Sachin Dev (SD) Burman: Pathos and Pangs
Biswanath Bhattacharya
April 13, 2024, 11:08:49
“Music is geography.” (Claude Debussy, 1862-1918).
“Music is all about the place one comes from.” (Antonio Vivaldi, 1678-1741)
“My music carries the echoes of my home terrains.” (Johannes Brahms, 1833-1897).
Badi suni Badi suni suni hai
Zindagi ye zindagi
Mai khud se hoon yehan
Ajnabi ajnabi
The booming voice of Kishore Da, full of pathos, sang this song in Hrishi Da’s 1975 movie Mili, a film full of pathos about a vivacious girl whose life is shattered by a pernicious anaemia diagnosis.
The pathos in the song, which beautifully reflects the pathos in the script by Dr Rahi Masoom Reza, Bimal Dutta and Mohini N Sippy, came from a music composer who was a master of pathos: music director Sachin Karta, otherwise known by his formal name Sachin Dev Burman, or S D Burman.
And the song was almost prophetic because Sachin Karta never got to see this song become a smash hit—one of his best, one of Kishore Da’s best.
During a rehearsal, he slipped into a coma and, soon, into death. The world of filmi music in India was abruptly deprived of an all-time great.
Sachin Karta’s signature tune was poignancy. His songs were full of soul and soothing Bengali folk ambience, like Wahan Kaun Hai Tera from the movie Guide, Chal Ree Sajni Ab Kya Soche from Bombai Ka Babu, and Doli Me Beethaye Ke from Amar Prem.
He sang all of these three songs himself, and they are awesome songs sung awesomely, but that is incidental, as is the fact he sang four songs composed by Kazi Nazrul Islam, a revolutionary Bengali poet, who was a close family friend.
Sachin Karta was, first and foremost, a composer. He lived and breathed music.
He added an almost limitless range to the versatility of singers like Kishore Da (Tere Mere Milan Ki Ye Raina from Abhimaan; Chhod Do Aanchal Zamana Kya Kahega from Paying Guest) and Mohammed Rafi (Dil Ke Bhanwar Kare Pukar from Tere Ghar Ke Samne; Kya Se Kya Ho Gaya from Guide) and of course, the recently departed nightingale Lata Mangeshkar (Thandi Hawayen from Naujawan; Tum Na Jaane Kis Jahan Me Kho Gaye from Sazaa).
Sachin Karta was the only composer to have worked with both Kishora Da and Mohammad Rafi. Interestingly, a spat between Sachin Karta and Lata lasted for about five years between 1958 and 1963, when they did not work with each other. Fortunately for us music lovers, they made up, and their divine songs were on tap again.
On a personal level, Sachin Karta’s most significant collaborations were probably with Prabodh Chandra Dey, more famous by Manna Dey, or just Manna in filmi music circles. I suppose Manna Dey must have spent the first five years of his career with Sachin Karta in a state of extreme frustration because he was just an assistant to the great man, helping with notations and rehearsals and other work for other singers collaborating with Sachan Karta. He was not given any chance to demonstrate his singing skills.
To his credit, Manna Dey stuck to his mentor and his dreams. Sachin Karta and Manna Dey were passionate about football and would go see matches together. Sachin Karta was an East Bengal fanatic, while Manna Dey’s loyalties lay with Mohun Bagan, but when they went to see matches featuring these teams, Manna Dey would cheer East Bengal’s goals and put on a sad face when Mohun Bagan scored.
Manna Dey’s patience and loyalty finally paid off, and his dream of singing songs composed by Sachin Karta finally became reality in 1950 when Sachin Karta asked him to sing the song Upar Gagan Vvishaal for the film Mashal. There was no looking back for Manna Dey after that.
Manna Dey was fond of telling a story about Sachin Karta’s almost perfectionist obsession with music. In 1963, Sachin Karta, in a lungi and a vest, unexpectedly dropped in on Dey's Bombay residence well past 10 pm one day, when Manna Dey was all set to sleep. The maestro clutched a piece of paper in his hand, and as soon as he stepped in, he grabbed Manna Dey’s harmonium. Manna Dey immediately knew Sachin Karta had an idea for a new song that he wanted Manna Dey to sing. The song was in Raag Bhairavi. Sachin Karta’s excitement was infectious, and they practised the song right through the night.
That practice led to the super hit, immortal song Puchho Na Kaise Maine Rain Beetayeen in the movie Meri Surat Teri Aankhein. They churned out other super hits like Jaaun Main Kahan from Miss India (1957) and Piya maine kya kiya mujhe chhod ke jaiyo na from Us Paar (1974).
Legendary musician and composer Sachin Dev Burman’s palatial home in the Comilla district of Bangladesh is all set to be transformed into a cultural complex, with the Sheikh Hasina government having sanctioned Taka 1.10 crore (Rs 86 lakh) for the project.
