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| S. D. Burman |
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| Born October 10th, 1906. Died October 31st, 1975 |
Sachin Dev Burman was called "Dada" by the musicians of Bombay and "Shochin Deb Bormon" by the radio listeners
of Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. Drawing from the vast store of folk music-forms and from the classical teachings, as
the mood called for, he produced beautiful songs.
S. D. Burman was born in the royal family of Tripura. He learnt classical music from his father, Sitar player and Dhrupad
singer Nabadweep Chandra Deb Burman. He later trained under Ustad Badal Khan, Bhishmadev Chattopadhyay and Ustad Aftabuddin
Khan. He started his own music school, Sur Mandir in Calcutta in the 1930s. He rose to be a popular singer there. He also
scored music for Rajkumar Nirshoney, a Bengali film, in 1940.
He married Meera, an accomplished singer in 1938. Rahul nicknamed Pancham was born a year later. S. D. Burman left for
Bombay in 1944 at the request of Sasadhar Mukherjee of Filmistan. He began with Filmistan's Aath Din (1946) but his first
major breakthrough came the following year with the company's Do Bhai (1947). The song 'Mera Sundar Sapna Beet Gayaa' sung
by Geeta Dutt is remembered even today and was her breakthrough song into the film industry. Shabnam (1949) was his biggest
hit with Filmistan. Despite the musical success of Shikari, Aath Din, Do Bhai, Vidya & Shabnam, S. D. Burman was still
not considered to be among the best music directors. It was at this point Ashok Kumar asked him to compose the music for Mashaal
1950) which was a super hit with "Upar Gagan Vishal". As Dev Anand launched his own banner Navketan, he signed S.
D. Burman for Afsar (1950), Baazi. (1951) and Jaal (1952). His Navketan hits along with AVM hits Bahar and Ladki clinched
his success story. S. D. Burman continued composing music till 1974 when he quit signing films due to health problems.
S. D. Burman groomed singers like Asha Bhonsle, Geeta Dutt, Kishore Kumar and Hemant Kumar. When Lata Mangeshkar refused
to record with him, he delivered hit after hit with Asha Bhonsle between 1958 & 1962. He only made up with Lata because
his son Pancham wanted her to sing his career first song.
S. D. Burman received the prestigious Sangeet Natak Academy Award and the Padmashree for his contribution to music. He
got a national award for singing in 1969 for 'Saphal Hogi Teri Aradhana in the movie Aradhana. Earlier in 1934 in Kolkata,
Dada was awarded a gold medal in All Bengal Classical Music Conference in which Ustad Fayyaz Khan, Ustad Allauddin Khan, Bishwadev
Chatterjee participated. In Agartala, a bridge has been dedicated in his memory. S. D. Burman awards are given from Agartala
every year to upcoming artists. In Bombay Sur Singar Samsad Academy presents S. D. Burman awards to musicians involved in
films.
S. D. Burman is no longer alive but his music will live on forever in the hearts of music lovers.
There are many internet sites that have good information about S. D. Burman, his background and his compositions. Here are
the links to some of them.
http://www.sdburman.net/website/sd_main.html
http://www.sdburman.com/bio.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SD_Burman
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