Music Director Ravi : Beete hue lamhon ki mahak saath to hogi

Music Director Ravi : Beete hue lamhon ki mahak saath to hogi

Met this legend for the first time exactly three years back and you can find an account of the meeting here.. Our local music group SurYatra had felicitated him earlier and Ravi ji always showers his blessings on us.. So every time we get the news of his coming to town, we always catch him for a discussion and he always oblige..

chehare pe khushi chhaa jaati hai aa.Nkho.n me.n suruur aa jaataa hai
jab tum mujhe apanaa kahate ho, apane pe Guruur aa jaataa hai!

At 83, he is still going strong and still working.. A man whose energy levels can even beat a forty plus worker today… He is one of the living legends of golden era of hindi film music. Here is an account of our meet held on October 01, 2008

The meeting started on a sad note, on demise of Mahendra Kapoor.. Ravi ji mentioned, just one day before the bad news, he was their in a show celebrating Lata ji’s 80th birthday and next day he came to know about Mahendra Kapoor’s death.. and reiterated his immortal song from film waqt

Kal jahaan basati thi khushiyaan, aaj hai maatam wahaan
waqt laaya tha bahaaren, waqt laaya hai khizaan

waqt kii, paaband hai.n, aati jaati, raunake.n
waqt hai, phoolo.n ki sej, waqt hai, kaa.nto.n kaa taaj

When he found the environment is getting heavier and sad, he just turned it around with an interesting kissa of the same song.. They unit was doing a show/shoot in Nairobi when Waqt was specially released (or premiered) in London.. There were two theaters at the same place, one showing Dilip saab’s Aadmi and another one was prepared for Waqt show.. so the unit asked the distributors “ki Dilip saab ki film ke saamne kya wakt tikegi”.. the distributor showed them a big banner outside the hall with Waqt song

Aadami ko chaahiye, Waqt se Dar kar rahe (in big and bold.. )
kaun jaane, kis gha.Dii, waqt kaa, badale mijaaz

So the discussion began on a note on the beauty of lyrics and sahir saab.. Ravi ji told that Sahir was a brilliant poet and lyricist and he on one hand if penned chalo ik baar, also penned khaali dibba khali bota in Neel Kamal and or Bina sifarish mile naukari in Aadmi aur Insaan.. in one of the parties organised by Moraraji Desai, when requested to recite poetry, Sahir saab recited

“Desh me itane jhande kyun hain
sab jhando.n me dande kyun hain
janata itni patali sookhi
leader ye mustande kyun hai.n”

From Sahir the talk moved to Shakeel and few interesting kissa’s of Shakeel saab like once in an award function Rajendra Krishna (who used to be playful and loved to have fun with other lyricist) sent Shakeel saab to take the award (ki aap hi ka naam liya hai) even when the name announced for Sahir,
creating an emberessing yet funny situation for all.. In the meantime he told us that he started as a lyricist too in vachan when he penned two songs “chandamama door ke” and “ek paisa dede”.. We had already discussed his intial days when we had first meeting three years back (check out the archives )

He told us almost all the times, he created tunes on words but the tune of “dil me kisi ke pyaar ka” was created 20 years back and was one of his initial tunes… He wanted to use it in his first film Vachan but could not.. Producer Devendra Goel told him to use in any forthcoming film.. So next time he tried for Goel’s next film Ek Saal, Prem Dhawan was the lyricist amd since Ravi saab used to create tunes on words.. He had to adjust the tune again to have the exact mood and it became “Sab kuchh luta ke hosh me aaye to kya kiya”.. and finally in Ek Mahal Ho Sapno Ka, he used the tune, again a Devendra Goel film…

Another trivia was on “Raha gardishon me hardam” which was recorded for Ghoonghat in the voice of Mukesh ji. Infact since Mukesh ji was singing Raviji told us he took inspiration for the meter from “Dil jalta hai to jalne de” and composed “Raha gardishon me hardam” which was picturised on Pradeep Kumar.. But one day S S Vaasan (the maker) told Ravi ji, that the song is brilliant but unfortuantely not taking the film forward and puts a break when the viewer would expect some happeneings so we are removing it.. Later Shakeel saab and Ravi ji were doing Do Badan and they played it to Raj Khosla, who asked permissions from SS Vasan for using the song.. but he wanted to have it in Rafi ji’s voice so the song was rerecorded in Rafi saab’s voice.

