Amit Kumar on his association with RD Burman, “After my father, I was Pancham’s favourite male voice”

In a throwback interview, singer Amit Kumar had spoken about his lifelong bonding with Rahul Dev Burman. Said Amit, “I was R D Burman’s blue-eyed boy. My professional association with Pancham started in 1975 with the song ‘Bade achche lagte hain’ in Balika Badhu. At that time, I was a novice. I had sung a couple of songs earlier. I used to visit R D Burman. He used to visit my home till his death and cook for us. He was a fantastic cook. We’d compose music together. He had three friends in the film industry me, Shakti Samanta and Ramesh Behl. We were with him till the end.” RD Burman’s 30th death anniversary took place yesterday January 4, 2024.

 

Amit Kumar on his association with RD Burman, “After my father, I was Pancham’s favourite male voice”

 

Before Amit, his father Kishore Kumar was RD’s pal. “My father (Kishore Kumar) was very close to Pancham (R D Burman). Because of their closeness, I became friends with Pancham. I think I sang the maximum songs for Pancham after Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar and my father. I think Ashaji sang around 800 songs. My father sang 500-600. I sang about 150 songs for Pancham. That’s more than Mohammed Rafi Saab. We were associated for twenty years till his death. We loved each other unconditionally,” said Amit Kumar.

 

Amit shared a close kinship with the entire Burman family. “The Burman family was like family to me. Sachin Dev Burman mentored my father. And Pancham mentored me. Even when Sachin da was composing for Guide in 1965, I was a little brat jumping over the harmonium all over the recording-room. Burman Dada enjoyed me jumping around like a monkey,” he said.

 

Speaking on how his journey as singer began, Amit had recalled, “I came to Mumbai from Kolkata in 1971. Aradhana had released and my father’s second innings as a playback pasha had begun. One day my father was going for a recording with Manna Dey for Pancham. It was a song in a film called Khalifa. My father asked me to accompany him. I sat listening to my father and Manna da rehearse. Suddenly, Pancham turned to me and said, ‘I heard that you sing very well. Sing for me.’ I was nervous. But I sang my father’s song in ‘Jhumroo’ as the stalwarts in the orchestra accompanied me. While returning home after the recording, my father said, ‘You lost a golden chance. Your singing was bakwas’. I was hurt. I told my father, ‘I was nervous. To hell with singing. I’m going back to Kolkata.’ But in the evening Pancham called and told my father to send me for a recording the next morning. My father said, ‘What will he do in a recording?’ Pancham said I had to sing a song for a film to be directed by Shakti Samanta and he needed a raw voice. My father said, ‘Main kis khet ka mooli hoon? Why do you need my son when you have me?’ Pancham explained he needed a young voice to sound like a 17-year old,” said Amit Kumar.

 

 

Amit chose to perceive his father’s professional envy as banter. “My father was actually very happy for me. I sang the song ‘Bade achche lagte hain’. I never knew it would become so popular. In fact, it didn’t become an overnight rage. It took three years to become popular. Today it’s a household number. ‘Bade achche lagte hain’ gave me an identity beyond being Kishore Kumar’s son. And I give full credit to Pancham. He forbade me from copying my father. He said no one could sing like him. He said, ‘Sing in your own voice.’. I did,” he said.

 

Then came the songs of the Kumar Gaurav launch. “Love Story made me very popular. Rajendra Kumar, who launched his son Kumar Gaurav, knew my father from the time Rajendra Kumar assisted H S Rawail in Sharaarat. My father sang in that film. Rajendra Kumar wanted Kishore Kumar’s son to sing for his son in Love Story. I will tell you a shocking fact. R D Burman HATED the music of Love Story. He never liked ‘Yaad aa rahi hai’ which became my biggest hit. I remember while recording the number Pancham called me aside and said, ‘Yeh gaana ‘Yaad aa rahi hai’ bahut bakwaas hai. It sounds like a Bhajan instead of love song’. The song was a superhit. I rang up Pancham, ‘Ab bolo, kya bolte ho.’ Pancham was quiet. At that time, he was going through a lean phase. Love Story brought him back in the reckoning. My favourite song in Love Story was ‘Kaisa tera pyar kaisa gussa’ with Lata bai. After Love Story, everyone hoped Kumar Gaurav and I would become a team like Rajesh Khanna and my father. But that wasn’t meant to be. Pancham and I came together to compose music for other Kumar Gaurav starrers like Teri Kasam, Lovers and Romance, which were flops,” recalled Amit Kumar.

