More Pancham

As it turns out, Aditya, taking pity on my Pancham obsession I guess, listened to R. D. Burman yesterday as well.

Panchamrit volume 4 (1985-1994) is out, for those interested in a nutshell of how terrible it was for R. D. Burman in the final phase of his short-lived career.

Renu and I have discovered an interesting way to talk about R. D. Burman's music online: we play the same CD and discuss our thoughts as the songs play. Of course, this is good only when you have something else running in the background that doesn't require your attention -- it's also an easy way to get to do no work at all. Luckily this was not the case. I opened the last of the CDs I had bought about two weeks ago: Parwana/Bandhe Haath (EMI/CDF 120262 AAD). Parwana is a 1971 film with music by Madan Mohan, the only Amitabh Bachchan starrer to feature music by Madan Mohan and till the recent Aankhen, was also his only turn in a negative role.
Bandhe Haath, a 1972 O. P. Ralhan production, on the other hand, has music by R. D. Burman and was the only film that featured Mumtaz opposite Amitabh Bachchan. A very competent and fresh score for a film that plummeted at the box office (destroying a possibility of seeing Mumtaz in Zanjeer), the landmark here is the cabaret-boat song O Maajhi, whose genre-bending has to be heard to be believed. We also discussed Hare Rama Hare Krishna/Heera Panna and then returned the the gift CD to close the day.