Over two decades have passed since the charismatic music director RD Burman ascended from the realm of the mortals to heavens, but his legacy continues to live on. The prime time FM programmes are incomplete without his numbers and musical reality shows often have an episode dedicated to him. On his 77th birthday, we remember him as melodious music director and we did enjoy Pancham Da’s journey in the Music World. Google honoured him with a doddle. Google’s doodle brings in influences from all over the world, from disco, to funk, R.D. Burman revolutionised Bollywood.
R.D. Burman reached iconic status by the early seventies, when he formed a formidable combination with Kishore Kumar. Initially, purists scoffed at his western orientation, but he produced an array of spellbinding melodies and semi-classicals in ‘Amar Prem,’ ‘Aandhi,’ ‘Parichay,’ ‘Kinara,’ ‘Khushboo,’ ‘Mehbooba’ and many other films to prove his versatility and sheer genius. He is a legend in the musical world and deserves all praise.
Nickil Krishnan Maniam
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