 

 

Recalling the first recording for Love Story Amit Kumar said, “I remember the first song we recorded in Love Story was ‘Yeh ladki zarasi deewani lagti hai’ with me and Asha Bhosle. Raj Kapoor saab and my father came for the recording. Just imagine, I was singing in the recording booth with Asha Bhosle while Raj Kapoor, Rajendra Kumar and Kishore Kumar were chattering away behind us. We were getting distracted and the stalwarts were asked to leave the recording room. The atmosphere was jovial ,easy-going and fun-filled.”

 

Amit distinctly remembered his first meeting with Pancham da and said, “I was just a kid loitering in the studios when my father sang. My father made a film Door Gagan Ki Chaon Mein where he played my father. I played a mute boy. In the film, my father takes me to the city for medical treatment. There was a shot where both of us father and son had to climb down the stairs disheartened. My father needed a mouth-organ piece in the background. Pancham played the mouth organ very well. We were working in the Bombay Lab in Prabhadevi and he called up Pancham to come and play the mouth organ. That was the first time I saw Panchanda. I think it was 1963. By then Pancham’s first film as an independent music director Chote Nawab had released. But Pancham wasn’t well known. We became friends. At that time, he was Sachin Dev Burman’s son and I was Kishore Kumar’s son. Then I met him again when he came to our house with Mehmood Saab to get my father to sing the track ‘Jago sone walon’ in the film Bhoot Bungla. Thereafter we met frequently. When I heard the songs of Chote Nawab, I was clean bowled by Pancham’s versatility. On one end, he composed ‘Matwali aankhon wali’, on the other he composed Lata bai’s ‘Ghar aaja ghir aaye badra’. I knew this man was a genius. I said to myself, ‘Yeh aaadmi to kamal ka hai’. Then I heard Pancham’s songs in Bhoot Bungla. My father’s ‘Jago sone walon’ was fine. But the Manna Dey song ‘Pyar karta ja’ was even better. However, Pancham couldn’t make a mark, in spite of beautiful music in Teesra Kaun and Chandan Ka Palna, until Teesri Manzil. Pancham was trying to find his identity. He told me once, ‘It’s very difficult to be taken seriously when there are stalwarts like Shankar-Jaikishan, S D Burman, Madan Mohan and Naushad... How do I make my mark?’ Pancham went completely western saying, ‘To hell with the Indian purists.’

 

 

Defending RD’s western tunes Amit had said, “In Teesri Manzil, Pancham introduced the bass guitar into Hindi film music. People said he plagiarized songs. Hah, chori kisne nahin kiya? All composers sought inspiration. When Pancham borrowed, he did it with style. He created his own musical style, completely removed from traditional film music. He revolutionized the sound of music. At that time when Pancham experimented with tunes, we were hung on the sound of Shankar-Jaikishan. Jaikishan ji had predicted about Pancham, ‘A boy has come. He’s going to make chhutti of all of us.’ Pancham was something else. He was definitely ahead of his times. My song ‘Roz roz aankhon taley’ with Asha Bhosle, which is so popular today, was a flop when it was composed in 1987. It has gained popularity in the last ten years. Destiny, I guess. Today we’ve fabulous technology to support film music. But listen to the clarity he brought to the sound of the 1960 and 70s.Absolutely clean recording. Pancham made a helluva difference. I sang for him till his end. I remember the title song in the film Rama O Rama was my first recording after my father expired. My father died on October 13, 1987 and on 1 January, 1988 I recorded the song in Rama O Rama. Pancham died too young. He never took care of his health. As a musician and a human being, he was next to none. Even today Pancham is a chart-topper. Last week, I was with the music company Saregama. They told me frankly that their revenues are generated from Kishore Kumar and R D Burman’s songs. I am proud to say that after my father, I was Pancham’s favourite male voice. He never allowed me to copy my father. For that I am thankful to Pancham. No one can surpass the impact of Pancham da. He was a complete composer.”

 

Much loved by the entire industry and adored by his legion of fans across the world, R D Burman left behind a legacy that no other music composer in India can come close to.

 

Also Read: 5 Finest tracks from Amit Kumar – R D Burman collaboration

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