Laxmikant-Pyarelal & Anand Bakshi: A friendship forever

Laxmikant-Pyarelal 

We can almost say that Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Anand Bakshi were incomplete without each other. Three hundred and two films (from ‘Mr X in Bombay’ in 1964 to ‘Mere Biwi Ka Jawaab Nahin’ in 2004)), most of them solo films for Bakshi, was their score.

This is unequalled in Hindi cinema, and the best part is that the humongous quantum in no way compromised their quality and range together.

Bakshi made his singing debut for them in ‘Mome Ki Gudiya’, and then sang in ‘Charas’—with a total of three songs, all hits, all mentioned earlier in this book. None of the four songs he sang for other composers were hits.

So how did their friendship bloom? We have read that Anand Bakshi was one of the struggling lyricists encouraged by Kalyanji-Anandji and that Laxmikant and Pyarelal saw his worth in that phase. ‘Mehndi Lagi Mere Haath’ was the first film in which K-A worked with Bakshi, and he wrote all the songs for the film. Then came ‘Phool Bane Angarey’, again a full film for him.

During this phase and the other songs that Bakshi did for K-A with Laxmikant-Pyarelal as their assistants, the younger duo not only realized that it had found their dream partner (‘Our counter to Hasrat and Shailendra’ as Laxmikant described him) but also formed a thick and lasting friendship with him.

Among the innumerable highlights of their work, Bakshi spoke about how he had worked on the timeless songs of ‘Milan’. “When writing a song, I never think as Anand Bakshi,” he had told me, echoing another of L-P’s qualities. “So I put myself in the boatman’s place and contemplate on the thoughts that would come into his head, and what kind of language he would use.

And while Laxmikant contributed the ‘Shor nahin, sor, sor, sor’ part in ‘Sawan Ka Mahina’, keeping in mind how some North Indian people pronounced the phonetic syllable Sh as sa, I even read up literature on Lord Shiva — 10 books! — when given the situation for ‘Bol Gori Bol’.”

In one of my last meetings with Anand Bakshi, I asked him if he missed working with Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Pragmatically, he answered, “I do miss those days sometimes. But we worked so much and so well for so many years. Why should I complain? We all came in to replace others. Someone was bound to come in our place. The wheels of Time are always turning…”

Laxmikant himself confirmed Raj Khosla’s story on ‘Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki’. Khosla had told Laxmikant about his new film and the title, and Laxmikant had made the basic tune that we all know now for the mukhda. They went to Anand Bakshi’s home, where he was lying in bed with a foot raised and in plaster, because he had suffered a fracture.

After giving him a narration, Raj Khosla told him, “We need a second line to complete the mukhda.” And instantly, Bakshi said, “That is simple. It should be ‘Koi nahin main tere saajan ki’! The filmmaker broke down as he told me, “In six everyday words, Anand Bakshi had encapsulated the entire story of my film!”

The dream team had no limits, as they broke all barriers in creativity. A song sung while a sport was being played on screen (‘Pakdo Pakdo Pakdo’ in ‘Naseeb’), a truck-driver’s poetry (‘Tumhari zulf hai ya sadak ka mod hai yeh’ describing a beauty’s long tresses, while being drunk in ‘Dushmun’s ‘Sacchai Chhup Nahin Sakti’), a song by a criminal gang who have found a traitor among them (‘Tu Gaddaar Sahi Tu Maqqaar Sahi’), and a song in which three generations of a family are singing out their feelings (‘Yeh Kaisa Aaya Zamana’ from ‘Humjoli’)—the L-P-AB team spelt variety with excellence.

(Excerpts from the book ‘Music by Laxmikant Pyarelal’ by Rajiv Vijayakar. Rupa Publications,
Rs 595).