NEW GLOBAL INDIAN
Its Music Forever for Laxmikant Pyarelal
Written by Mritunjay Kumar Saturday, 04 February 2012 00:27
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Laxmikant Pyarelal composed songs that teenyboppers hum even today. Laxmikant Pyarelal songs like Chahunga main tujhe saanjh saware (Dosti), Om shanti om, Darde dil (Karz), Bindya chmekegi (Do Raste), My name is Lakhan (Ram-Lakhan) and Jumma chumma (Hum) still top the charts, and have carved a place for posterity. A musician duo, whose quest was more than just music, as Mritunjay Kumar's freewheeling conversation with the irrepressible Pyarelal reveals that eventful musical odyssey.
With 'Hasta Hua Nurani Chehra', Laxmikant Pyarelal became the virtuoso for zillions of music buffs. Popularly known as LP, they rose to conquer, inseparable souls who were born to create miracles and to make a difference in popular music industry. They rose to the top, and stayed there longer than any other practitioners of their craft.
As one of their numerous ardent admirers, I got a glorious opportunity to meet Pyarelal recently, thanks to our Middle East publisher. I spent two consecutive afternoons at his home, truly a learning curve in my fledgling career. From struggles to achievements, from gurus to companions, from violin to piano, from private to public and from studio to home, our conversation touched on all the fascinating facets. In the course of the conversation, he shook a leg with in-house rock star mithu (the parrot), his ever caring wife Sunilaji also gave me a peep into unseen and unheard phases of their lives. He played 'ek pyar ka nagma hai' on piano for me, and also took a trip down memory lane while showing me his yesteryears' photographs. Let's unfold some magic and visualize the best moments in the virtuouso's mesmerizing career....
Early phase
For Pyarelal, the journey from his childhood to where he is now has not been easy but all his hard work paid off.
Pyarelal was born on September 3, 1940. His father Pandit Ramprasad played the trumpet but wanted his son to learn the violin. At age of eight, Pyarelal, started training, would practice for more than ten hours every day. At age of 12, he got a job at Mumbai's Ranjit studio as a violinist in an orchestra.
Anthony Gonsalves was his guru who taught him violin, on whom he later composed a song, 'My name is Anthony Gonsalves' in Amar Akbar Anthony.
Bosom friends - Laxmikant Pyarelal
He can't forget that day at the Ranjit studio when Pyarelal met his lifelong companion Laxmikant. "Laxmikant was working with Pandit Husnlal Bhagatram. He would come sometimes to my place of work. After work, we would play cricket, discuss music and go to the studios of several musicians. As we were from the same age group and our interests were similar, our friendship grew", he said.
Sriramchandraji called me one day and told me he will give me good work. I told Laxmi about it. We worked together in Chennai for two and a half years on the film Devtaa. And this added value to our work and from here we never looked back.
"Moreover, people often thought that Laxmikant Pyarelal was one name. When I was getting married, my wife's relatives believed she was getting married to Laxmikant Pyarelal. Just Pyarelal did not mean anything to them", he queered.
"After the demise of Laxmi, I never thought my right hand has gone; what would I do without him. I was strong enough. But I fell sick after his death and also fell into bad habits. I was in bed for six years. Since then, I have given up alcohol. Now I am fine and work for six hours everyday and there are several things in the pipeline."
