A Pearl inside an Oyster: A Tribute to Maestro S D Burman

Sachin Dev Burman
Sachin Dev Burman (October 1, 1906 – October 31, 1975)

Love one another but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls…Give your hearts, but not each other’s keeping.

For only the hand of life can contain your hearts—The Prophet, Khalil Gibran (1923)

As a true musical genius, Kumar Sachin Dev Burman needs no introduction. Almost fifty years after his passing, Burman continues to mesmerize us with his melancholy voice, seductive songs, and with his rendition of folk- like Bengali songs as well as Hindi film songs. Burman was born on October 1, 1906, in Comilla (now Tripura), in British India. He was a composer, singer, and music director for both Bengali and Hindi film songs. Meeting Meera Dasgupta was one of the highlights of Sachin Dev Burman’s life. Meera took dance classes at Sachin’s music school Surmandir in Calcutta. She was also a singer, wrote articles on music, and a lyricist. Immediately after meeting her, Burman was smitten, and they became romantically involved. He had asked her to marry him. But it posed a lot of difficulty in both families. Social status wise there were other issues that were against the couple. Sachin belonged to the royal family of Tripura. Meera was from a prominent Dhaka family. Her grandfather was a Raibahadur and a chief judge. Therefore, though outwardly Meera’s family had good social standing, the thing that was lacking in her is that she did not come from “nobility.” SDB’s royal lineage did not quite fit the criteria to make it seem like a suitable match in the eyes of their families. Both families had raised their objections to such a union. Theirs was a miraculous tale of true love and “love knows no reason.” Even seeing their commitment to one another, both families did not relent to give their blessings. S.D. Burman refused to leave Meera, and he was forced to sever ties with his own family. He gave up his inheritance to have Meera as his wife. Like in a fairy tale, Sachin Dev, a royal prince, and a knight in shining armor prepared for the upcoming wedding. He rode on a horse with a sword in his right hand and went to wed Meera. The love story of this iconic couple is a “stuff of legend” as real love knows no obstacles. From that point on, their musical journey began, and they became each other’s support in making beautiful music together. Meera became intimately involved with Burman’s music, and together, they devoted their time to Sachin’s sangeet sadhona. A musical jugalbandi was in the making to make S.D. Burman’s music immortal.

Sachin Dev Burman, affectionately called “Dada Burman,” was the youngest of nine siblings in the royal family of Tripura. The Tripura royal family at the time was great connoisseurs of art and culture. His father, Nabadwipchandra Dev Burman, a well-known skilled sitarist and dhrupad singer, was his first teacher. His mother, Nirupama grew up in the artistic atmosphere of the royal family where she was well trained in Manipuri music, song, and dances. When Sachin was young, the family moved to Comilla in East Bengal. Later, Burman received training in classical music from Ustad Badal Khan, ustad Allauddin Khan as well as Bhishmadev Chattopadhyay. His training in classical music gave him a definitive foundation for his later compositions.

Meera Dev Burman wrote lyrics for many Bengali films. S.D. Burman composed those songs by giving tune to those beautiful lyrics. Those are some of Sachin’s most beautiful songs. The enchanting tunes of Burman resonate in the hearts of music lovers even today. Clad in his signature dhoti and kurta, the great composer’s creative and modern outlook to music changed the contours of sub-continental Indian music.

In Burman’s creation lies ingenuity and with his memorable songs he remains an eternal sunshine in my mind. Through his melodies and songs, I have come to know him since my adolescent years. While listening to his folk songs I feel intense emotions as happens in the cases of extra sensitive people. Sachin’s music is not only a cognitive reflex, but I also experience his music as a true art form. Burman’s music never gets old. Time and over I return to his songs to find solace, peace, hope, and pure bliss. The more I listened to Burman’s compositions, the more I realized that he spoke to me with his music. Almost every Friday evening, listening to S.D. Burman’s music falls under an enigmatic ritual of mine and Sachin evokes various feelings of nostalgia in me.

When it comes to music, we all have personal preferences. Music bonds us together with a very deep connection to our “limbic system.” We make a personal connection when we listen to a particular song through memories, feelings, and other repressed emotions. Certain songs have a way of transporting you to a forgotten place, time, adding sadness, or joy. Music without a question arouses us emotionally, and our reaction to music is universal. As a focal point in writing my tribute to Sachin Dev Burman I choose the following unforgettable Bengali song:

|| Borne Gondhe Chonde Geetite/ Hridoye Diyecho Dola / Rongete Rangiya Rangaile

More / Eki Tobo Horee Khela…Mukta Jemon Shuktiro Buke Temni amate Tumi /

Amar Poran E Premer Bindu / Tumi shudhu Tumi ||

“Like a Pearl inside an Oyster you reside in me / The Touch of Love in my Heart that’s you, only you.”

