Inspiration of the great music directors has produced some of the immortal tunes. The songs those days were not recorded in a hurry like today. The music director will take his own time for creation of the tune, and playback singers used to rehearse for days or sometime for weeks before recording with the live orchestra. Singers as well as Musicians have to achieve perfection during the recording or else the entire process has to repeat again. They did not have the technology to record tracks separately. The dedication required by the entire team within the prevailing technology limitations has only made those old songs gold. 

 

 

• One day Dada lost his way on a walk and that gave birth to the all time hit 'Jayen to Jayen kahan' from Taxi driver sung in silky voice of Talat Mahmood 
  
• Other such flash tunes are 'Mora gora and laile' for Bimal Roy in Bandini (1963), and 'Rangila re' from Dev Anand’s Guide in 1965  
•  
As SDB was gazing out of the window on a moonlit night when in a flash, he got the tune for 'Yeh raat yeh chandni phir kahan, sun ja dil ki dastaan" for Dev Anand’s Jaal in 1952 sung by Hemant Kumar  

• ' Out on a spin one morning Dada heard a sound which found expression as 'Jaane kya tune kahi' in Guru Dutt’s Pyaasa (1957) sung by Geeta Dutt 

• His tunes were drawn from the sights and sounds around him. The twitter of birds, the flash movement of squirrel, they had musical meaning for him. From the window of his music room, you would see the gulmohar and the mayflower in full bloom. Standing there you could divine how he had created airs like    'Champakali dekho jhuki gayi re' for Ziddi in 1964. 

• And when Dada made a catch, up went a Eureka-style cry of 'Teriya Teriya' to signify that he has hit upon a tune like  'Hum Bekhudi Mein Tum Ko ‘ ‘ for Dev in Kala Pani (1958).

        
      The same thing happened with Jewel Thief as the song was not ready. SDB did send the song to the locale, and the song was ultimate for dance music choreographed wonderfully ‘Honthon pe aisi baat...’ sung for Vyjayanthimala.

      Let us take up Music director Jaikishen of Shankar Jaikishen duo

       As Jaikishen  was walking in a construction site he saw a construction worker humming and started following her ! That humming was an inspiration to compose the masterpiece for Raj Kapoor

    “ Ramayya Vastavayya “ for Sri 420

      Jaikishen when he was in love with wife Pallavi wrote a love poem  which inspired him to  compose the all time hit 

     “ Yeh Mera Prem Patra “   in Raj Kapoor’s Sangam in 1964.

      What about RD Burman ? His best songs are again from inspiration

      Archimedes's famous Eureka moment came while he was having a bath. One day as RD Burman was taking showers and  this tune flashed .RD Burman rushed out to bring  his taperecorder and recorded the tune. That became  Rajesh Khanna’s signature tune for Mere Jeevan Saathi

      “ Oh Mere Dil Ki Chain”

       Pancham would frequently compose his tunes in the course of car drives. He'd say  to Gulzar, 
     "OK, you go home now, I've got the tune in my head. I'll try it out with the musicians."

      When Gulzar was working  first with RD Burman for Parichay he gave him the Mukhda- 
        
      'Musafir hun yaaro/Na ghar he na thikaana'  and  left. 

      That night  RD Burman called Gulzar at 1 a.m. and said, 

     "Come, come down with me to the car."
 
      He'd recorded the tune on a cassette already. He started driving through the empty streets of    Bandra, he played the beat on the dashboard.

       The most beautiful song in the same film 'Beeti na bitaai raina' was also composed by RD Burman inspired one day in the hotel room. It was classical based song which  fetched  Lata and Bhupendra National Awards for best playback singers.

       RD Burman  was recording Bengali  songs for Durga puja around that time. Gulzar liked the tune that Pancham was composing; Gulzar filled it up with Hindi words and said to Pancham, 

       "Look, I'm going to use this for Aandhi." 

       Thus was born the classic ''Tere bina zindagi se koi shikwa to nahin' (Aandhi)

        The atmosphere was so serene and the healthy competition between the music maestros helped in creating a musical era. The music directors really enjoyed , creating everlasting melodies. It is amazing that the greatest of music directors in Hindi lived around the same period.The old music is still fresh today and still being preferred by the " Little Champs " and youngsters whether in original or remixed format. However  having seen the best of music, our heart and soul are still with the  past golden era.

     "Yaadein na Jaye Beete Dino  Ki ! "

      Do you agree? Appreciate your comments please.

     References

• And now there is silence  by Gulzar Filmfare 1994
• Interview with SD Burman   Raju Bharathan Filmfare  Nov1975
• SDBurman   A case for folk music 1972
• Photos of Jaikishan  and  Burmans  from their official website