Jain takes vintage Indian film music lovers down memory lane

PANAJI: It was a nostalgic trip down memory lane for lovers of vintage Indian film music as they listened in awe and admiration to Ravindra Jain belt out his songs from hit films of the 1970s and 80s.
Fans, both young and old, couldn’t contain their joy of having the famed music composer, singer and lyricist amongst them and got hold of the mike to sing their favourite compositions that still stayed with them.
Taking the opportunity of his visit to the state, St Andre MLA and chairman of Kala Academy Vishnu Wagh invited him to the academy and felicitated him in the presence of music teachers and students.
Wagh recalled how during his school days the gramophone at the Shashti Shantadurga temple at Dongrim would be playing the same record over and over again. “The man managing the gramophone had plenty of records but chose to play just one over and over again. It was the gramophone record of the film Fakira,” Wagh said. In his college days too Jain’s songs from the film ‘Chitchor’ were all hits.
Jain announced he would return more often to Kala Academy as visiting lecturer to share his knowledge and experience with students. When asked why film songs released today were forgotten the next day, he said it was because of their quality. “Each month, around 200 songs are released but they die an instant death. They don’t survive because they don’t have a soul,” he said. Comparing western and traditional Indian music, he said western music makes you simply want to “shake a leg” while traditional Indian music “exercises your mind”.
Talking about his association with megastar Raj Kapoor, Jain said the film actor and director never made him feel small, although he was only an upcoming composer at the time. “Raj Kapoor was choosy and he knew what he wanted. He recognized quality and valued it. He always gave me a free hand to explore,” Jain said.
Kapoor turned to Jain when he was apprehensive about reactions the title of his film ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ would receive. Jain told him not to change the title and spontaneously sang out lyrics from Sun Sahiba Sun, putting Kapoor at ease. Jain went on to win the Filmfare award for best music director for the film.
Jain said he heard a lot about Goan music arranger Sebastian D’Souza and wanted to work with him but their paths never crossed because Jain’s music was more on the acoustic side. Jain was born visually impaired in Aligarh and rose to fame in the 1970s with musical hits for films like ‘Saudagar’, ‘Chor Machaye Shor’, ‘Geet Gata Chal’, ‘Fakira’, ‘Chitchor’, ‘Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se’, ‘Nadiya Ke Paar’, ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’, ‘Heena and Vivah’.
He went on to compose music and lyrics for almost 200 movies in various languages, winning the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director for Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985) and the Padma Shri this year for his immense contribution to music.
The turning point in Jain’s career was when he teamed up with singer Yesudas, launching him into the industry. Jain has also translated the Holy Bhagvat Gita from Sanskrit to poetic Hindi and the Holy Quran Shareef in poetic form from Arabic to Urdu.