Posts Tagged ‘Bandhu’
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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We have read about Emperor Akbar having nine officials of extra-ordinary skills and calibres in various fields in his court who were called ‘navratnas’ (nine gems). Music director, Rahul Dev Burman also had ‘navratnas’ in his ‘musical court’. In fact, some of his fans put the numbers ‘ratnas’ close to hundred. Nonetheless, if I have to confine the numbers to ‘navratnas’ in his musical team having specialisation in various fields of music, they were Marutirao Keer (Tabla, Percussion), Basu Chakravarty (Cello), Manohari Singh (Clarinet, Flute), Bhanu Gupta (Harmonica, Rhythm Guitar), Bhupinder Singh (Guitar), Homi Mullan (Duggi, Secondary Percussions), Devichand Chauhan (Dholak, Tabla), Amritrao Katkar (Tabla, Secondary Percussions), and Ranjit Gazmer (Maadal). They were the core team of musicians who exclusively worked for S D Burman and R D Burman. It was only when they had spare time from Burman’s assignments, some of them did work for other music directors.
Of the ‘Navratnas’ of R D Burman, Ranjit Gazmer was the junior most having joined his team in 1971. Probably, among the ‘navrantas’ of R D Burman, Ranjit Gazmer is the only surviving member. He is a specialist in playing Maadals, a set of ‘mini dholaks’ type musical instrument belonging to percussion family which originated from Nepal. However, Maadal is not played like Dholak but is played like Duggi and Bongo of the percussion family.
In the Hindi film music circle, Ranjit Gazmer is known by his nick name ‘Kancha’, given to him by R D Burman. Despite his contribution to Hindi film music, especially through R D Burman, Ranjit Gazmer has, by and large, remained a lesser-known musician than his counterparts, a few of which I have named in the first paragraph. He deserves to be known to the wider segment of the lover of Hindi film music.
Ranjit Gazmer (B. 3/10/1941) was born in Darjeeling in a family of gold jewellery merchant. Though he did not have any formal training in music, he learnt playing percussion (Tabla) in Art Academy of Music, Darjeeling under Amber Gurung. Later, he joined the band of George Banks (father of Louis Banks) as a drummer and went with him to Kathmandu to play drum in 5-star hotels and later as a musician in Radio Nepal. A chance meeting with Manohari Singh (Music Assistant to R D Burman) in Kathmandu became the turning point in his musical career as on his advice, he shifted to Mumbai in 1971, with his wife and two daughters.
After reaching Mumbai, Gazmer met Manohari Singh who took him to R D Burman’s house. At that time, R D Burman was sitting with Dev Anand and a few of the core musicians of his team for finalising a tune for a song to be recorded for ‘Hare Rama Hare Krishna’ (1971). However, no tune could be finalised. When Ranjit Gazmer walked in and played Maadals with a couple of lines from a Nepali folk song ‘kanchhi re kanchhi re’, Dev Anand suddenly got up and told R D Burman that this was the type of tune he wanted for the song. R D Burman told Gazmer to come to Film Centre, Tardeo next day with his Maadal.
Next day, Gazmer reached the Film Centre and was pleasantly surprised to note that the song which was to be recorded with his Maadals was the one he had sung in front of R D Burman and Dev Anand a day before. After the song recording was over, R D Burman told him that he has recorded his song and from now onwards, he would address him as Kancha (young boy). The song was kaanchi re kaanchi re in which Ranjit Gazmer played his Maadal.
After his debut song, Gazmer became a regular member of R D Burman’s core musicians. He must have played Maadal in hundreds of R D Burman’s songs. In fact, with the rhythm created by Maadals in a song, one can recognise that that song belongs to R D Burman’s baton. Some of the songs where Gazmer prominently played Maadal are as under:
1. kaanta lagaa haay lagaa – Samaadhi (1972).
