REMEMBERING PANCHAM-A SESSION AT MATUNGA GUJARATI SEVA MANDAL

Date: 10th June 2007

This event was a much anticipated one. It had a lot of firsts. It was the first time that the organizer was not going to be Subash Bhatt. Kushal Gopalka, anardent music lover was going to host this session.

Also, instead of songs being played from a cassette a compact disc was going to be used. Kushal also brought in a Mixer. It was a Yamaha EMX 2300. The mixer was being handled by a person called Kishore. Three musicians from Pancham’s camp were present, viz Kancha, Y. S. Mulkhi and Homi Mullah.

The first song was ‘Ghar Aaja Ghir Aayee’ from Chote Nawab. Here we were informed by Kushal that Acharya had played the sitar for this song. Herein it was mentioned that Laxmikant Pyarelal had complimented Rahul Dev Burman on the song ‘Piya Tu Ab Tho Aaja’. From the sixties it was a giant leap to the 70’s with the next song ‘Aapsa Koi Haseen’ from Chandi Sona. After this song, Homi Mullah expressed condolences to Dattaram, who had passed away a week back.

The next song was ‘Achi Nahin Sanam Dillagi’ from Rakhi Aur Hathkadi. Kushal remarked that Majrooh Sultanpuri had always maintained that he loved working with Pancham the most. Then Amit Kumar’s ‘Bade Acche Lagthe Hain’ from Balika Badhu was played. Followed by, Asha’s seductive ‘Aao Naa Gale Laga Lo’ from Mere Jeevan Saathi. The triangle in this track is by Homi,
with Manohari on the flute. Homi mentioned that he was nervous when he saw around 100 musicians working for Pancham. Then the folkish song ‘Dilbar Dilbar’ from Caravan was played. Anil Biswas had complimented Pancham on this song. Kawas Lord had played the Bongos. And Amrut Rao had played the Tamarind. The next song was the Bhupinder-Lata duet ‘Beethi Na Bithayi Raina’ from Parichay. Followed by, ‘Gum Hain Kisi Ke’ from Rampur Ka Lakshman. Basu Manohari and Maruti Rao were the assistants in this film. The next song was the Bhupinder ‘Ek Hi Khwaab Kahin Baar’ from Kinara. Bhupinder used to play guitar in the Mehboob Studios during those days. The next song to follow was the Mukesh-Lata evergreen duet ‘Kahin Karthi Hogi Woh Mera’ from Phir Kab Milogi. The clarinet piece in this composition is by Manohari.

The band wagon jumped backwards with the Popular Padosan song ‘Main Chali Main Chali’. Homi played the cycle bells in this composition. Then again it was a giant leap to 80’s with ‘Kya Yehi Pyar Hai’ from Rocky. The introduction piece was a discovery actually. Bhanu Gupta was playing this tune just off record when Pancham suddenly heard it and was impressed by it. The rest is history. The next piece was the Sholay sound track. The tabla tarang was by Abhayankar. The use of stereophonic record was done for the first time. After that the song ‘Sargam Ke Saathi’ from Parichay was played. The romantic track ‘O Hansini Kahaan Udh Chali’ from Zehreela Insaan followed next. The Rhythm was played by Kawas. Accordion was by Kersi Lord. The session went into a classical mood with the ‘Gori Tori Painjaniyaan’ from Mehbooba. Followed by, the haunting ‘O Majhi Re’ from Khushboo. The work on the bottle is by Basu. One of the flute is played by Manohari while the other by Hariprasad Chaurasia. What better song to follow this song than ‘O Mere Dil Ke Chain’ from Mere Jeevan Saathi. The Duggi is by Homi. Then ‘Thak Jhoom Naacho,
Nashe Mein Chur’, another folkish number from Kaala Sona was played. Afterwards, Mahendra, one of the members of the Gujarati Seva Mandal felicitated Mulkhi, Homi Mullah and Kancha. A person from Colaba, Mr. Parvez Katrak was also honoured. There was an interval after the felicitations.

Post interval session started with ‘Maine Poocha Chand Se’ from Abdullah. Here we all were introduced to C.I.D Vijay from the nearby police station. After that Aandhi’s duet ‘Tere Bina Zindagi Se was played. The Madhak was played by Kancha for this composition.

Then ‘Tumhein Chodke Tho’ from Basera was played. The Base Guitar is by Tony Vaz. It was a giant leap backwards, some 20 years behind to be precise. ‘Hawa Ke Saath Saath’ from Seeta Aur Geeta was next. Base Guitar was played by Charanjeet for this number. Then the romantic ‘Phir Wohi Raat Hain’ from Ghar was played. The 4 Madhals were used by Kancha. ‘Yeh Zamin Gaa Rahi Hain’ from Teri Kasam was the second last song. Followed by, ‘Rimjhim Gire Sawaan’ from Manzil. The organizers requested Y. S. Mulkhi to say something about his earlier works. Mulkhi began by saying that he along with Bhanu Gupta had been playing Flute and Guitar respectively since 40’s. They had worked under Salil Choudhury, Ravindra Jain and Jaidev to name a few. He had patronized Pankaj Udhas, Anup Jalota and Peenaz Masani under Polydor as Arranger. The session ended with Mr. Katrak reciting some dohas of Kabir.