Spice of Life: Tuning into Pancham Da’s mesmerising music legacy

A pleasant surprise awaited me last Thursday. As I switched on the engine of the car, the radio sprang to life. The sound waves emanating from the radio station made my heart leap with joy.

The exuberance and energy of the song, “Chala jaata hun, kisi ki dhun mein…”, had not diminished an ounce in the five decades that have gone by since it was created by Pancham Da. The short drive to my hospital was made even more eclectic by the gentle flow of melody of the song, “O Hansini”, another masterpiece by RD Burman. And then it occurred to me, it was June 27, the birth anniversary of the music legend.

My earliest recollection of the music of Pancham Da took me back to 1977 when Hum Kisi Se Kum Nahin was released. As school students, we simply loved the “very different” voice of Pancham Da himself in the song, “Tum kya jaano”. The beats and the melody were such that everyone who heard it felt like shaking a leg. The same movie had the soulful “Kya hua tera vaada”, which, quite literally, made one yearn for long-lost brothers. I must confess that I still have the audio cassette (internet was not yet born) of the movie, preserved in one of my cupboards.

So much has changed down the years from how music is created to how it’s marketed these days, but the freshness of the original creations endures.

As I grew older, the musical genius of Pancham Da became all the more enchanting. How could a music director create music for the abstract lyrics of Gulzar, “Iss mode se jaate hain” or “Khamosh sa afsaana, paani se likha hota” or “Mera kuch samaan”. But, there it was! Pancham Da managed to create mesmerising music even for those lyrics.

Pancham Da could create music from virtually anything. The rhythm of the breath formed the musical backbone of “Duniya mein, logon ko...” and the sound of spoon striking against the glass formed the soul of the iconic “Chura liya”.

I was in medical college when RD Burman passed away, but the musical genius refused to die. The songs of 1942: A Love Story were released a while later and our hostel would reverberate with the notes of “Ek ladki ko dekha” and “Kuch na kaho”. The music of rain in the song, “Rimjhim rimjhim”, though, was my favuorite, and of the numerous connoisseurs of his music in our college.

There is no other music director whose appeal has spanned across a lifetime and generations. Pancham Da, your eternal notes of music are your true legacy. I can still hear the soft notes of “Bade ache lagte hain” from a corner of my mind and, picturing you, I hum along, “Aur tum (And you)”.

gulbaharsidhu@rediffmail.com

(The writer is a Jalandhar-based psychiatrist.)