The song obviously was sung by Sachin Dev Burman and the lyrics written by Mira Dev Burman. To a musically trained person, music continuously sounds beautiful, albeit in a unique way for each individual. Music is a very intimate experience for me. When I think of love and longing, I usually tend to lose myself in the haunting music of S.D. Burman. I keep on believing, “Like a pearl inside an Oyster you reside in me / the touch of love in my heart that’s you, only you.” It is anache I feel in the depths of my soul. This particular longing does not always come from the longing for romance, having a companion, partnership, marriage, children etc. but a yearning for the divine. This type of “cosmic yearning” is a very deep desire to connect with something heavenly, something out of this world. Love does not necessarily have to be about romantic love. You can just love someone in all its simplistic goodness.

In creative arts, romantic love is most widely used as the mostpassionate kind of love. In Burman’s many Bengali songs love is basically used as a profound force of nature. In some of the other songs love is celebrated as a connection with another person in such an intense way that you had not felt before. The song, “Barna gandhe chhande gitite…” is a celebration of love. Love can also be about “unconditional selflessness.” It is by far the most used emotion in S.D. Burman songs. In this particular song Burman had changed his style by uttering each word individually and by changing the verses from mukhda to antara in the classical Hindustani music style. In this specific song, the immortal lines “Mukta jemon shuktir buke temni amate tumi /Amar praner premer bindu tumi shudhu tumi,” has brought out the melody in a unique way by this brilliant musician.

 “O prem Jamunai hoito keu dheu dilo dheu dilore / Akul hia dukul bujhi bhanglore…” Who has not heard these unforgettable lines sung by Sachin Dev Burman? In this specific song, Burman’s voice and the tune touch the soul. The lyrics of the song were composed with a new and intense faith in love. The song is deeply imbued with Bengali Romanticism and traces the romantic ideals and the heavenly joy of being in love. Like many S.D. Burman songs, this dreamy song reveals the feeling of someone about to be overwhelmed by love, to be swept away as in a tidal wave of feelings.

The metaphorical river Jamuna’s banks are about to be breached by the sudden onslaught of passionate love. Just as the river is awakened by its waves, as the burning lamp is embraced by the flying insects diving into oblivion, the heart of the beloved is all aflutter, soon to experience bliss. To a mind in romance, the reference to the ripples in the river will undoubtedly open the heart’s door that eventually leads to the soul.

I too experience Sachin’s music as a true art form. S.D. Burman’s Bengali songs are dominated by a varied repertoire of tunes. Sachin’s heart piercing Bengali songs are heavily influenced and nurtured by the climate of East Bengal. Burman’s folk songs convey Bengali culture that is specific to that culture alone. While listening to his folk songs I feel all kinds of emotions. Burman’s music is not only a mere “cognitive reflex” but truly a different artistic expression.

Sachin’s one of the most renowned songs, “Shonogo dakhin haawaa prem korechi ami/ Legeche chokhete nesha dik bhulechi ami,”is a very modern song synthesized with a folk tune. Unless one has an attentive ear for such dissimilarities – it is difficult to make out the mixture. In this number, the lover asks the Southern wind to listen, “I am in love.” He is lost; his eyes are full of splendor and intoxication. His/her hidden thirst increases and is also excited by love. This feeling is in tune with the seasons (barsha, sharat, hemanta, basanta). The lover asks the intoxicating wind to listen, “I have lost all directions, since I am in love.”

How about the melodic song “Bhalo lage biroho boro bhalo lage / Birohe shohagini rohe moner ghorete”? In this song the universal theme of love is not always there, and that is when we feel longing. Love is a decision to nurture one another. Love has no form or shape, love is endless. The lovers are not together. The yearning about separation begins for the beloved or the other way around. It seems separation is welcome to the singer/lover as it strengthens love. Rather than being disheartened by the distance, the lover is animated and loves even more. Sadness approaches with the color of death, but the lover transforms it into the colors of spring. In this personification of love and longing, Sachin mixes classical tune with folk tune and the combination personalizes the separation to an extreme height that only a master musician is capable of doing. S.D. Burman was a classicist, and we see evidence of that in most of his songs.

How about the song Rongella rongella rongella re / Amare chariya bondhu koi gelare? Doesn’t your heart dance with each beat? Burman was inspired to compose this number from a childhood memory. He once had heard an old farmer singing this folk song in a field, near his childhood home in Comilla adjoined to the big man-made lake named Dharmashagor. (My best friend Nilu in Albuquerque, New Mexico just confirmed the info about the lake. As a young girl she lived in Comilla and played near the lake. She remembers seeing the beautiful lotus filled lake near Sachin’s ancestral home).