2. dil mein jo baaten hain aao chalo ham keh den – Joshila (1973)
3. lekar hum deewaana dil – Yaadon Ki Baaraat (1973)
4. hum dono do premi duniya chhod chaley – Ajnabee (1974)
There is a trivia as revealed by Ranjit Gazmer in a TV interview as to how this song was recorded despite Cine Musicians’ strike. Director, Shakti Samanta wanted this song urgently for shooting the song sequence. R D Burman found a way out. In his music room, Gazmer, Bhupendra Singh and one more of his core musicians were available. So, only three musical instruments namely, Maadal played by Gazmer, Guitar played by Bhupendra Singh and the flute by someone were used for the orchestration of the song which was pre-recorded on a cassette. The song was recorded by using the pre-recorded music without the presence of the musicians. One can observe in the song as to how Gazmer has played Maadals almost throughout the song to create a feel of a running train with flute making a sound of the whistle of the rail engine.
5. tere bina jiya jaaye na – Ghar (1978)
6. aanki chali baanki chali – Namkeen (1982)
7. aisa samaa na hota – Zameen-Aasmaan (1984).
Gazmer played some other instruments such as Tabla, Drum, Duggi whenever required. But Maadal remained his speciality. One can say that he was a pioneer in introducing Maadal as a musical instrument in Hindi film music. Gazmer also worked for other music directors such as Ravindra Jain, Rajesh Roshan, Jatin-Lalit etc only when he had free time from his assignments with S D Burman and R D Burman.
Now 82, Ranjit Gazmer has virtually retired from Hindi films industry. He still gets some stage shows mainly from R D Burman Fan Clubs where he exhibits his mastery over Maadal by playing to the tune of songs composed by R D Burman. [Note: The profile of Ranjit Gazmer is based on his T V interviews available on-line specially his interview on Rajya Sabha TV).
During his musical career, Ranjit Gazmer has worked as a music director in about 20 Nepali films. I have heard many of the Nepali songs composed by him and have found pleasant to my ears. Most of his Nepali film songs have the influence of R D Burman. He has also composed some Nepali folk songs. His wife, Kusum Gazmer has written lyrics for a few Nepali films. He was also the music director of two Hindi films, ‘Paanch Khilaadi’ (1983) and ‘Bandhu’ (1992). Unfortunately, both the films got a very limited theatrical release and became obscure.
‘Bandhu’ (1992) was produced by Romesh Sharma after the success of his film ‘Ham’ (1991). The film was directed by Ugyen Chopel (a nephew of Danny Denzongpa, the storywriter of the film). The cast included Abhishek (debut film), Geetanjali, Pinaki, Deb Mukherjee, Danny Denzongpa, Farida Jalal, Tarun Ghosh, Archana Puran Singh, Jaya Mathur etc. The film was a remake of a Nepali hit film, ‘Saino’ (1987) which was also directed by Ugyen Chopel. Based on the same Nepali film, a TV serial ‘Ajnabi’ (1994-96), telecast on DD Metro was also produced by Romesh Sharma and directed by Ugyen Chopel.
‘Bandhu’ (1992) is available for viewing in one of the video sharing platforms. I have watched this film, and it is a typical mainstream Bollywood film with some suspense drama. The film’s story in brief is given below without revealing its suspense part.
Deepak (Abhishek) lives in Mumbai with his wife, Neeta (Geetanjali) and a school going son, Binoo (Pinaki). Fed up with the fast-paced city life, Deepak and family decide to shift to his village in a hill station where he has his ancestral house with a farmland. They quickly adjust to their new surroundings and are happy about their leisurely life. However, Ajit Bihari (Deb Mukherjee), a local landlord is eyeing to takeover Deepak’s farmland because of which there is some frictions between them.
