Excerpts from Mozart's 25th symphony: Titan Watch Theme, Feluda Theme, Rabindra Sangeet, and Bollywood Music

The 25th Symphony (Symphony No. 25) of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Wikipedia on Mozart) is one of those compositions that Indian music has quite often brought to use for its purpose. If not the complete symphony, its excerpts at least have left many an indelible mark on the Indian musical journey. Be it an advertisement, any form of title music, a complete song by a poetic maestro, or even Bollywood music, everywhere it has been blended with locally or regionally modulated 'ethnic' notes with some modifications to its original form.

If we go back to its influence as per the date of occurrence, the first instance that will come to our hands is the Rabindra Sangeet 'Khara Bayu Boy Bege Charidik Chay Meghe' (YouTube: Lopamudra Mitra). The Rabindra Sangeet may seem to have used the symphony in parts, especially the initial notes. Even the rhythm of the song is in harmony with that of the original composition of Mozart. 

But most incredibly, the above Rabindra Sangeet is the prime source of inspiration for the Pankaj Mullick composition of 'Pawan Chale Zor' (Lyrics by Satya Kumar) for the Bollywood movie Zalzala (1952) (YouTube: Pawan Cahle Zor). If the above Rabindra Sangeet bears only partial allusion to the symphony, the Hindi song is a reinstatement of the Rabindra Sangeet in its entirety.

The trace of the symphony can again be found in the Feluda theme (used for the first time in Sonar Kella) composed by Satyajit Ray in 1969 (Saregama: Feluda Theme). But it doesn't end here with the great filmmaker. He again used it in his 1980 fantasy film Hirak Rajar Deshe. The song 'Aha Ki Ananda Akashe Batashe' (Saregama: Aha Ki Ananda) retrieved the symphony in parts.

Yet, I would say, of all the musical notes inspired by Symphony No. 25 the most popular one is the orchestral jingle used in the advertisements of Titan Watches (YouTube: Titan Watches). In this regard, I would also suggest to please check out this wonderful video by Gourab Das on YouTube.