Book Review: The Musical World of SD Burman
Writing a biography is a tough task. It cannot be a simple collage of photos and anecdotes culled out from authentic sources. It has to reflect on what makes the person unique. It should not get colored by the writer’s admiration or dislike of the protagonist. In crafting the biography the most difficult phase is to find a way to understand the rationale behind the choices the protagonist made. But to mouth phrases and words by trying to get into the head of the character makes it a little creepy.
The words attributed to SD Burman just do not sound like him. That really jars. But I got used to it after a few pages. How did this bio of SD Burman come into being? Sathya Saran talks about being handed over two bulging files of paper clippings by Moti Lalwani, an ardent fan of SDB. That along with the autobiographical note “Sargamer Nikhad” penned by SD forms the backbone of the book. Maybe that is why the book lacks a simple coherent narrative. There are a few typos that confuse. She refers to SD’s village as Charta and Chatra in consecutive sentences. But that is a minor lapse.
What the book does really well is to explain the rich musical influences during the early years of SD Burman ranging from KC Dey (who was Manna Dey’s uncle), Bhisma Dev Chattopadhyay and Allauddin Khan. SD also worked briefly with Kazi Nazrul Islam and met Tagore several times during his visits to Burman’s ancestral home in Agartala. Burman tried to study law but eventually the draw of music proved much stronger.
As a radio singer in Calcutta he brought in the traditions of Bengali folk music like Baul and Bhatiyali, the sounds of the villages in Bangladesh as well as Rabindra Sangeet and Nazrul Geeti. The song Chokh gelo pakhire was written and composed by Kazi Nazrul Islam and was one of his popular songs of those days.
I admire SD Burman as a person for his ability to reinvent himself repeatedly by walking away from early successes many times. He gave up his life as a prince and then started life as a singer and composer in Bengali films. He had composed music for at least 17 Bengali movies when he decided to move to Bombay to try his hand at Bollywood. Naushad, Anil Biswas, Shankar Jaikishan were already carving out their own styles and even OP Nayyar’s musical style was beginning to have its own niche. SD Burman came in to compose music for a language he did not understand very well. Maybe that is why he got lyricists like Raja Mehdi Ali Khan to write phonetically pleasing words. But for all what SD did, he remained relatively unrecognized.
He got nominated for Filmfare awards seven times. But won it only twice. The first one was for the song "Jaaye To Jaaye Kahan" from the film Taxi Driver (1955) and then for Abhiman (1974). In 1971 SD was nominated for the Filmfare award for Talaash but lost to Shankar Jaikishan for Pehchaan. Or the year before that had the music of SD's Aradhana lose to Lakshmikant Pyarelal's Jeene Ki Raah. But if in 1967 the Filmfare award went to Shankar Jaikishan's lacklustre Suraj instead of SD Burman's Guide - that's unfair. Most others would have been heartbroken but not SD. That's what I respect the most about him.
Sathya captures the essence of SD’s music – simple words and lilting tunes, minimal orchestration and sung in new voices. When Geeta Dutt sang Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya for the film Do Bhai (1947), she was just a seventeen year old. But it took a SD Burman to discover the potential of Geeta Dutt complete with the pathos, the lilt and that unmistakable Bengali accent. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBQ60nKcZPg
The very first song that Kishore Kumar sang for SD was “Banka Sipahiya” for the film Aath Din (8 Days) made in 1946. It was just two three lines sung in the chorus. The film also has the first released song of Meena Kapoor who went on to marry the composer Anil Biswas.The first song Kishore Kumar sung for SD Burman was for the film Bahaar (1951). The song was Kusoor Aapka Huzoor Aapka. And the story of Bandini (1963), when Lata came back to sing for SD after a six year cold war, the Shailendra-SD combo broke up. That was also when a car mechanic got his break with Bimal Roy asking him to write Vaishnavi poetry that SD would set to music. The result was Gulzar’s debut song Mora Gora Ang Layi Le.
There are lots of enjoyable moments like this in Sathya Saran’s book that captures the musical world of SD Burman. It is jumpy narration that makes the story sound like a collection of paper clippings that have fallen out of a box and lie scattered. You pick up one and read it and then put it down to pick up another clipping and photograph. The narrative voice is missing. We have all heard of the saying “Doctor heal thyself”. This is my turn to suggest Sathya who is an accomplished editor that she should do another round of ruthless editing to make the soul of SD Burman come through in the book.--------Join me on Twitter @AbhijitBhaduri