Roshan and the adorning of the Hindi Film Song with Shringar Ras
March 27, 2007
There is an apocryphal story about Roshan requesting S. D. Burman's permission to use the tune of Thandi hawaein, lehera ke aayen from Naujawan for a song Roshan was composing for Mamta. It seems Burman agreed and Roshan used it to create that lilting Rahein Na Rahein Hum. Parables like these, almost always have more than one lesson. First: that genuinely creative people are marked by a magnanimity and a respect for creative ownership that others, less endowed, lack. Second: the stamp of an individual's genius can forcefully wipe out every trace of the original material that he starts with. Listen to the ravishingly embellished Lata voice, the little tinkles in the background, the small flute interludes, the perfectly orchestrated flourishes - the little musical Shringars in the Mamta song and you will see Roshan sweetly dress-up Sachin Dev's musical gift with care and respect. Many years later, in the age-old Indian tradition of the son laying claim to his father's legacy, R. D. Burman's reversioned his father's Naujawan song for Sagar: Sagar Kinare is positively flat in comparision to Roshan's.