One day, Deepak dies in a car accident leaving Neeta and her son to fend for themselves. Ajit Bihari tries to take advantage of the situation by devising a plan to grab Deepak’s farmland. He tries to seduce Neeta so that she marries him and get the farmland. However, Neeta resists Bihari’s attempts until one day when he tries to rape her. Just in the nick of time, a stranger (Danny Denzongpa) comes to rescue Neeta from the attempted rape by Ajit Bihari. Thereafter, the stranger who is now called Bandhu by Neeta’s son, becomes the protector of the family. Binoo gels well with Bandhu and both spend much of their time with each other.
The questions are whether Deepak’s death was a car accident or a cold-blooded murder? Was Ajit Bihari’s plan to grab the Deepak’s farmland successful? What was the antecedent of Bandhu? The suspense is hidden in the answers to these questions.
‘Bandhu’ has 4 songs all written by Pandit Kiran Mishra and set to music by Ranjit Gazmer in the tunes he used for songs in Nepali film, ‘Saino’ (1987). I am presenting the first song, ‘chalo chalen saathiyaa mere humsafar’ from ‘Bandhu’ (1992) rendered by Kumar Shanu and Asha Bhosle. The song is picturised on Abhishek and Geetanjali when they are on the way to their village after shifting from Mumbai. The Audio clip of the song has an additional stanza. The song also has a couple of Nepali lines in the first interlude, wordings of which I got from the original song in the Nepali film, Saino’ (1987).
The song has the flavour of R D Burman type of compositions. And why not? Ranjit Gazmer has spent a little over 20 years with R D Burman. Moreover, Gazmer must have used the musicians from R D Burman’s team.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Chalo chalen saathhiyaa mere hamsafar (Bandhu)(1992) Singer-Kumar Shanu, Asha Bhosle, Lyrics-Pandit Kiran Mishra, MD-Ranjit Gazmar
Both, Chorus
Lyrics (Based on audio clip)
chalo chalen saathhiyaa mere humsafar
door banaayenge sapnon ka ghar
jahaan ummeedon ke parvat
khushiyon ki bahti nadiyaan
jahaan hum ho tum ho saare
hansti waadiyaan
chalo chalen saathhiyaa
mere humsafar
door banaayenge sapnon ka ghar
jahaan hansta rahe mera sajna
jahaan khanke mera kangna
jahaan masti ke honge nazaare
dil deewaana
chalo chalen saathhiyaa
mere humsafar
door banaayenge sapnon ka ghar
hamro maaya le bolaayo
daaju ra bhauju ghar aayo
hamro maaya le bolaayo
(aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa)
daaju ra bhauju ghar aayo
(aaaa aaaa aaaa aaaa)
masti bhara ye hai mera dil
leke chala jahaan hai manzil
dilbar mere mere humdam
manzil meri jahaan tere kadam
jahaan ummeedon ke parvat
khushiyon ki bahti nadiyaan
jahaan hum ho tum ho saare
hansti waadiyaan
chalo chalen saathhiyaa
mere humsafar
door banaayenge sapnon ka ghar
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aa
aa aa aa
aa aa aaaa
parvaton ke ye pyaare raasten
raahi pyaar ke yehin pe milte
jhoomte baadal barpheele pahaad
phaila chaaronoar pyaar hi pyaar
jahaan ummeedon ke parvat
khushiyon ki bahti nadiyaan
jahaan hum ho tum ho saare
hansti waadiyaan
chalo chalen saathhiyaa
mere humsafar
door banaayenge sapnon ka ghar
sone ka naheen chaandi ka naheen
pyaar ka ghar hai pyaar ki zameen
saare jahaan mein hai sunder
sapnon ka ghar apnon ka ghar
jahaan ummeedon ke parvat
khushiyon ki bahti nadiyaan
jahaan hum ho tum ho saare
hansti waadiyaan
aaja re saathhiyaa mere humsafar
pyaar ka hai ye pyaara pyaara ghar
jahaan ummeedon ke parvat
khushiyon ki bahti nadiyaan
jahaan hum ho tum ho saare
hansti waadiyaan
aaja re saathhiyaa
mere humsafar
pyaar ka hai ye pyaara pyaara ghar
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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