A Musical Gentleman

MUSIC1

A Musical Gentleman

Kaun kaun kitne paani mein, sab ki hai pehchaan mujhe went a hit Mukesh song in the 1970s. The lyrical aptness of his Shanker-Jaikishan hit comes to mind when I compare the music of two films, Rakesh Roshan’s Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai, and Mela.

Though both the album and the film bill Anu Malik as the only composer of Mela, in actual fact, Mela began with Rajesh Roshan and Malik stepped in mid-way. Towards the end, Dharmesh Darshan even got RD Burman to record a song - Oh! Was it Colonial Cousins? - called 2000 zamana aa gaya!

And while Anu Malik did a passable job of his songs, it is the Rajesh Roshan compositions which stand out in the melange. "The final mix of my songs Kamariya lachke re and Chori chori hum gori se was done by them," reveals a resigned Roshan, "There was tremendous room for improvement!" But even without this improvement, which "the last of the Originals" (as the late Laxmikant termed Rajesh) would have done, the songs still stand out! Only a few lines of Chori Chori are heard in the film, but in the audio, the song is peppy indeed.

Now take Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai. This is Rajesh Roshan at his inventive best. Here and there we find self-confessed traces of Roshan’s favourite source of inspiration, Vangelis. But Rajesh, unlike the present breed, knows how to affix his stamp on a derived composition. Take Hum do deewane (Kaun Saccha Kaun Jhoota), Jab koi baat bigad jaaye (Jurm) or Main teri hoon jaanam (Khoon Bhari Maang) - the flavour is the same as any of Rajesh’s completely original compositions. The world raves about the clean arrangements of composers RD Burman, AR Rahman and even Jatin-Lalit. But Rajesh Roshan’s orchestration has remained typically his, through his career ups and downs from the ’70s. "Tastes don’t really change - the people just demand frequent changes in the packaging!" opines the man. And Rajesh’s outre arrangements are not only distinctive but in a class of their own.

The same Anu Malik who got in after Rajesh Roshan was abandoned mid-way (where was the principled Aamir Khan when this was done?) openly credits a director with 60 per cent of the credit for a good or a hit score. And Anu knows what he is talking about, as every composer worth his salt will tell you. And the Mela director claiming that Rajesh Roshan could not deliver is like a parent blaming a child for failure, after never having given him an initiative, incentive and inspiration to succeed.

Rajesh Roshan gives diverse views when asked whether he does his best work for brother Rakesh in different interviews. One does not know the reasons for this, but if Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai proves something, it is that brother Rakesh extolled Rajesh to come up with his best, to provide an alternative if a tune wasn’t to his expectations, and to take his time over the compositions. The mood was to do something good, not design a hit song or score. For all those interested parties who still live in an illusory world, let me enlighten them on a basic axiom: a hit song, like a hit film, cannot be designed - period. One can imagine the level of Rajesh’s creative drive here, when you realise that the lyrical material and talent at his disposal were average, and that he even took special pains to compose songs - that too solos - which made a mark even with Lucky Ali’s somnabulistic vocals.

Nowhere in Rajesh Roshan’s constitution is there a desire to be a total slave to a trend. If he had his way, as Abhijeet so vividly recounted once to me, he would break fresh ground in every score. Look at the exotica he has composed for Mahesh Bhatt (Ghar se nikalte hi, Jab koi baat, Aina mujhse meri and that highly under-rated score - Dastak in the ’90s), Basu Chatterjee in the ’70s (Priyatama, Swami, Khatta Meetha, Dillagi), K Vishwanath in the ’80s (Kaamchor, Jaag Utha Insaan) and Parto Ghosh again in the ’90s (Kaun Saccha Kaun Jhoota, Yug Purush).

Rajesh Roshan’s compositions have to be studied carefully to realise the level of experimentation and melody in them and savour their orchestral finesse. Hear the poignant strains of Aao manaye jashn-e-muhabbat (Doosra Aadmi) or Yeh raatein nayi purani (Julie) and you will know that here is a composer, and not a music machine, at work. Move on then to Chhodoo yeh nigahon ka ishara (Inkaar), Tumse mila tha pyar (Khatta Meetha), Pardesia yeh sach hai piya (Mr Natwarlal - and who has composed a finer and more tailor-made composition than its Mere paas aao, for Amitabh Bachchan the vocalist among all those composers who made him sing?), Jab chhaye mera jadoo (Lootmaar), Chhookar mere man ko (Yaarana), Mal de gulal mohe (Kaamchor), Mujhe chhoo rahi hai (Svayamvar), Morni ne seekha (Jaag Utha Insaan) and Dushmun na kare (Aakhir Kyon?) right down to Zindagi ko, that lovely Udit Narayan ghazal from Solah Baras Ki Bali Umar which moved Dev Anand to tears at the recording.

To understand a gentleman called Rajesh Roshan (the man could have gone to town about the callous and completely unwarranted treatment he was subjected to in Mela, but then as Kavita Krishnamurthi says, "He’s the most gentlemenly music composer I have ever worked with!") one has to understand melody, music and musical talent. One cannot expect that from a source which considers Pardesi pardesi jaana nahin, 2000 zamana aa gaya and Poocho zaraa poocho as "great" songs. The fate and relative performance of Mela and Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai stand as scathing testimony to the comparative initial and repeat value they got because of their respective music scores.