Dev Burman, born in 1906, spent the first 18 years of his life in this South Chartha village Rajbari (palace) in Comilla. He was trained by luminaries like K C Dey, Bhishmadev Chattopadhyay, Khalifa Badal Khan and Ustad Allauddin Khan, and he not only did justice to every one of them in his later years, but he also set superlative standards that became almost impossible for future music directors to match, let alone surpass. His musical talent was honed under the supervision of his father, who was a sitarist. Dev Burman completed his schooling at Comilla Zilla School and graduated from Victoria Government College in 1924.
His father, a descendant of the Tripura royal family, had moved to Comilla to look after the princely estates. The palace, where the music maestro was born and raised, was listed as a protected monument on November 30, 2017, officials in Bangladesh said. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Agartala to attend the convocation of Tripura University in 2012. She assured a delegation of writers and cultural activists there that the house would be preserved and converted into a cultural centre and museum.
Sachin Kara’s career started at a humble level as a radio singer on Calcutta Radio Station. He first recorded a song for Hindustan Records in 1932. In 1934, his thumri rendition at the Bengal Music Conference inaugurated in Calcutta by Rabindranath Tagore earned him the gold medal. His first Bollywood hit was Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya, voiced by Geeta Dutt in the 1947 movie Do Bhai. While he continued to produce hits, he was increasingly frustrated by Bombay’s unashamed materialism, such that after about a decade, he wanted to quit and go back to Calcutta. He was persuaded to change his mind—much to Bombay’s gain and Calcutta’s loss, though it must also be said that Bombay or Calcutta, genius is genius and music gained the most.
Sachin Karta was guru and mentor to his son Rahul Dev Burman, a legend in his own right, no less than the father, and someone about whom a separate article will have to be written soon.
Sachin Dev Burman, alias Sachin Karta, was honoured with the Padma Shri in 1969.
suni hai
Zindagi ye zindagi
Mai khud se hoon yehan
Ajnabi ajnabi
The booming voice of Kishore Da, full of pathos, sang this song in Hrishi Da’s 1975 movie Mili, a film full of pathos about a vivacious girl whose life is shattered by a pernicious anaemia diagnosis. The pathos in the song, which beautifully reflects the pathos in the script by Dr Rahi Masoom Reza, Bimal Dutta and Mohini N Sippy, came from a music composer who was a master of pathos: music director Sachin Karta, otherwise known by his formal name Sachin Dev Burman, or S D Burman. The song was almost prophetic because Sachin Karta never got to see this song become a smash hit—one of his best, one of Kishore Da’s best.
During rehearsals, he slipped into a coma and, soon, into death. The world of filmi music in India was abruptly deprived of an all-time great. Sachin Karta’s signature tune was poignancy. His songs were full of soul and soothing Bengali folk ambience, like Wahan Kaun Hai Tera from the movie Guide, Chal Ree Sajni Ab Kya Soche from Bombai Ka Babu, and Doli Me Beethaye Ke from Amar Prem. He sang all of these three songs himself, and they are fantastic songs sung awesomely, but that is incidental, as is the fact he sang four songs composed by Kazi Nazrul Islam, a revolutionary Bengali poet who was a close family friend.
Sachin Karta was, first and foremost, a composer. He lived and breathed music.
He added an almost limitless range to the versatility of singers like Kishore Da (Tere Mere Milan Ki Ye Raina from Abhimaan; Chhod Do Aanchal Zamana Kya Kahega from Paying Guest) and Mohammed Rafi (Dil Ke Bhanwar Kare Pukar from Tere Ghar Ke Samne; Kya Se Kya Ho Gaya from Guide) and of course, the recently departed nightingale Lata Mangeshkar (Thandi Hawayen from Naujawan; Tum Na Jaane Kis Jahan Me Kho Gaye from Sazaa).
Sachin Karta was the only composer to have worked with both Kishora Da and Mohammad Rafi. Interestingly, there was a spat between Sachin Karta and Lata that lasted for about five years between 1958 to 1963 when they did not work with each other. Fortunately for us music lovers, they made up and their divine songs were on tap again.
On a personal level, Sachin Karta’s greatest collaborations were probably with Prabodh Chandra Dey, more famous by the name Manna Dey, or just Manna in filmi music circles. I suppose Manna Dey must have spent the first five years of his career with Sachin Karta in a state of extreme frustration because he was just an assistant to the great man, helping with notations and rehearsals and other work for other singers collaborating with Sachan Karta. He was not given any chance to demonstrate his singing skills. To his credit, Manna Dey stuck to his mentor and his dreams.
Sachin Karta and Manna Dey were passionate about football and would go see matches together. Sachin Karta was an East Bengal fanatic, while Manna Dey’s loyalties lay with Mohun Bagan, but when they went to see matches featuring these teams, Manna Dey would cheer East Bengal’s goals and put on a sad face when Mohun Bagan scored.
