R. D. Burman & Mohd. Rafi, Magic Moments Options

[princeali]

Friends,

I am starting another thread similar to the SJ-Rafi saab thread to showcase another excellent combination, that of R.D. Burman-Mohd. Rafi.

R.D. Burman (also known as Panchamda to his many fans) was in my opinion a very versatile music director. He brought about a new trend and sound to film music. He was one of the greatest tune-smiths out of the second-generation composers of the Golden Era. His variety and music was excellent, he experimented with his compositions, and his songs have a lasting value. For me RD Burman is one of my Top favourite composers of all time.

Pancham had a special place for Rafi saab in his repetoire and Rafi saab was his second most used male singer after Kishore Kumar. The RD-Rafi output is an important chapter in the history of HFM and they produced many golden melodies together. It was through Rafi saab that Pancham made a mark in the world of music and broke through into the big league of composers.

Similar to the SJ-Rafi thread, this thread will not only be for songs, but also for trivia and any other snippets, articles etc. related to the RD-Rafi combination. Again, if you have any requests or anything you would like to add, feel free to do so here.

I hope every Rafian enjoys the RD-Rafi combination as much as I do !

[princeali]

A new week brings us to these next two beautiful songs which I rank amongst the very best Lata-Rafi duets ever created. Both these songs are from Rajesh Khanna films in the 70's.

Pancham had very talented comtemporaries. One of them were Laxmikant Pyarelal whose fort was the dholak. If there were any MD's who made this particular instrument popular and used it on a consistent basis, it was L-P. Pancham on the other hand did not use the dholak that much. He mostly used to create rhythms on the Tumba, Duggi, Madal, Bongo, Congo, Tabla and other percussion instruments.

The story goes that one of L-P's musicians pointed out to Pancham that the dholak was mainly L-P's forte and they were the masters at using this instrument. Pancham took this as a challenge to create a song that would show he was as good in the usage of the dholak.

He then discussed this with Maruti Rao Keer who was one of his assistants as well as the head of his rhythm department on how to make a song based on the Dholak only. According to Maruti Rao Keer:

1) The Dholak beats of this song were made first
2) Pancham made the song later based on that Taal

Can you believe this ?. Most of the time, the tune of the song is created first and then the rhythm and everything associated with the song comes after but in this case it is the reverse. This is a very interesting aspect and shows that Pancham really wanted to show everyone that he could use the dholak effectively.

The tune is excellent and amazing singing by Lata ji and Rafi saab. Listen to the dholak in this song, its mindblowing !!

Kahe Ko Bulaya
Film: Humshakal
Year: 1974
Lyrics: Anand Bakshi