Remembering C. Ramchandra, one of Hindi cinema’s great music directors, on his 35th death anniversary.
Remembering C. Ramchandra, one of Hindi cinema’s great music directors, on his 35th death anniversary.
Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar (12 January 1918–5 January 1982) was a renowned music composer. In the composer’s role, he mostly used the name C. Ramachandra, though he also used the names Annasaheb (in the movies Bahadur Pratap, Matwale, and Madadgaar), Ram Chitalkar (in the movies Sukhi Jeevan, Badla, Mr. Jhatpat, Bahadur, and Dosti), and Shyamoo (in the movie Yeh hai duniya). Further, he often sang and acted in Marathi movies under the name R. N. Chitalkar. For his career as an occasional playback singer he used only his surname Chitalkar. Chitalkar sang some renowned and unforgettable duets with Lata such as Kitna haseen hai mausam in film Azad or Shola Jo bhadke in Albela.
Ramachandra provided harmonium accompaniment for Minerva composers Bindu Khan and Habib Khan. He debuted as music director in Tamil movies with Jayakkodi and Vana Mohini. He received public notice as a good composer in Bhagwan Dada’s “Sukhi Jeevan”, and established a long association that culminated with the musical box office hit “Albela”.
Influenced by Benny Goodman, Ramachandra introduced in his compositions the alto sax in combination with guitar and harmonica. He also included whistling in one of his famous songs, Aana meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday in film Shehnai. He used a combination of a bongo, an oboe, a trumpet, a clarinet and a sax for the song Shola Jo Bhadke in film Albela. He sang the title song “Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo” with Lata Mangeshkar, which included rock rhythms. He provided the musical score for the scat song “Ina mina dika” in “Aasha”.
Perhaps C. Ramachandra’s biggest success as a music composer was the 1953 movie Anarkali starring Beena Roy in the title role and Pradeep Kumar. The songs that he composed for this movie are today legendary. Songs of this movie like “Yeh Zindagi Usiki Hai”, “Mujhse Mat Poochh Mere Ishq Main Kya Rakha Hai”, “Mohabbat Aisi Dhadkan Hai”, “Jaag Dard-e-Ishq Jaag” etc. went on to become huge hits and were also highly acclaimed as masterpieces. Anarkali also perhaps saw the famed composer-singer combine of Ramachandra and Lata Mangeshkar at their best ever together. A film critic in London who watched the movie is said to have remarked that the heroine sang like an angel without knowing that the angel was actually Lata giving playback for the actress. Similarly, C. Ramchandra’s compositions in V. Shantaram’s ‘Navrang’ (Adha hai chandramana, raat aadhi, Tu chhupi hai kahan, Shyamal shyam varan, Are ja re hat natkhat) and V. Shantaram’s ‘Stree’ (O’ nirdayi priyatam, aaj mad-hava sath dole) were also quite popular and are still remembered.
The highly popular patriotic song “Aye Mere Watan Ke Logo”, which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar and penned by poet Pradeep, was a composition of Ramachandra, it was later performed live, by Lata Mangeshkar, in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru at the Ramlila grounds, in New Delhi on Republic Day, 26 January 1963. It is said Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru became so sentimental that tears rolled down his cheeks. On 27 Jan 2014 Lata Mangeshkar was felicitated by Shri Narendera Modi CM of Gujarat State at Mumbai to commemorate 51st Anniversary of this song. Lata once again sang this patriatic song on staze in front of thousands of her fans. Live TV Coverage on NDTV 24X7 & CNN IBN Ch.
Ramachandra similarly provided a memorable musical score accompanying a competition between two dancers whose roles were played by Padmini and Vyjayanthimala for the song Kannum Kannum Kalanthu lyrics penned by Kothamangalam Subbu, sung by P. Leela and Jikki in the Tamil movie Vanjikottai Valiban. He remade the song in Hindi as “Aaja To Aaja” from Raj Tilak written by P. L. Santoshi where Asha Bhosle and Sudha Malhotra rendered their voice.
Ramachandra provided music compositions for a few Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and Bhojpuri movies besides Hindi movies. In 1953, he also produced with “New Sai Productions” three Hindi movies: “Jhanjhar”, “Lehren”, “Duniya Gol Hai”.
In the late 1960s, Ramachandra produced two Marathi movies, “Dhananjay” and “Gharkul”. He also acted in them and composed music for them. C. Ramchandra died on 5 January 1982 in Mumbai.
Ramchandra wrote his autobiography in Marathi in 1977.
Mumbai based troupe Musicolor, which is promoting vintage music, presented an exclusive tribute programmes featuring the gems of C Ramchandra at Dinanath Mangeshkar auditorium on 22 January 2010.
