Panchamrit 3 - Pancham peaks... (Part-B)

by Shashikant Rao & Vinay P Jain

Friends,

As the second and concluding part of "Pancham peaks...", we present Panchamrit 3. This quiz covers the later half of the golden era of RD's creativity. Straight to the preface...

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The era..
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1981 - 1984
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This was the period when the sun shone the brightest. 72 movies in 4 years. Some see it as an overload, other swear by Pancham's amazing creativity during this period. Yet no one can deny the diversity amongst his work during this phase. Pancham was never this much himself before. Well away from the shadow of his father and having established his distinct style and place, he was in a position to do things the way he would have liked. He had a voice of his own. People had accepted him for his own. Panch-o-mania was established.

Confidence reigned supreme - all the big banners seeked him out. With Sholay, Kasme Vaade and Hum Kisise Kum Nahin behind him, he found a steadfast home with these reputed banners. In Bollywood this goes a long way in attracting the choicest of assignments - the prestigious big banners.

Bigger and better was the keyword - and Pancham was a big part of it. His position enviable, his confidence at its strongest, his skills at its best. And that's how the 80s started for him.

Pancham began 80s with some of the biggest movies of its times. Ramesh Sippy signed him for the mega-starrer SHAAN in 1980. With names like Amitabh, Shashi Kapoor, Shatrughan, Sunil Dutt - you needed wide-angle lens to imagine the canvas. Nasir Hussain announced ZAMAANE KO DIKHANA HAI. He built sets for the movie at costs that were more than the entire budgets of his earlier movies. ZKDH was to be the biggest, grandest and the most expensive venture to come out of Nasir Hussain's banner.

International technicians were another feature of this era. Pancham and his western influences were at home in this environment. His contemporaries, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Rajesh Roshan, Ravindra Jain, Usha Khanna, Kalyanji-Anandji were caught unprepared. Sanjay Khan with his international venture ABDULLAH achieved his dream of starring with the great showman. Umesh Mehra announced ALIBABA AUR 40 CHOR - the first Indo-Russian movie to be directed by 2 directors - one Indian (Umesh) the other Russian (Latif Faiziyev).

Pancham was also a favourite amongst new launches, be it stars or banners. It was not merely a coincidence that he was chosen for most important debuts of his era. This period witnessed many new talents being launched...and some re-launched.

The most important star-son launch happened with LOVE STORY. The hype generated for the event was unprecedented. Soon, Sanjay Dutt followed with great fanfare in ROCKY. Pancham was idolized by Sunil Dutt in the movie when he named the central character as RD aka Rocky D'Souza. Pancham returned the affection with some of the mind-blowing numbers ever to grace a Sanjay Dutt movie. Many still reel under the 'aa dekheN zaraa' and remember a lanky Dutt on his mobike screaming 'dostoN ko salaam'. Another star-son launch - BETAAB, also witnessed debuts of Amrita Singh, Annu Kapoor and Shabbir Kumar apart from Sunny Deol. Dev came ahead with Suneil Anand in ANAND AUR ANAND. Karan Shah and Neelam debuted with JAWAANI. It was all happening in this period and Pancham was the unanimous choice as the music maker for these. More importantly, he never failed to deliver.

Let's now talk about some debut ventures of banners, producers and directors. Rahul Rawail made a quiet entry with his own banner with GUNAHGAAR. Tinnu Anand launched his directorial venture KAALIA. Shekhar Kapur and Amjad Khan had their directorial debuts respectively in MASOOM and ADHURA AADMI. Mithun launched his banner 'Sri Sai Shakti' with BOXER. Guru Dutt's sons re-launched their parent banner with BINDIYA CHAMKEGI. Pran launched his director-son and banner with the Oliver Twist-ian FARISHTAA. Amjad Khan launched his banner with a censor troubled CHOR POLICE.

And all this within a span of 4 years - life for R.D. Burman was busy.

However, before the end of the period, Pancham got in the flop-trap. The old-timers started to falter and Pancham's reputation as a hit maker started going down. Ravi Tandon with AAN AUR SHAAN, Bhappi Sonie with a Kati Patang-remake BADE DIL WALA, Shakti Samant with MAIN AWARA HOON, Ramanand Sagar with ROMANCE, Ramesh Behl with JAANE JAAN and PUKAR and BR Chopra camp with MAZDOOR. The slide became acute when biggers banners toppled. Raj Khosla with SUNNY and MAATI MAANGEY KHOON, Nasir Hussain with MANZIL MANZIL, Pramod Chakravarty with JAGIR, to name a few.

It was like whatever he touched, flopped. And as it happens with flop movies, the music scores flopped too. The songs came and went, unnoticed. Without any ears lent to it, the music was stamped 'flop' or 'bad', words that are used interchangeably in the industry. He was losing his reputation as a Hit Music Director. But on the personal end, his music was still a winner in most of the movies, Hits or Flops. He was still blissfully churning out versatile music. His creativity had not lost any of its glory-days luster.

