By K.V.Ramesh

Over the course of human history, Man has discovered a variety of substances and spirits whose sheer variety boggles the mind. But one kind of spirit gives a kick that surpasses any such substance is some special brand of music that was produced by wonderful combo – the musical combination of S.D.Burman as Music Director and Mohammed Rafi as the singer Like many of his contemporaries SD Burman started out with his scores dominated by female voices. Shamshad Begum and Geeta Roy / Dutt were the two earlier voices usually associated with Dada Burman. SD Burman’s “Lota” had still to make her presence felt, though the eternal magic of ‘Thandi hawayen’ was just around the corner. The trend for male voices was seemingly straight forward – to replace Saigal Rafi sang his first song for S.D.Burman in ‘Do Bhai’. (more…)

By Anuj Sharma

The Rahul Dev Burman baton may have associated overwhelmingly with Kishore Kumar, but there was an area where the son, as disparate from the father as anyone could be, was in complete confluence with the senior Burman. Both despite their propensity for Kishore could never as shrewd composers do injustice to the Tansen of hindi film music: Mohammed Rafi. (more…)