`There will never be another Pancham’

 On June 27, India will commemorate trend-setting music composer R D Burman’s  75th birth anniversary. Something unprecedented will also happen. For the first time ever, a mainstream television channel will showcase a documentary on prime-time. Pancham Unmixed: Mujhe Chalte Jaana Hai (an unending journey), a national award-winning feature-length documentary on R D Burman will be screened on Set Max on Friday at 9 pm and Sony Mix on Saturday at  9 pm. Max 2 will show it on  Sunday at 7 pm.

Brahmanand S Singh, the film-maker who created  the documentary, will also be releasing Knowing Pancham, a collection of over five hours of  interviews on R D Burman’s multi-faceted life in August along with the book Diamonds and Rust. This is a coffee table book put together by him and Bangalore-based author Gaurav Sharma with whom he had shared credit for another book, Pancham — Strings of Eternity.

Singh’s passion for documenting legends is not new. He has already filmed Asghari Bai, a narrative based on the dhrupad singer who was reduced by poverty to consider trading her awards for money. Singh is also in the process of filming Kagaz Ki Kashti, a detailed account based on the life of ghazal legend Jagjit Singh.  In a chat, he shares his passion for untold stories, his sadness over the callous disregard for our musical heritage and more.

On Asghari Bai

She dared to be a dhrupad singer in a largely male-dominated discipline. Here was an exponent of a fading tradition who had sung in royal courts (she sang in the Tikamgarh court for 35 years) and had received Padma Shri and Tansen Samman, Shikhar Samman and what have you. And yet, as an old woman, she was forgotten and was thinking of exchanging her awards for two square meals.

I wanted to capture the irony of our neglect of those who must not be forgotten. This film came about when sarod maestro Ali Akbar Khan told me that Asghari had been awarded `1 lakh. He was very upset and suggested that the state should step in and help her. When I made the film on her, a buzz was created and some help was generated.

The Pancham story

A Sufi rendition of Musafir Hoon Yaro in Karachi sparked off the need to film RD’s unbelievable reach. My grand-uncle and SD Burman learnt music from the same guru, so there is your connect! Plus, I grew up with his music. I am instinctively familiar with his kind of music..the murkis, the khatkas. Since we do not have a system of preserving the memories of our legends, on Pancham’s birth and death anniversary, I would see random capsules on TV where just about anyone would be holding forth on him.

He is one of our all-time greats and there was no serious work on him. So I tried to uncover his life and genius and to answer the question just WHY he was great. I remember a young listener praising Bally Sagoo for Chura liya hai! Today, his music is still being remixed, replayed on every radio and TV channel, in clubs and at weddings. He has fans across five generations but his story has always affected me. The fact that at his peak, he composed music for almost 20-21 films in one year! And yet by late 80s, when composers began to undercut remuneration and started to get more work than RD,  even his friends abandoned him. Even then, the quality of his work remained uncompromised.   With  the film on him,  I have set the ball rolling for entertaining and informative biographies. Pancham Unmixed received a humongous response, it won two national awards among many others, toured almost 40 festivals, was watched across the world. But it is only now that it will be seen on TV. Between the 40-crore films and the seven-lakh documentaries, we must make space for well-made biographical stories.

The tragedy of RD Burman

During the filming, I have kept my perspective out of the frames but it is obvious from a few statements that he was extremely lonely in the last years of his life. Apart from his team that worked with him on 1942-A Love Story and a handful of people, he had no one. It may also be because when you are down and out, you don’t want anyone around. According to a story that I heard, Shammi Kapoor saab who loved him very much once went to see him but was told that Pancham was not at home even though he was. Shammi saab reportedly called him out and scolded him and said, “Young man, I have done this a lot in my life but you won’t do this. Not to me.” He understood perhaps that Pancham was finding it tough to deal with the  lows. Not everyone would understand that. After his death, a lot of people, who had distanced themselves from him, are appropriating him and his legacy. It is like saying that only one person can claim to know Shakespeare really well. RD belongs to everyone. To the vandals, those who propagate his legacy and his fans. There will be many wanting to sing like him or to compose like him but there will be only one RD Burman

On Knowing Pancham

I was always asked what I was going to do with the unused footage from Pancham Unmixed. Well, it won’t any longer remain in my hard drive and will reach his fans. The footage of Knowing Pancham is over five hours long, has been edited and is in the process of being sub-titled. I never  met him and that is why I met over 200 people to know him.

Other films

I have also made documentaries like Ragpickers, Scavengers of a Different Graveyard, Uncaging the Body (that won the Apsara Award for Best Short Film, 2003-2004), A Burden of Love (on Alzheimer’s disease), and I am working on two feature films – Jhalki … Ek Aur Bachpan,set against the backdrop of child labor and Between Our Worlds, an Indo-German production, touching upon farmers’ suicides and corporate greed. Another film, Surmayee Shaam, with Alzheimer’s as a focal point is also in the pipeline.

The Jagjit Singh biography

For me the common thread between Pancham and Jagjit Singh saab was that they both were great artistes and great human beings. I have met many who answer to the first but not to the second but these men were extraordinary not just because they changed music in a way no one had done before but also because they never said, “I own the world.” Their attitude was, “I don’t care who owns the world.” There were greats before them and will be after them but something shifted with their arrival and was never the same again.

I always wanted to film  Jagjit saab’s life and it is happening now. Gulzaar saab who was close both to RD and Jagjit saab  has been a common reference point and I told him laughingly, “main sirf un logon pe film nahin banata jo aapke kareeb hon!” It just happened by chance. The film should be out by the end of the year. Be it Asghari Bai or Pancham or Jagjit saab, I wanted to understand their lives genuinely and to celebrate them and accord them the place that they deserve in our collective psyche.

 with The New Indian Express  

Reema Moudgil works for The New Indian Express, Bangalore, is the author of Perfect Eight, the editor of  Chicken Soup for the Soul-Indian Women, an artist, a former RJ and a mother. She dreams of a cottage of her own that opens to a garden and  where she can write more books, paint, listen to music and  just be.