Stories found and heard about... the making of the songs of Masoom (1983)

Direction: Shekhar Kapur; Story: Erich Segal (Man, Woman and Child); Music and Background scores: R D Burman; Lyrics and Screenplay: Gulzar (Sampuran Singh Kalra)

1) The movie initially had only two solo songs- one, Do Naina Aur Ek Kahani (Arati Mukherjee), and the other, Tujhse Naraz Nahin Zindagi (Anup Ghoshal), one duet Ghazal Huzur Is Kadar (Bhupinder Singh and Suresh Wadkar) and a children song Lakdi Ki Kathi. But when the shooting was almost done, HMV raised the alarm to caution the crew that the film records won't sell unless songs with one or two renowned singers were added. Only then the sequence with Lata Mangeshkar's version of Tujhse Naraz Nahin was filmed. As it then had to happen, followed the mellifluous motion the other two songs- the memorable musical soiree Huzur Is Kadar and the melodious 'nursery' tempo of Lakdi Ki Kathi.

2. Of course, given the paltry budget, Shekhar Kapur could not afford singers like Lata Mangeshkar or Kishore Kumar. He urged Burman to use singers of negotiable monetary demands. He in a way suggested singers from Bengal would be great for the songs. Obliging Burman called up Anup Ghoshal who was already an established Bangali singer those days. But the introduction of Anup Ghoshal to the Bombay film industry was fraught with uncertainty from the very beginning. As a matter of fact, Ghoshal did not know Hindi. For, till then he had not sung a single song in Hindi. To make matters worse, Ghoshal's Hindi pronunciation was not up to the mark. The recording of the song was at great risk. But Gulzar and Burman were adamant about using the heavy hum of Ghoshal's voice. They had quite a number of sittings with Ghoshal. After a few days, Ghoshal was found to have got around the issue of accent. But there still persisted the glitch of the transcript. Then the lyrics were rewritten in Bangla font for him. Finally, the song was recorded. And quite incredibly, the song was taken at one go. The rest, the world now knows. Here is the link to the song: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=-_pq0bd_VCE&feature=share

3. Similarly, Do Naina Aur Ek Kahani had the voice of Arati Mukherjee. Music lovers can reconjure the taste of first-ever listening to the song here in this link: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=s5gQRvZXRno&feature=share. But HMV was apprehensive about the prospects of songs of the film. Then somehow Lata Mangeshkar was approached for the female version of Tujhse Naraz Nahin Zindagi. As expected, the song was recorded without much fuss. But as the shooting was almost done, there wasn't much scope for using such a half-lively-half-brooding female version. The song was not going with the film sequence. So, it was going to be an unfilmed song with the sole purpose of boosting the sale of the LP records. (Remember, cassettes were yet to be introduced at that moment.) So, Lataji was once again called in to sing another version of the song which was more a lullaby kind of song blended with melancholy. The sequence was captured with the latest version. The song begins with 'Zindagi Tere Gham Ne Hame...'. Till date, Saregama HMV has not made that version available in its store for downloads. One can have a venture into that version of the song on YouTube: https://youtu.be/M64QdDmTM3Q. Or else, you be remain content with the usual audio version on YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=DOObtX20bJ4&feature=share

There’s more to come. A year after the release of the film, when everybody was almost sure that Lata Mangeshkar was going to win the Film Fare Awards in the Best Female Playback Singer category for Tujhse Naraz Nahin, much to the surprise of the film diaspora, Arati Mukherjee won the title for Do Naina Aur Ek Kahani.

4. Now, while talking about Huzur Is Kadar, we have to admit that it is just one of the most un-Burman-like songs ever composed. It’s more a light-classical ghazal than a common film song. Bringing in Bhupinder Singh and Suresh Wadkar was not a challenge, as the former was already a guitarist of the elite club of musicians of Burman, the latter having been eager to earn a name for himself in the industry. But the twist lies somewhere else. Originally, the song had three antaras. Even the film was shot with all three of them. But, while mapping the songs for LP records, HMV found the second antara was eating up a space to such an extent that had it been omitted it could have provided enough space for another complete song. So was done. As a result, till date the audio version of the song has only two antaras: https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=DOkK5we4zf4&feature=share. But one can have a go at the complete film version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9EWXFTxllEo.

5. Lakdi Ki Kathi was somewhat a shift from the soul-soothing flow of the other four songs. A bit faster in tempo to kindle the childish fun, it had the charm of a chorus by the child singers- Vanita Mishra, Gauri Bapat and Gurpreet Kaur.