Khemchand Prakash

Remembered most for the unforgettable scores of Tansen, Mahal, and Ziddi, Khemchand Prakash was born in Jaipur. His father, Pandit Govardhan Prasad, served as court singer at the Jaipur palace.

Khemchand Prakash inherited his father’s singing skills and was appointed the court singer of Bikaner at the age of 19. A proficient singer, he also worked as a radio artiste in Calcutta. However, his contribution to the film industry was not as a singer but as a music composer. He joined Bombay’s Ranjit Studio in 1940 and found early success with films such as Diwali, Holi, and Pagal. But it was Jayant Desai’s Tansen that established Prakash as a master tunesmith. Sung by the unmatchable K.L. Saigal and Khursheed Begum, the film’s music remains a classic in Hindi cinema.

While Tansen demanded a strictly classical score, Prakash adapted traditional music to come up with lilting numbers for Kamal Amrohi’s Mahal. This romantic thriller featured the haunting Ayega ayega, ayega aanewala sung by Lata Mangeshkar. Prakash is also credited with having discovered Kishore Kumar. He gave the singer his first break with the song Marne ki duaen kyun maangoon in the film Ziddi.

Khemchand Prakash continued to compose music till his death in 1950. His last few films were completed by such music directors as Manna Dey and Basant Prakash.

Sajjad Hussain

Known as much for his musical brilliance as his forthrightness, Sajjad Hussain’s compositions rank amongst the most complex scores of Hindi film music. Born in Sitamau, Madhya Pradesh, Sajjad learnt to play the sitar from his father. This was to be his only formal training in music. He moved to Bombay in the early 1940s, and found work as assistant to composer Hanuman Prasad. Together they composed music for the film Gaali. Sajjad’s first hit, Dost, was released the same year. The film featured Badnaam mohabbat kaun kare, a stirring number rendered by singer-actress Noorjehan.

Sajjad was considered to be a perfectionist who looked into every detail himself. He is said to have never relied on assistants, not even to instruct the orchestra. It was this quest for perfection which demanded 17 retakes for recording the classic Yeh hawa, yeh raat, yeh chandni (Sangdil).

A master of rhythm, Sajjad’s intricate and difficult tunes were often a challenge to singers. Amongst the memorable melodies he created are: Ae dilruba nazarein mila and Yeh kaisi ajab dastaan ho gayi hai (both from Rustom Sohrab), Dil mein sama gaye saajan (Sangdil), and Khayalon mein tum ho nazaaron mein tum ho (Saiyan).

R.D. Burman

With ‘Dum maro dum’, the seminal rock number from Hare Rama Hare Krishna (’71), Rahul Dev Burman initiated the pop blitzkrieg of Hindi film music. But even as Burman provoked a sonic revolution, he stunned the audiences by composing, in the same year, a classical gem like `Raina beeti jaaye’ for Amar Prem (’71).

Rahul’s father, music director S D Burman, nicknamed him Pancham because even as a child, he would cry in all the five notes. Not surprisingly, Pancham grew up to become passionate about music. Along with his mother, he assisted S D Burman in the 50s, even coming up with an occasional independent tune like `Sar jo tera chakraye’ (Pyaasa).

Mehmood says he gave his friend, Rahul, his break as a music director in Chhote Nawab (’61) because he got tired of Rahul denting his car with the persistent drumming of his fingers. In Chhote Nawab, Rahul got Lata to sing the exquisite `Ghar aaja ghir aayee’, and consequently became instrumental in mending fences between Lata and S D Burman. But it took Rahul almost five more years before he got his next film, Mehmood’s Bhoot Bangla (’65). Mehmood cast Rahul in a comic role in Bhoot BangIa and even offered him Padosan (’68). But Rahul declined as he had promised his father that he would not embarrass the family by acting. So Burman’s contribution to Padosan remained a riotous score headed by the sidesplitting ‘Arrey dekhi teri chaturai’. Later, an embittered Mehmood watched friend Rahul shift focus to bigger banners like Nasir Husain which helped Rahul catapult into the big league.

In the early 70s, Burman junior reached his pinnacle with a slew of Kishore Kumar songs in Rajesh Khanna starrers like Kati Patang, Amar Prem and Namak Haram. Even the Aradhana chartbuster ‘Mere sapno ki rani’, though credited to S D Burman, was rumoured to have been son Rahul’s creation. But then, the father and son had always shared a relationship of mutual understanding. If the father felt the son was not doing justice to the Amar Prem song `Bada natkhat hai’, he did not think twice before reworking it himself.

Even as Hare Rama Hare Krishna and Jawani Diwani made Rahul a pop icon, he teamed up with Gulzar to produce such evocative refrains as ‘Tum aa gaye ho’ (Aandhi) and `Naam ghum jayega’ (Kinara). Mega hits like Sholay, Deewaar; Hum Kisise Kum Nahin kept him saleable throughout the 70s. Even in the early 80s, he was the first choice for teenage love stories like Love Story, Rocky and Betaab.

But later, Saagar or Ijazat could not stem the decline. As his wife, Asha Bhosle pointed out, “With the coming of Bappi Lahiri, his producers disappeared. If they get a plagiarised tune at a lower cost, why would they come to the original?”

Unfortunately, 1942, A Love Story which showed that Rahul was still capable of great compositions like `Ek ladki ko dekha’ came after his demise. His fans who groove even today to bootleg versions of `Chura liya hai’ or `Dum maro dum’ lament his early death. But then, as consolation, Burman has left in his dazzling repertoire, many a ready fix for RD junkies.