Another interesting piece was on how “kal chaman tha aaj ik sehra hua” was created.. A small film producer/director wanted to have a mujara on a Kotha on “Ghar Hua Gulshan hua Sehra Hua” and Ravi ji composed it and it was loved by the maker and he said “Waah waah Asha ji se karwayenge”..

Later the director came back and want him to change the song for the hero singing the sad number.. Ravi ji asked to have it rewritten but the director told him to retain the same words as it suited the situation. So he recomosed it.. but a few weeks later he came back and asked it to change it Raviji left that film..

After same time he was doing Khaandaan, so Rajendra Krishna penned kal chaman tha, aaj ik sehra hua on the same tune..

Then he told us that he used to make quite a number of versions/tunes for a song that he loved.. anything the he could think he used to record and then cancel most of them out and finalize one.. Another example came with reference to Itni jaldi na karo in Aadmi aur Insaan… Sahir saab penned and Ravi ji composed a melodius romantic tune for the song.. but BR Chopra saab wanted to have a bit of sensuality and naughty feel so he had to entirely recomosed it with a few dashes of aha – oho’s..

Chopra saab had an unusual situation for him in Dhundh.. He wanted to have a Kothe ka song.. but wanted to have it picturised on Deven Verma rather than the courtsean.. and wanted a cheaper song.. So he composed “jobna se chunariya” .. Dhundh got back Sahir saab again in discussion.. Ravi ji shared the name as lyricist for this song on record with him..

Next he told about Gurudutt.. He told that in Chaudhavin Ka Chaand, he and Shakeel saab took only five minutes to create the title song.. but eventually when he recorded he was not happy with the song… specially the way Rafi saab intially recorded the song with a Sharaabi lehja.. He discussed with Gurudutt to have it rerecorded.. Gurudutt agreed… but at the same time Rafi saab was doing stage shows and he made that song too popular so that Gurudutt asked him, if you rerecord it now, will that make it much bigger hit than it is now.. so they kept the original recording..

Another song that was created for the film for a tawaif situation, the unhappy hero is quite disturbed and the courtsean is singing.. and Shakeel saab penned “Jiyarwa uljhan me ho”.. song composed and got cancelled.. four tunes were composed but got cancelled always as the tune was getting heavy.. They decided to change the mood of the song..and to give it a little easier lighter tone.. and Shakeel rewrote as Dil ki kahaani rang laayee hai, allah duhai hai duhai hai.. Same night they decided to change another song.. The Johny Walker one, which was initially penned as Shaahi Fakeer hoon, Mastana Peer hoon was changed to Ye duniya gol hai keeping the same tune…

In the same sitting Gurudutt wanted to know how Mili khaak me muhabbat is shaping up as well.. So Ravi ji sang it.. gurudutt asked once more.. again sang it he again asked once more.. Ravi ji sang it for four hours again and again hundreds of time till 4 am in the morning and was so loved by Gurudutt..

The discussion somehow come to an interesting aspect “Inspiration”.. He told usually producers come up with some thing that they want something similar.. SD Narang came to him that he wanted something on the lines of “laal laal gaal”, another song “mr john baba khan” was also composed on the same tune.. so he composed “CAT cat cat mane billi” in Dilli Ka Thag on the same.. He then told us his “Dekha hai zindagi ko” (ek mahal ho sapno ka) was composed so many times but the “patthar maar” (cursing) effect was not coming.. then he took inspiration of “throw” from a Noorjehan son “Baithi hoon teri yaad ka lekar ke sahara”, that got him the ultimate effect that he wanted..

