Trivia Tunes: Before Taal, Subhash Ghai had signed A R Rahman for a film that never got made

National award winner Pritam is cool about this mega-honour!In Hindi cinema, he joins an illustrious list led by Kalyanji-Anandji, Madan Mohan, Jaidev and S.D. Burman! Pritam has won the 70th National Award for his songs in Brahmastra: Part One—Shiva (in which his background score too has been exceptional!) and his other predecessors here include Ismail Darbar, Anu Malik and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.It has been quite a whirlwind journey for a talent who had been repeatedly branded for lifting songs, but the composer was cool about the honour when I called up to congratulate him. “When is Brahmastra: Part Two happening?” I asked, and he stated that it will only happen after director Ayan Mukerji completes War 2. War 2 will be Pritam’s 10th film for the Yash Raj banner, an association that began with Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai (2002) as a part of the Jeet-Pritam duo.When interludes form new songsMusic interludes have been known to be converted into new songs later. But Anu Malik did a double-deal here with the interludes of his song ‘Aa zaraa mere humnasheen’ from his first major film, Poonam (1981). Sung by Mohammed Rafi and created markedly in a Shankar-Jaikishan mould, it had two interludes that were later turned into two new and popular songs: ‘Chori chori jab nazrein mili’ in Kareeb (1998) and ‘Tu fiza hai’ in Fiza (2000)!When Dr. Bhupen Hazarika recommended S.D. BurmanDr. Bhupen Hazarika from Assam made his Hindi debut in Aarop (1974), but he was first offered the earlier film, Yeh Gulistan Hamara, by producer-director Atma Ram, brother to the legendary Guru Dutt. This film was based on a social issue in North-East India, but when Dr. Hazarika heard the script, he suggested S.D. Burman’s name instead.Dada was unwilling to work with the filmmaker, but leading man Dev Anand convinced him to accept the film. Dr. Hazarika, being a social worker too, then had a discussion with Dada, and even took him to the regions where the story was based. And after the music was complete, he raved about what Dada had done and declared that he would not have been able to score half as well! He was particularly impressed by ‘Kya yeh zindagi hai’ rendered by Lata Mangeshkar and especially also by its poignant and masterly lyrics by Anand Bakshi.A Taal story with the real one!There is a Taal (tall) story doing the rounds that Subhash Ghai first heard the music of A.R. Rahman while travelling in a cab in Bengaluru, and he asked the driver whose music it was. Composer Pyarelal had told me in the 1990s that it was he who had made the filmmaker listen to the “new kind of music from a young new composer” (of Roja). And soon, Rahman was signed for Ghai’s patriotic film, Shikhar. “We (Laxmikant-Pyarelal) were to do Ganga, his next after Shikhar,” Pyarelal had said then. Shikhar, however, was never made, and Rahman later scored Ghai’s Taal and Yuvvraaj.However, the world knows that things went wrong between Ghai and them, and despite Anand Bakshi’s intervention to sort out issues, the filmmaker opted for Nadeem-Shravan for Pardes, his final title for Ganga, after he was inspired by the mammoth success of Aditya Chopra’s NRI subject, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge!Remix of a copy of an adaptation!Incidentally, in the late 1990s or early millennium, a pop singer called Anamika had her two-bit tryst with fame when she sang ‘Kahin karta hoga woh mera intezaar’, a remix of the Mukesh-Lata duet from Phir Kab Milogi, composed by R.D. Burman in a very Salil Chowdhury-ish tenor. When I mentioned this song in some context to a well-known lyricist’s son, he replied, “But actually that is a lift from a very famous foreign song!”And Google informs that it is a copy of a very famous Spanish song, ‘El solo toro’ by Sol Lake that has been much adapted and sampled! The most famous rework is the 1962 ‘The lonely bull’ recorded by Herb Alpert in Hollywood. The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), incidentally, has a Herb Alpert School of Music, where musical traditions from across the world, including India, are taught. Music indeed seems to be a global cycle!‘Flowery’ Inspiration That said, inspirations for original songs can come from just about anywhere and anything. A flower in a fan-letter inspired composer (Kalyanji-) Anandji to come up with the immortal ‘Phool tumhein bheja hai khat mein / Phool nahin mera dil hai’(I have sent you a flower in my letter, but that is actually my heart!), sung by Lata Mangeshkar and Mukesh again in Saraswatichandra. Indeevar penned the lyrics, inspired by his suggestion.Practice makes perfect!Today, many singers imitate (or emulate) KK’s vocals and singing, but I wonder how many of them must be following the ethos of KK’s career: anything to improve! Rajesh Roshan had given KK a chance to do a song in the late 1990s as a dubbing artiste for Kumar Sanu, and KK never forgot that experience. “I was told that my voice would not be kept and the recording was at Mehboob Studios. I did it for that incredible ‘live recording’ experience—it was akin to singing at a concert!”Also Read: Trivia Tunes: Song for Dilip Kumar’s directorial debut was later used in an Akshay Kumar movie