That elusive trip to Mumbai finally happened. After a last minute cancellation last year, we decided to play it by the ear. Hence we didn't publicize it and a few friends got missed out. A couple had to drop off.
Hopefully next time we will have a bigger music session. Thanks to Pradeep Asrani for pulling this off. The drive to the venue, NSIC, was a picturesque affair through the Bandra-Worli Sea Link. By the time I arrived, Pradeep and Anil Hingorani were in deep conversation.
Anil mentioned that he was staying at his cousins place temporarily as his apartment was under renovation. Nishant had earlier informed me that he was going to be late as was supervising work in his apartment. Pradeep updated that Archisman had gone to Kushal's house and they were coming together. Considering they were at the opposite ends of the city, I was wondering if Archisman's house was also under renovation and he temporarily relocated to south Mumbai.
Soon they joined us and Archisman quipped that he took local to South Mumbai to beat the traffic and came with Kushal. Nishant finally arrived and was greeted by Anil, "what's happening". Pat came the reply "I am busy with work and learning Sarangi". We lamented the diminishing use of Sarangi in contemporary songs.
The topic shifted to our friends and family from abroad who are visiting and a common thread was that they had fallen sick. One reason was attributed to the pollution levels in Mumbai owning to construction. Thankfully we moved from discussion about construction to constructive discussion about music. So many memorials are being made in honor of our music personalities. I said that I had taken a picture of SD Burman chowk in Khar and Anil mentioned that he visited the Lata Mangeshkar park in Nagpur. The various areas in Mumbai where Chowks have been named after music personalities was recalled.
With Pradeep at helm, there was talk of movies from 30's and 40's and the pioneering work of New Theatres. Pradeep recalled the influence of their music on the later generations.
HQ Chowdhury's (HQC) book on SD Burman was debated at length, partly in the context of Surjit Singh asking why Ritu Chandra was not listed as a co-author. We concluded that Ritu was properly credited and HQC was an authority in SD's music from pre-bombay era. This is where the book scores over the other books on SD. The musical atmosphere and the different musical families; Boral's, Das Gupta's were given ample coverage.
Pradeep mentioned that his music cutoff was mid 60's prompting Anil to say that he listens to contemporary music. Anil recalled how he was swayed to the music of Bobby as a teenager. I wondered how Pradeep could have missed all that music and perhaps he was already in Dubai. Pradeep said he was very much in India and in fact he attended Pankaj Mullick's funeral procession in Kolkota.
Archisman recalled the heavenly experience when he attended Hemant Kumar's funeral procession where every house hold played a song of Hemant da.
Anil's love for 50's Lata, and her body of work with Anilda, CR etc is well documented in Latanjali and other RMIM posts. He likes music through the 70's with exceptions. Archisman quipped that he and Shankar had coined a phrase to capture Anil's tolerance range: from Anna to Annadaata given his soft corner for CR as well as Salil all the way up to 70's. Kushal noted that Salil considered Annadata to be his finest soundtrack.
Anil added that while its generally true, he doesn't have high opionion of SJ-Rafi post Jungli; Mukesh post early 50's except Salil etc. I pointed that Rafi sounded really good even in some post 70's songs like Shankar Hussain. Perhaps these were recorded earlier. Archisman added about songs from a Bappi Lahiri film that sound like they are from early 60's or before. Must have been "baap ka maal" was the consensus.
Archisman recalled my previous visits to Mumbai and in one such trip he almost reluctantly accompanied me to Moti Lalwani's house. I added that this was my first trip to Mumbai after December 2014.
While talking about our association over the decades, we quipped on the changed in technology.
Kushal recalled one Eureka movement when he could finally make his own custom CD's. Archisman added his experience after he purchased a double deck dubbing tape player. I added that I recorded same song on the side of the tape so that I don't have to rewind and revealed that it was "phaili hui hai sapnon ki baahen". Pre recorded tapes had the recording tab broken and I quipped that I added "adhesive tape" and dubbed music of Guide over Michael Jackson's dangerous. The pleasure of using a pencil to spin mangled cassette was fondly remembered.
Kushal added how some lost Hindi movie tapes were recovered from Pakistan. Those MM and Esquire labels on VHS were recalled with nostalgia. Pradeep recalled how he shipped several VCD's from Pakistan through a friend. We also talked about our common friend Khawar Sohail Siddiqi and his love for Bhajans.
We talked about several music lovers who have vanished of late. Parag Sankla was one prominent name. Archisman said that he is in touch with Aditya Pant. Jayaraman's name inevitably came up and we talked about offline interactions of him with RMIMers.
While we were wondering when the next RMIM meet would happen, I suggested that Mumbai may not be a bad idea. Pradeep said that only downside is that we cannot visit national film archives, which is why he was floating Pune. He recalled his and Kushal's visit there recently. Archisman added that if we give advance notice, we can always have an RPM record listening session in Kushal's music room. By visiting Kushal's place one can feel music history all around as its surrounded by buildings where Jaikishan, Suraiyya and other luminaries once lived. 'Jab chali thandi hawa" was picturized on the roof top next door.
On that note of meeting soon with the prospect of a session at Kushal's place we parted. As several of us were heading to the northern suburbs, Nishant dropped us at Mahalaxmi. Anil, Archisman and myself hopped onto the local and the discussions continued.
Here's wishing everyone a happy new year, and hoping that we will have more such meets this year.