Sachin Dev also incorporated this song as a devotional song Aan milo, aan milo, shyam sanware in Hindi film Debdas (1955). Though this song is about missing someone when that person is not with you, somehow it does not sound like a sad song. To me it sounds like a celebration of a lost love (if that is possible!). Just because a person is not with you love does not necessarily end as love is perpetual. You continue to love that person until the day you die.

In his most heart touching (a personal favorite) song Priyo / ajo noi / ajo noi… not yet / my beloved / not yet…the lyrics contain the soulful message from the lover to the beloved of the unrelenting sorrow of separation and longing (biroho) that persists without any hiatus. (Not yet, my beloved, not yet…the lover says.) I am paraphrasing the song here: The dove is still in agony, the banshee knows only one sorrowful song, and the messenger from the southern winds (‘dakhina hawa’) has not reached the lotus in my garden. This was my fate, the desires of my heart flowed down in tears. The longing in the daylight sinks at night to the painful stony promontory. When my beloved comes, will I lay down my love at the feet? Oh, I blush and tremble at the thought. Not yet, my beloved, not yet. This captures love and concomitant separation (and longing) at its most sublime. We feel that love can also make us feel despair and sadness beyond any reasoning as there are no set rules on how to recover from a lost love. Here the heart broken lover is missing his beloved as she has left him. Still, he longs for her knowing it is over. But the feeling of loss has not quite sunk in, and therefore he says “ajo noi ajo noi…” Perhaps he is still feeling there is a hope for reconciliation. We feel that love never dies as love is everlasting. Two people do not have to be together but can decide to nurture one another from afar.

Not yet, my beloved, not yet…

Burman started his music career as a folk singer and light classical musician for Calcutta radio station in 1932. The mysticism of folk and local village songs had a very deep impact on him. I suppose living in Comilla in a rural setting during his childhood had a profound impact on him. His famous early folk compositions were often swayed by his huge repertoire of folk tunes from ‘Bhatiyali’ or the boat songs, the Sari and Dhamail traditions of the North East.

In 1944, Burman moved to Bombay and started composing for films. His first recorded song was for Tinkari Chakrabortay’s ‘Senjher Pidim’ in 1935. His compositions have been sung by famous singers like Lata Mangeshker, Mohammad Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Talat Mahmood, Geeta Dutt, and Kishore Kumar. In composing music for such artists S.D.Burman became remarkably successful and was highly regarded as a top notch music director.

Who can ever forget Sachin’s composition of Thandi Hawayen Lehrake Aye which Lata Mangeshkar sang in the 1951 movie Naujawan. Another extraordinary Hindi film song “Sun mere bandhure…in Sachin’s own voice is spellbinding to listen to.

S.D. Burman was a music director from 1939 until his death. In most of his compositions, he used the banshee and often mixed Indian classical ragas with Western music. This experimentation proved to be very fruitful and redefined the way film songs were composed. Burman also incorporated the sounds of dance into his music.

After moving to Bombay, S.D. Burman and K.L. Saigal made a pact together that they would only let Hindustan Records record their songs. They were not interested in going with big name labels to become commercially successful. And they had remained true to that pact. Burman was a recipient for the Sangeet Natok Akademi Award in 1958 and the Padma Shri in 1969. His music attracted famous poet and composer Kazi Nazrul Islam and the two maintained a friendly relationship. Burman’s last recording in Bengali was “Kotha kao / Dao saraa…composed by Subol Das Gupta.

From the 1930s to the 1970s his music achieved the status of classics of that time.

Sachin went into a coma soon after recording the song ‘Badi sooni sooni’ sung by Kishore Kumar for the film “Mili.” Burman died on October 31, 1975, in Bombay, Maharashtra, India.

The roots of S.D. Burman music are deep, and yet appeal to the contemporary mind and soul without losing any charm or resonance. The emotional energy in the Burman songs is electrifying and there is always that wishful hope where one wants to surrender to his beloved. The mood in some of his popular songs is an unsatisfactory one like “Ki kori ami ki kori / Bone fagun buke agun…” The constant yearning which leads to the unknown, and the uncertainty whether love would reach its ultimate destiny makes S.D. Burman’s songs quite unique and stand apart from that of his contemporary composers and musicians.


The classic oldies that S.D. Burman sang in his powerful voice are timeless and earned him the sobriquet of “The Inimitable Composer.” His songs play a significant role in our lives with a lot of relevance, and we continue to nurture the romantic theme in our hearts which is very prominent in the Burman songs. A few of his songs will resonate with me until the end of my time. Burman’s music enables me to associate myself with the experience of falling in love and mourning many things in between. Through it all I continue to listen to S.D. Burman songs mostly for the aesthetic appeal and self-awareness.

“Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all” – Alfred Lord Tennyson

Zeenat Khan, a devotee of Sachin Dev Burmanfeels humbled to be writing this piece on one of the musical legends of all time.

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