Five geniuses. Review on Ten Best Hindi Music Directors

RD Burman

RD Burman was the unarguably most versatile of the lot. He could give you 'Aaja aaja' and'Tumne mujhe dekha' in the same movie. He could make you shake a leg in 'Jahan teri ye nazar hai' or make you sit up and actually try to find out meanings in Gulzar's subtle https://lyrics.

'Mera kuchh saamaan' reads like an application letter if you listen to the verse. But RD's magic brings life with the entire expression and meaning of the song.

Who knows if RD wasn't there, Kishore Kumar would have been left so underutilised. Pick up Kishore's best songs and more than half of would be RD's composition.Each musician has his trademarks. RD too had it- high on melody, instrumentation and innovation(example: 'Sapna mera toot gaya').There are movies which are duds on box office but their music lingers on because of RD Burman's class.

SD Burman

The bengali folk and traditional music had its effects on dada's compositions.But that was just not it.He was among the few music directors who made the changeover from 50's to 60's to 70's style of film music effortlessly. If 'Pyasa', 'Guide', 'Sujata', 'Teen Deviyaan', 'Kaala Bazaar', 'Kaala Paani', 'Jewel Thief' made their presence felt in earlier era, 'Aradhana' set the tone for the late 60s and subsequent 70s.'Abhimaan', 'Mili', 'Chupke Chupke' followed.

Having written so much about son, I must not forget that had it not been his heritage, RD would not have been so great.

Roshan

Remember the overwhelming qawwali in 'Barsaat ki raat' - ye ishq ishq hai? Roshan had so many other qawaalis in hindi films as well. 'Mann re, tu kaahe na dheer dhare' and 'Dil jo na keh saka' were few others of his many gems. I remember listening to 'Jaane wo kaun hai kya' song by Mohammad Rafi on a T-series cassette which did not carry any credits.

I did not see the film but I did get a hint that it had to be Roshan.Roshan was a master of shringaar ras songs. Just a trivia here. Listen to the flute that plays everytime right before Rafi sings'Mann re tu kaahe na.' and then hear son Rajesh Roshan's flute use in'Ghar se nikalte hi.'. Aren't they the same? Must be because both are based on same raga(Am I correct?)

Naushaad

At 85, Naushaad Ali is still composing music for movies. What can one write about this maestro? I am sure whenever Rafi saab headed for studio to record for Naushaad, he too must have been tested.The difficult aarohs and avrohs were always there. Naushad's compositions are the least hummable of all music directors.

You would always find wannabe singers trying to impress the judges in now so rampant talent search shows with one of Naushaad's compositions(example:Madhuban mein raadhika naachi re).When Naushad(Mughal-e-azam) lost out to SJ(Dil apna aur preet parayee) for the filmfare award in 1960, a lot of fim personalities protested against it. It was one of the many controversies surrounding Filmfare awards.

Madan Mohan

He was called the ghazal king.You can never predict what Madan Mohan would come up with next.He used to compose ten different tunes for the same song and then finalised one.Songs from 'Woh kaun thi', 'Mera saaya', 'Anpadh', 'Dastak', 'Adalat', 'Mausam', 'Haqeeqat', 'Hanste Zakhm' and many more had us mesmerized with the lyrics and the composition blending so well.Even his contemporaries acknowledged his superiority. But Madan Mohan never got big banners. Most of his songs were picturized on second rung heroines.

I had initially planned to write about ten best but when I started writing, I couldn't stop praising each one of them. I would write about rest of my favourites later. Enjoy!