A few photographs to commemorate Rahul Dev Burman. In his short and rich career as a music director, Rahul has worked with almost all the biggies of the Bombay film industry. His contribution to the Indian film industry is simply unsurpassed and will be remembered for generations to come.

On October 31, 1975, Sachin Dev Burman passed away. He suffered a stroke while rehearsing a song with Kishore Kumar for Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s movie, Mili (1975). At the hospital, Sachin Dev Burman was only concerned about the song’s fate. Pancham, and Kishore Kumar reassured him.

Oddly, Pancham, a music composer, was hesitant to create music for Bengali films after the failure of Salil Sen’s Rajkumari in 1970, despite having renowned actors like Uttam Kumar and Tanuja as the lead cast. Following his divorce and its aftermath, he refrained from composing music for Bengali films for a few years. 

In 1972, Pancham had a fulfilling year as he finally got the opportunity to work as a Music Director with Gulzar. By then, Gulzar had adapted Tapan Sinha’s Apanjan (1968) and made it into Mere Apne (1971), with Salil Chowdhury’s music.

As Rajesh Khanna started enjoying the superstardom, he discovered that lip-syncing songs on screen was one of his forte. In a way, he was repeating the method to showcase his appeal as Dev Anand did (who never appeared in a songless film). 

Pancham’s career took a new turn in 1965 when Jatin Khanna made headway in the India Talent Contest organized by United Producers (a joint venture of Producers-Directors like Bimal Roy, Subodh Mukherjee, B R Chopra, G P Sippy, Nasir Hussain, H S Rawail, J. Om Prakash, Mohan Saigal and Shakti Samanta) and Filmfare magazine. Jatin…

The rich variety of song tracks showcased in the film surprised many. Rahul became a sort of ‘Chote Nawab’. Senior Burmans’ ‘Tublu’ became to all ‘Pancham’ (a name he earned as a baby from his father, alternatively by Ashok Kumar, for crying, rather screaming incessantly, which matched ‘Pa’, the fifth note or the G scale,…

With the Funtoosh song as a badge, Rahul qualified himself to be a part of the core musician team of his father. It was at that point, that Guru Dutt came to senior SD asking to compose songs for Pyasa (1957).

It drizzled that evening. I distinctly remember that Durga Puja Asthami years ago, when the crowd was not quantified as hourly footfalls. Had it not rained, I could not experience the magic, as the crowd would teem the arterial road of Gariahat.