films as well. Here are seven such pujo songs whose Hindi versions became chartbusters back in the day:

Mone pore Ruby Roy/ Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si

Pancham’s best-known Bengali song solo Mone Pore Ruby Roy in 1969, was spurned initially and loved later on. The story goes that scenarist Sachin Bhowmik had lost his heart to a certain lady in his college, who trampled his affections. “Her name was Chhobi Roy and she was immortalised as Ruby Roy in the song which Pancham coerced Bhowmick to write. It was loosely based on Rag Kirwani and Rag Mukhari,” write Bhattacharjee and Vittal. The Hindi version of the song, Meri Bheegi Bheegi Si, sung by Kishore Kumar, was released in 1973 in the Sanjeev Kumar-Jaya Bhaduri-starrer Anamika.

Jete Dao Amay Dekona/Jaane Do Mujhe Jaane Do

Jete dao, the Bengali song released in 1969 and was sung by Asha Bhosle, and written by Gauriprasanna Majumdar, the Indian lyricist and writer known for his work in Indian and Bangladeshi cinema. The Hindi rendition, Jaane do, came about when the trio Pancham-Gulzar-Asha Bhosle were bringing out their non-film album of Hindi love songs, Dil Padosi Hai (1987).

Chokhe Chokhe Kotha Bolo / Nahin Nahin Abhi Nahin

Both versions of the song were sung by Asha Bhosle. The Bengali lyrics, Chokhe chokhe, was written by Gauriprasanna Majumdar and released in 1971 while RD Burman assisted Anand Bakshi and Ramesh Behl for the Hindi lyrics of the song Nahin Nahin, which appeared in the film Jawani Diwani (1972), starring Randhir Kapoor and Jaya Bhaduri (now Bachchan).

Jaanina Kothay Tumi / Jaane jaan dhundta phir raha

A duet piece, sung by Pancham and Asha, the Bengali original, Jaanina Kothay Tumi, was written by Sachin Bhowmick and released in 1971, while the Hindi version, written by Anand Bakshi, appeared in the Narendra Bedi-directed Jawani Diwani (1972).

Jete Jete Pathe Holo Deri/ Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koi

As was usually the case, RD Burman sang the Bengali version while Kishore Kumar sang the Hindi one (along with Lata Mangeshkar). The original was written by Gauriprasanna Majumdar in Bengali in 1974 while the Hindi version appeared a year later and was written by Gulzar for his film Aandhi, starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen. The film was banned during the Emergency of 1975 a few months after its release, on the alleged grounds of violation of the Model Election Code of Conduct and for, allegedly, being based on the life of then-premier Indira Gandhi and her estranged husband. The film and its songs eventually became a classic.

Chokhe Naame Brishti / Jaane Kya Baat Hai

While Asha Bhosle sang the Bengali original, Pancham made her elder singer Lata Mangeshkar sing the song in Hindi. By some accounts, young wife Asha Bhosle, who married RD Burman in 1980 (it was the second marriage for both), would often be displeased by her music director husband who would give her ‘didi’ some of the songs that she’d have loved to sing. The Bengali lyrics of the song was written by Gauriprasanna Majumdar in 1982 while the Hindi version, written by Anand Bakshi, appeared in the film Sunny in 1984, picturised on Amrita Singh and Sunny Deol.

Ek Din Paakhi Ure Jaabe / Tum Bin Jaaun Kahan

We are bookending this article with this song, to read about it scroll back up.

This list is not even a quarter of a glimpse into the repertoire of songs, with versions in more languages than one, that the late RD Burman, whose 85th birthday is being observed today, has left his fans with. And, whatever be the mood, it’s always a good time for a Pancham song.