This, in a strange manner, places RD in a unique position amongst other music directors. He was one MD, who despite being one of the most popular composers of all times, had (still has) almost as much good music lying in anonymity as he had on the charts. Many even better than his popular scores. Don't go by our word. Check the list. Pick any score that you haven't heard. Get the audio (now that may be the difficult part) and feed it to your ears. You are in for some very pleasant surprises.

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About the quiz
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As you would have known by now (that is if you cared to glimpse over the preface), the quiz is about songs from Pancham's movies of the years between 1981-1984 (both included). Every song has a clue and a sub-clue. Each clue contains stanzas or part of stanzas from songs. In some of the clues the loop line (last line of stanza which rhymes with the mukhra) has been skipped, so to make things a little less obvious. The sub-clue is a description of the song/ movie and may have a bit of trivia and some hints thrown in. All you have to do is to guess the song and the movie name for each clue. Each right answer will get 2 marks. One for the song and one for the movie. But answering only movie name without telling the song will not earn any points. You can also send, without expecting any increment in your marks, any information that you want to share about the song or details for the trivia bits provided in the sub-clues.

Here's an example of a typical clue:

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Example :

pyaar meiN bheege bheege aakaash ke tale
jaane ham jal jaana lagkar yaar ke seene se
choor thakan se hoke jab saaNs na chale
hamko jeevan mil jaata hai zahar ke peene se
jeete haiN pyaar se, marte haiN pyaar se

Lovely lyrics by Majrooh mingled with excellent composition by Pancham. Two of them stealing your heart once again.

Answer:
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Song: yaaree ho gayee yaar se Film: Do Chor (1968)

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The last date of sending your answers is July 20, 2001. Send your answers, comments, praises and disapprovals only by email, to vpj@bigfoot.com. Please Do NOT post them on the Net.

You can send as many entries as you want and as late as the deadline. In the case of a tie at the top spot, however, first of the all-correct entries received will be eligible for the "Pancham-bhakt" award.

For the duration of the quiz, please refrain from discussing any of the songs featured in the quiz, in any other thread on the group, or on the net. If you have comments on the songs or on any of our remarks, please send them to us! We will include the comments in the answers/results posts.

And remember....

* Do NOT post your answers on the Net. Send it by email to vpj@bigfoot.com

The quiz follows...

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The Quiz
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1
yaadoN ka safar ye kare
guzre bahaaroN meN kabhee
aane waale pal pe haNse
uD.te nazarooN meN kabhee
ek haath meN andhiyaaraa
ek haath meN jyotee hai

Starting with this rather less-known song from a movie which had otherwise
very popular music. The singer is also relatively unknown but his sufiyana
voice sounds perfect for the mood of the song. Pancham and Majrooh..
naturally beautiful.

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2
ankhiyoN meN raatoN ka nashaa
ang meN jawaanee kaa suroor
jaadoo aisa DaalooNgee ki aap
bhaage chale aaoge huzoor

This song shows how much of Asha is there in the Pancham nAsha and also how
well Pancham added the 'N' before Asha. No one but the songstress could
inspire such Madira-esque passion in this song. This number was so rich in
creativity that Pancham managed to make an entire song, which he used in
another movie, out of the interlude warbling by Asha.

The entire score was a work of creative genius. In every song of the movie,
Pancham used the opening/mukhra of another song from the same movie, as the
interlude, seamlessly. The song in question is the only exception.

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3
Lata:
ghooNghTaa giraa ke pooraa mukhD.aa dikhaa ke thoD.aa
jab maiN chalooN to tumko kaisaa lage

Kishore:
aayegee aafat koee hogee qayaamat koee
jeene naheeN dogee tum aisaa lage

Such a lilting tune made 2 ageing star's onscreen romance look more credible
than the raging teenyboppers. Pancham's use of dramatic violins, crisp tabla
and racy guitar makes the interludes one of his best.

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4
chhoTee see do jheeloN meN wo bahatee rahatee hai
koee sune yaa naa sune kahatee rahatee hai
kuchh likh ke aur kuchh jubaanee

The master poet tells a quiet tale of sorrow using the teary landscape of
the human eyes. The movie brought fame to two singers from the east and two
of today's stars. Also marked the end of Pancham's partnership with a
guitarist friend.

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5
chaahe jinhe meree nazar
haaye naheeN unko kHabar
band hai mandir ka darwaaza
phool chaDh.aaooN kaise

The charming hero woos his unknowing muse using the age-old Bollywood
trick - playing the blind disguised old man. And Pancham provides him this
classic Kishore solo, which was written by a pair of lyricists (at least
officially).

