Pancham Between the Pages

It was in college that Balaji Vittal and Aniruddha Bhattacharjee caught the RD Burman bug. And they never recovered. “We had first heard his music in school,but college was the time when we were always singing Dum Maaro Dum along with some wild strumming on the guitar. Burman just invaded our lives in more ways than we could realise,and the mystique of his music became a phenomena with every song that he delivered,” says Vittal,42,an engineer,who now works with the Royal Bank of Scotland. The friends decided to take further their fascination for Burman,or the Boss as he is also known – and thus was born their book RD Burman,The Man,The Music (Harper Collins,Rs 399).

“His classical songs were extremely impressive and difficult to sing. It is the versatility in his music that has made us write this book,” says Kolkata-based Bhattacharjee,46,a student of music and an engineer who works with an MNC. Vittal and Bhattacharjee are clear that the book is not a biography but a stylistic analysis of Burman’s songs. They have looked at his persona largely through the filters of his music. “Biographies are written by people who are close to the personality. We have written this as keen observers and listeners of Burmanda’s music,” says Vittal.

Replete with anecdotes and interviews with Shammi Kapoor,Randhir Kapoor and Vidhu Vinod Chopra,the book is largely about capturing the nostalgia of his songs. The authors have also touched upon the issue of Burman being blamed for peddling plagiarised music in the 1970s. “There is a difference between getting influenced and plagiarising music. His music had his innate stamp on it,” says Vittal.

Like most fans of RD Burman,the authors vehemently state that the maestro never got his due. “Films like Amar Prem,with evergreen songs like Raina beeti jaye and Kuchh to log kahenge,and Caravan,with the eternal Tum jo mil gaye ho,deserved much more recognition than it got,” says Vittal. “Just before Burman died,he gave 1942-A Love Story to the world. Considered his swansong,numbers like Ek ladki ko dekha had a sense of melody and gentleness that we still crave for.”