Manna Dey’s patience and loyalty finally paid off, and his dream of singing songs composed by Sachin Karta finally became reality in 1950 when Sachin Karta asked him to sing the song Upar Gagan Vvishaal for the film Mashal. There was no looking back for Manna Dey after that.
Manna Dey was fond of telling a story about Sachin Karta’s almost perfectionist obsession with music. In 1963, Sachin Karta, in a lungi and a vest, unexpectedly dropped in on Dey's Bombay residence well past 10 pm one day, when Manna Dey was all set to sleep. The maestro clutched a piece of paper in his hand, and as soon as he stepped in, he grabbed Manna Dey’s harmonium. Manna Dey immediately knew Sachin Karta had an idea for a new song that he wanted Manna Dey to sing. The song was in Raag Bhairavi. Sachin Karta’s excitement was infectious, and the two of them practised the song right through the night.
That practice led to the super hit, immortal song Puchho Na Kaise Maine Rain Beetayeen in the movie Meri Surat Teri Aankhein. They churned out other super hits like Jaaun Main Kahan from Miss India (1957) and Piya maine kya kiya mujhe chhod ke jaiyo na from Us Paar (1974).
Sachin Kara’s career started at a humble level as a radio singer on Calcutta Radio Station. He first recorded a song for Hindustan Records in 1932. In 1934, his thumri rendition at the Bengal Music Conference inaugurated in Calcutta by Rabindranath Tagore earned him the gold medal.
His first Bollywood hit was Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gaya, voiced by Geeta Dutt in the 1947 movie Do Bhai. While he continued producing hits, he was increasingly frustrated by Bombay’s unashamed materialism, such that after about a decade, he wanted to quit and return to Calcutta. He was persuaded to change his mind—much to Bombay’s gain and Calcutta’s loss, though it must also be said that in Bombay ( Mumbai) or Calcutta ( Kolkata), genius is genius, and music gained the most. Sachin Karta was a guru and mentor to his son Rahul Dev Burman, a legend in his own right, no less than the father.
“My life in folk music is like a dream,” Sachin Debbarman confesses. Elsewhere, he points out the importance of both Bhatiali and Baul his development as a composer. He describes Bhatiali as “..earthly music, rooted in the soil it sprouts from.” He differentiates between Baul and Bhatiali, with the former being an instrument narrating a philosophy, while the latter depicts a mood, sometimes philosophical. A particularly noteworthy and daring assertion Sachin Karta makes in the interview is to claim that, in his opinion, not only are folk traditions around the world connected by threads of commonality, but that he believes European folk music, in fact, derived from those of India, especially Bengal.
“Dariya ki rawani, mashriq ka andaaz/Aapki mausiqi mein Bengal ka saaz” (The flow of a river, the style of the East/Your music is the instrument of Bengal), poet-lyricist Shailendra complimented Burman da with this couplet. S D Burman once told Pramathesh Barua that the euphonic ‘ruin’ (a rare Sanskrit-Bangla word for the musical sound of flowing water, softer than the onomatopoetic ‘Kalka’) is in the heart of every song that he composed. And, he composed for over 100 movies. Inclined towards music from childhood, young Sachin would go to meadows and hinterlands of Tripura to listen to Bhatiali, folk songs and meadows-strains of the cattle grazers and fishermen.
Like William Wordsworth, Sachin Dev felt that nature has its own unadulterated and virgin music, and one ought to have an ear for it. During his stay in Calcutta (sorry, no Kolkata for me), when he formally learnt G F Han and Sebastian Bach’s meadow music, he understood that the language of music was universal and folk music could be an endless source of musicality and creativity. During that period, the AIR, Calcutta had an English station director. He advised Burman to learn how to play a piano so that he (Burman) could learn all the facets of western and Indian classical music.
He believed in the perfect coordination of the words and tunes. ‘Natural poetry would naturally create a worth-humming tune,’ he would often say. When lyricist Yogesh Gaur wrote the song: Piya maine kya kiya mujhe chhod ke jaiyo na (Film: Uss Paar, Manna Dey, 1974), he wanted SD to sing the song but Burman da believed that he had aged and his voice had started cracking. He suggested the name of Manna De, who sang it so beautifully.
Though such a great composer, Burman da was unsure if posterity would remember him. He was self-effacing to a fault. A well-read man, he would often quote English poet John Keats: ‘My name will be writ on water.’ He chose a few lyrical poems by Shelly, Keats and Byron (all coevals) and created tunes for them, but he couldn’t finish the ambitious project. SD could quote Byron at the drop of a hat. He told a Bengali journalist a few months before his demise: People will never forget Mozart and Beethoven. They won’t remember a composer like me. We remember you, Burman da and will continue to remember you. You’re perennially ensconced in the hearts of your admirers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nezFXDk4jYA
(Tripurainfo)