There is maybe no one who can live up to the legacy of the father-son duo of RD Burman and SD Burman. For multiple decades, the musical compositions of the two ruled Bollywood, and even after being born into the shadow of a legend, RD made a name for himself as one of the top guys in the industry. Recently, the son of director Shakti Samanta recalled working with the musical virtuoso and described how he dealt with his father’s legacy following him everywhere.
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While talking to Radio Nasha on their YouTube channel, Ashim Samanta was asked to recall some anecdotes from his father’s iconic career. While talking about Kati Patang (1970) and Amar Prem (1972), Ashim revealed that RD was facing some flak from the public regarding his work. He said that many people were pointing out similarities between his music and his father’s earlier compositions. Ashim said that something similar happened while recording a song for the Rajesh Khanna-Sharmila Tagore starrer Amar Prem.
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He said, “I went to all song recordings for Amar Prem and Kati Patang, and I was there for the song ‘Yeh Sham Mastani’ as well. Pancham Da had composed the song in my dad’s sitting room. Burman Da wasn’t there, but the three of us were here. So once Pancham Da came up with the song and performed it for Dad and me, Dad told him, ‘Pancham ji, kuch suna suna lag raha hai (I feel like I have heard this before).’”
Ashim continued the story and said, “He asked him, ‘Was this a Bengali song before?’ Pancham Da sang the song he was talking about, and it belonged to SD Burman. He quickly said, ‘Baap ka maal hai (It’s my dad’s work).’ After that, he used the instruments from another one of his dad’s songs for the interlude of the album. Even then he gave the same answer, and I pointed out that even I am working on Dad’s stuff, so we are both using ‘baap ka maal’.”
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Directed by Shakti Samanta, Amar Prem’s cast included Rajesh Khanna, Sharmila Tagore, Sujit Kumar, Bindu Desai, Madan Puri and Om Prakash.
