Rajesh Roshan turns 67: The uncompromising music composer with several signature tunes

Rajesh Roshan, like his enormously talented father Rohan (Roshanlal Nagrath Mohan) is a music composer who danced to his own tune. Rajesh is uncompromising in his work and in his personal conduct.

He had let go of posh assignments due to creative differences with the director. In the late 1970s when Rajesh Roshan (RR) was king of all he sur-weighed he openly battled with big filmmakers who wanted him to toe the line. Yash Chopra and RR shared a successful togetherness in Kala Patthar. RR gave chartbuster songs like ‘Ek rasta hai zindagi’ (with the Jolene Jolene refrain blatantly ripped off from Olivia Newton John’s song of that name) and that underrated Lata-Rafi duet ‘Bahon mein tere masti ke dere’.

But the real litmus test for RR in Yash Chopra’s cinema was Doosra Aadmi (produced by Yash Chopra directed by Ramesh Talwar) where the composer created one of his best numbers Kya mausam hai, sung to the acme of perfection by Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar and Mohammad Rafi.

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“That number was challenging. Within one song I had to create a subtle romance between the characters played by Raakhee and Rishi Kapoor, who was her junior, and also create nostalgia when she remembers her romance with Shashi Kapoor,” says RR.

So what happened between Yash Chopra and RR? The composer is tightlipped. But the fact is, Yash Chopra wanted his wife Pam to sing at least one song in all his films. RR didn’t think that would work for him.

“I never took orders from producers or directors. Even Dev Anand, I did three films with him Des Pardes, Loot Maar and Man Pasand. He allowed me to do what I wanted. Working with Dev Saab was a pleasure. So was Basu Chatterjee. I did some of my best songs for Basuda in Swami, Priyatama, Baaton Baaton Mein and Khatta Meetha. He used to say I was his Shankar-Jaikishan.”

Not so pleasant was the experience of working with Raj Khosla. Known to have a colossal music sense Khosla’s best soundtracks were done by Madan Mohan and Laxmikant-Pyarelal. When Khosla invited RR to do the music in Daasi featuring Sanjeev Kumar, Rekha and Moushumi Chatterjee, RR was above the moon. However, his joy was shortlived as the two could not see eye-to-eye or rather, hear from ear to ear. Rather than prolong the tension RR opted out after composing one song Premee sabhi hote hain deewane for Daasi. Ravindra Jain took over the reins. To this day the song that RR composed for Daasi is credited to Jain.

But it is the anthemic Mungda sung to rumbustious immortality by Usha Mangeshkar that has become Rajesh Roshan’s signature tune. “We had no idea we were creating an iconic song. Among the new generations of music listeners, I am known as the Mungda composer.”

It saddens RR when Mundga is remixed and exploited in the commercial market. The composer says there is little he can do to stop such vandalism. “When my Mungda from the film Inkaar and Sara zamana haseenon ka deewana from Yaarana were remixed I could do nothing about it. Nowadays producers bring in four-five composers, one for each track. How can we have a multitude of composers do one soundtrack? Where is the homogeneity? I remember when the great composer Madan Mohan had suddenly passed away, the producer-director HS Rawail approached me to complete three of the pending songs in the Rishi Kapoor-Ranjeeta starrer Laila Majnu. I refused saying I am not worthy of sharing a soundtrack with a genius like Madan Mohan Saab. Evergreen songs are not made overnight. They are cultivated and nurtured and born out of creative conflicts. You can’t pluck a song out of its context and use it anyhow. How can I be happy when my songs are converted into a circus?”

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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