SD Burman- Biography

He was born Comilla (now Bangla Desh). He was from Tripura's royal family, but the brothers fell out, and one moved to Comilla, till they later went back. Anyway, he studied in Agartala and Calcutta, and started with singing Bengali songs of various kinds. His influences were Baul and Bhatiyali songs. He made a name for himself, but for further growth, moved to Mumbai. He stayed with Harindranath Chattopadhyay initially, and struggled.

Success came slowly, and he once even considered moving back. Ashok Kumar managed to delay his departure- for ever, thank God. We may otherwise have missed out on his superb music from later films. My own favourites are all his Dev Anand films- from Paying Guest Check out this song.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YXCTKubQLg from the film as an example.

Or Tere Ghar ke Samne Check this out too.. Dil ka bhanwar kare pukar.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEMMGb4xMQQ what a melody.

Later songs from Gambler (Dil aaj shayar hai..), Tere Mere Sapne (Hey, maine kasam li), Prem Pujari (Shokhiyon mein ghola jaaye), or Guide (Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hain), or others like Ek ladki bheegi bhagi si (Chalti ka Naam Gadi), O meri, o meri o meri Sharmeelee from the film Sharmeelee are a testimony to an abundant talent that gave Rajesh Khanna his superstardom in Aradhana. To me, SDB was a superstar too.

The book details the contributions of his assistants Jaidev, and arrangers/players like Basu, Manohari and Maruti Rao Keer, who assisted him throughout. Pandit Shiv Kumar played for him, and so did Hariprasad Chaurasia.There was also a professor Gopal das Saxena aka Neeraj who wrote many beautiful songs for him.

He composed (for Mili) till his last breath, and turned out superb numbers. In Abhimaan too, before that. Stories about various songs abound, and are thrilling to read. I read the translated book in Marathi, from HQ Chaudhary's original.

Burman Jalsa- A Musical Show

Had the good fortune last evening, to attend a marathon four-hour concert dedicated to SD Burman. He was RD Burman's father, who left the royal family of Tripura, because he was crazy about music. He established himself as a singer in Bengali, but we non-Bengalis know him because of his film songs in Hindi. And what a range of songs! From folksy to the sensual (Roop tera mastana, for instance), he has it all. Was also the mentor for Kishore Kumar Khandwewala, that great singer who gave us great delight with his superbly crazy singing.

The show in Pune brought forth the brilliance of his compositions, from films such as Jaal, Baazi, Kala Pani, Guide, Prem Pujari, Jewel Thief, Teen Deviyan, Lajwanti, Sujata, Pyaasa, Kagaz ke Phool, Sharmilee, Aradhana to name a few. The organisers also released a book on SD Burman in a Marathi translation.

My favourites from the show were Ga mere man ga, Paanch rupiah barah aana, Dil ka bhanwar kare pukar, Khwab ho tum ya koi haqeeqat, Are yaar meri tum bhi ho ghazab, Suno gajar kya gaaye, Rangeela re, Jalte hain jiske liye, and the one in his own voice, Wahan kaun hai tera, musafir, jaayega kahan, dum lele ghadi bhar, yeh chhaiyyan paayega kahan.....immortal.

The musicians, especially the flute and tabla players, were outstanding. Out of the four singers, I liked Vibhavari the best, followed by Jitendra. A wonderful surprise was the presence of Enoch Daniels, who released the book on Burman. He is a well-known accordionist and arranger, who has done instrumental versions of most good Hindi film songs. He mentioned that he got his first break as a musician with SD Burman.