Once he was inspired was a very bad singer whom he rejected and but later while recording a song of Chiraag Kahaan Roshni Kahaan, he used the style of throwing of that singer in the song “Bada bedard jahaan hai”.. Once he was inspired while travelling to Khandala where some kids were shouting at an underbridge and it was echoing.. He used the same effect in “Ye hawa ye hawa ye hawa” (Gumrah)

In he final leg of the meeting he took us to his new home.. the Malyalam Cinema.. He is fondly known as Bombay Ravi there and giving melodious music since last 20 years.. Infact he has won a few kerala state award for best music director and a few of his songs sung by Chitra have won national award for best singing.

He told us even in Malayalam Cinema he is composing on written words.. though it was difficult in few initial years.. but he has been enjoying working there.. He considered Vaishali is one of his finest works.. He has also enjoyed working with Yesudas who has sung quate a number of songs on his tunes. He was recently awarded with Devrajan Award. His latest hindi film was “Ek Alagh Mausam“.

For the new generation, those who have not heard much of Raviji, here is a list of some of his fantastic creations, not covered above.

1. Chalo ik baar phir se/ Aap aye to khayale dil.e.nashad aaya – Gumraah
2. Babul ki duaaen leti ja – Neel kamal
3. Baar baar dekho hazaar baar dekho – China town
4. Choo lenedo naazuk/ Tora man darpan kahlaaye – Kaajal
5. husn waale tera jawaab nahin – Gharana
6. Wo dil kahaan se laaoon teri yaad/Aaj ki mulaakat bas itni – Bharosa
7. Title / Ye lucknow ki sarzameen – Chaudhavin ka chaand
8. Chandamama door ke – Vachan (his first film)
9. Tumhi mere mandir – Khaandaan
10. tum agar saath dene ka / Na moonh chhupa ke jiyo / Kisi patthar ki moorat se – Hamraaz
11. Hazaar baatein kahe zamana – Ghatna (Lyrics by him too)
12. Ae meri johrazabeen/ Aage bhi jaane na tu / Kaun aaya – Waqt
13. Dil karata o yara dildara/zindagi ittefaq hai – Aadmi aur Insaan
14. Ye khamoshiyaan ye tanhaaiyaan – Ye raste hain pyar ke
15. Ye mausam rangeen samaa – Modern girl
16. Darshan do ghanshyan – Narsi Bhagat
17. E mere dil.e.naadaan tu gham se na – Tower House
18. Bahut der se dar pe – Tawaaif
19. Ik wo bhi deewali thi / – Nazraana
20. Hum bhi agar bachche hote – Door Ki aawaaz
21. Dil ke armaan / Dil ki ye aarzoo thi – Nikaah
22. Sapne hain sapne – Nai Roshni
23. Aaj mere yaar ki shaadi hai – Aadmi Sadak ka
24. Lo aagayi unki yaad / Jab chali thandi hawa – Do badan
25. Jeevan jyot jale – Grihasthi
26. Tujhe sooraj kahoon – Ek phool do maali
27. Main to chala jidhar chale rasta – Dhadkan
28. Milti hai zindagi me mohabbat – Aankhein
29. Mujhe gale se lagaa lo bahut udaas hoon main – Aaj aur Kal
30. Mujhe pyar ki zindagi/Wafaa jinse ki – Pyar Ka saagar

Malayalam songs

31. Manjal Prasaadhavum – Nakhashathangal
32. Indupushpam Choodi Nilkum – Vaishali
33. Aa raatri maanju poyi -Panchgani
34. Krishnakripa Sagaram – Sargam
35. Kadalinagaadhamaam Neelimayil – Sukrutham
36. Ee Puzhayum – Mayookham
37. Isal_Thenkanam – Gazal

(missing a lot of them, you can add on in the comments)

A fantastic meeting of three hours and I had just one song to sum up..

Ye saath guzaare hue lamhaat ki daulat
jazbaat ki daulat, ye khaayaalaat ki daulat
kuchh paas na ho, paas ye saugaat to hogi
bite hue lamho.n ki mahak saath to hogi !

Long live Raviji!