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6
maanaa ki kHataa meree hai
par itnee sazaa naa de tu
le paiyaaN paD.ooN tore sajnaa
ab to gale lagaa le tu

This song was literally "cooked". Pancham created this while cooking with
his friend cum lyricist. The lyricist later fit some beautiful words to the
tune.

The dish was served in two flavors.

Filmfare decided to award Pancham first time for this, as if he cared any
more.

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7
jab rulaa lete haiN jee bhar ke hameN
jab sataa lete haiN jee bhar ke hameN
tab kaheeN khush wo zaraa hote hai

An attempt to bring back musical sense in these chaotic times... a much
earlier one than '1942 A Love Story'. Pancham strived to bring back the
Indian sound in this album.

This song again, like the previous one, had two versions.

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8
zameeN pe naheeN ham pukaaro hameN
chaand ban gaye haiN utaaro hameN
tum jo naheeN chaand pe basnaa kyaa

Fresh... youthful... racy... beautiful. That's the feeling you get about the
movie and its music. Made within a record 30 days - this movie looks crisp
and clean even today.

The words surprisingly were provided by a non-regular for this banner. But
then, even the director was a non-regular. Pancham, however, felt at home
with the banner and always gave it the extra. One of the very best that he
did for it.

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9
Asha:
tujhe maiN jahaaN kee nazar se churaa looN
kaheeN dil ke kone meN tujhko chhupaa looN

Kishore:
kabhee zindagee meN paD.e mushqileN to
mujhe too sambhaale tujhe maiN sambhaalooN

The freshness extends in this Danielle Steele inspired romance. Asha and
Kishore sing melodiously all the way Bawra's words in exotic Kashmir
valleys.

Pancham, Gulshan Bawra and Ramesh Behl - the team always lived up to their
promise.

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10
maanaa ke andheroN ke gahre haiN bahut saaye
par gHam hai yahaaN kisko aatee hai to raat aaye

This classy number could only be waltzed to by a classy actor. Pancham
always seemed upbeat, stylish and a touch different when he composed for
this superactor.

Asha was used scarcely by Pancham in this number... but effectively, as
always. This was a task he usually had Annette do - but Asha did it with her
patented panache!

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11
unse milne kee ijaazat ek bas hamko naheeN
unse milne unke ghar har apnaa begaanaa gayaa

This song is amongst the singer's emotive best. In fact, the whole music
score was like a show case for him, singing all 6 songs of the movie. Each a
hit. And guess what? In one of the songs in the movie, LP were shown as the
music directors. Political correctness.. huh.

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12
ye haiN wo jo kHwaaboN meN bhee neeNd churaa lete haiN
sulage sulage man ko mere aur hawaa dete haiN
phir ye jaltaa hai badan, aisee hotee hai jalan
unse milne ke liye, jaag jaatee hai lagan

Again, Asha sizzles. Again, Pancham demonstrates his versatility. This
strange album had classical notes, semi-classical thoughts, philosophical
musings, lilting cabarets and an lesser known singer but well known actor
doing the singing honors.

This song demostrates Pancham's ability to remain melodic even when getting
pacy. An art which only few other than him experimented, practiced and
mastered.

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13
Lata:
uljhan teree maiN sab jaanooN
tujhe teree tarah pahachaanooN
jo maiN hooN to gHam kyoN jaanejaaN

Kishore:
ho jab dil huaa teraa deewaanaa
Thokar meN hai saara zamaanaa
meraa kyaa karegaa ye jahaaN

The movie was a musical treat. It had the quintessential Pancham-Majrooh
falvour in all its songs. Want to know what made Pancham and Majrooh such a
special team? Check it out.

There were numerous brilliant Asha-KK duets in Pancham's khazana, but this
Lata-KK combo has its own special place in his duets.

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14
binaa dekhe, binaa jaane, tan man baaNdhe jo
baNdhan jo, janam janam, mar ke judaa naa ho
..

A rare Pancham-Anjaan gem which was rendered both by the actor and his
playback voice. Two great talents. Pancham often added the third dimension.

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15
ik din milee ik maahazabeeN
tan bhee haseeN jaaN bhee haseeN
dil ne kahaa ham se waheeN
kHwaaboN kee hai manzil yaheeN

phir yooN huaa wo kho gayee
to mujhko zid see ho gayee
laayeNge usko DhoonDhkar
...

This number for a Count of Monte Christo remake speaks of the hero
regretting betraying his mentor.

Pancham's association with Javed Akhtar-the lyricist started with this
movie. And though no one seemed to notice, they provided some very good
scores together in the following years, until finally 1942 ALS happened. By
then it was too late anyway.

So, friends! Enjoy and have fun solving!

LAST DATE to send your entries is 20th July 2001.

And remember, DO NOT POST YOUR ANSWERS ON THE NET. Mail your answers to the
email id vpj@bigfoot.com

- Vinay & Shashi