A brief history
The film Padosan is known for its sensational soundtrack with hits like ‘Meri Samne Wali Khidki Mai’ and ‘Main Chali Main Chali’. However, its pièce de résistance remains the playful track ‘Ek Chatur Naar Karke Shringar’. Composed by RD Burman, it is a combination of Carnatic and Hindustani classical music.
The song takes the audience on a humorous adventure with the legendary Manna Dey and Kishore Kumar engaging in a musical duel. Fifty years later, while the melody continues to charm people, it is not widely known that it was composed using three different songs.
The song’s original version, voiced by Kishore Kumar’s older brother, Ashok Kumar, featured in the 1941 film ‘Jhoola’ and was more subtle and far less playful.
A confluence of melodies
Kishore Kumar asked Rajendra Krishnan, the lyricist, to make a longer version of the song making the humour of the situation more apparent. However, even the updated version failed to satisfy the creators.
In their effort to put together the perfect humourous melody, the creators used parts of an old song from Jayant Desai’s ‘Sant Tulsidas’ (1939) along with adapting the song ‘Van Chale Raam Raghuraai’ for the part of ‘Are Dekhi Teri Chaturai’ in Padosan.
The last piece of the puzzle came from the film ‘Ziddi’ (1948) Kishore Kumar’s debut as a playback singer. The song ‘Chanda Re Jaa Re Jaa Re’, originally sung by Lata Mangeshkar, was. tweaked and fit into ‘Kala Re Jaa Re Jaa Re, Are Nale Mein Jake Tu Munh Dhoke Aa’.
The story of the song’s creation is as rich as the song itself. While some may see the whole process as an act of begging, borrowing, and stealing, this soulful amalgamation of multiple tracks of different tastes created a standard of music that transcended time and age.
Even today, anyone hearing the starting alap of Manna Dey’s voice with the harmonium in the background, knows exactly what the next words will be.
Image Source :
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063404/characters/nm0611537
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/padosan
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