Chhaayaageet #56 - “Phone karke bol gaana ho gaya. Gaana ho gaya. Bula bula jaldi.”
Today is one of those rare days when there is no recording. Otherwise, the musicians have no respite. A handful of films going on simultaneously. A rehearsal of this song, a recording of that one.
But today, there is none of that. On days like these, they just do their own sitting, with their drums, their guitars, their saxophone, jamming and coming up with compositions. One lives for creative days like these!
The drummer and guitarist live in Khar, a suburb of Bombay, not too far from the composer’s house in Santa Cruz, another suburb. One can just take Linking Road, and go from Khar to Santa Cruz.
This morning, the plan is to do a sitting with the composer. Music for the joy of music!
The drummer and guitarist reach the composer’s house a little earlier than usual. The composer is not ready for them. He has yet to shower and have his breakfast. Until then, instead of just sitting idle, they start to play something.
It’s casual small talk between friends, just shooting the breeze, talking music. What if we play this, or play that, or what if we had played this in that song. A riff here, a riff there.
The guitarist tries a few chords. The drummer listens to his chords intently.
“Mein bhi madal tune karke aap ka chord follow karun to kaisa rahega?”, the drummer wonders out aloud. How about I tune my madal drum and follow your chords?
“Han han, kar kar, dekhte hain kaisa lagta hai”, the guitarist encourages excitedly. Yes, yes, do it. Let’s see how it sounds.
So the guitarist plays the chords, and the drummer follows along.
After a while, other musicians show up at the composer’s house, and the riff stops. They even forget about it.
Seeing that his core group of musicians have arrived, the composer comes out into the living room. He takes his harmonium and joins them.
As he glides his fingers over the ivory and black keys, he thinks of something and looks around for his secretary.
“Arre Bharat, Gulzar ji ko bolo aaj unka gaana to karna hi padega, kaise bhi karke. To bulao unko. Kuch karte hain”, the composer instructs his secretary, Bharat. We have to finish Gulzar’s song today one way or another. So ask him to come over. We will do something.
As the secretary leaves to perform his task, the composer gazes into the distance, as if thinking of something. He pauses for a few seconds and turns to the drummer.
“Tu subeh kuch baja raha tha na? Mein andar sun raha tha.” Weren’t you playing something in the morning? I was listening to it from inside.
“Nahin dada, kuch nahin tha. Woh chord baja rahe thay to main bas follow karne ko try kar raha tha.” It was nothing much. He was playing the chord so I was just trying to follow along. The drummer tries to explain it away. He isn't even sure what they were playing and what the composer heard. It was just a riff.
“Baja baja kaise bajaya. Tu bhi baja.” Play it, play it again, how did you play it. You also play. The composer asks the guitarist and the drummer to repeat what they played earlier.
They oblige him.
The composer listens to it intently with his eyes closed. He opens his eyes, looks at the drummer. He then looks over towards the guitarist. Instantly he calls out to his secretary. “Bharat, Gulzar ji ko firse phone laga. Phone karke bol gaana ho gaya. Gaana ho gaya. Bula bula jaldi.” Call Gulzar again. Call him and tell him his song is ready. It is done. Ask him to come over quickly.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x805vww
Ranjit Gazmer played the madal and Bhanu Gupta played the guitar for the song Tere bina jiya jaye na in the film Ghar (1978), music by RD Burman and lyrics by Gulzar, and sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Kishore Kumar.
For this song, RD wanted the madal to follow the pitch of the song. RD also wanted a metallic sound of percussion. He wanted to go to Darjeeling to find one but a metal madal was locally available in Bombay. So multiple madal drums were obtained from a local instrument maker each tuned uniquely to a different scale. Ranjit Gazmer had to play them alternately with the changing chords during the prelude of the song.
Since there were multiple madal drums in front of him, Gazmer did not know which one to play when. So, with every stroke of the guitar, Bhanu Gupta would nod his head to indicate which madal to play.
Watch Ranjit Gazmer playing the madal live with the song playing in the background.
Ghar was a socially forward film as it dealt with the topic of rape, at a time when a rape victim was largely ignored by society. Rekha’s performance as a rape victim was applauded. She was nominated for the Filmfare for Best Actress. Dinesh Thakur won the Filmfare award for Best Story.
Lyrics: Gulzar
Musicians: Ranjit Gazmer, Bhanu Gupta
Music: RD Burman
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar
*ing: Rekha, Vinod Mehra
Film: Ghar (1978)