Kaanta Laga..

Rakhi Aur Hathkadi was one of the lesser known movies from 1972 - a year, when Pancham gave some of his most memorable compositions. Most of them were for the movies which went on to be super hits, namely Seeta Aur Geeta, Rampur ka Laxman, Jawani Deewani, Bombay to Goa, Apna Desh & Parichay. Of course, there was also Mere Jeevan Saathi, where while the music went on to be superhit, the movie flopped miserably - starting the downward graph of Rajesh Khanna.

The same year also had Pancham composing music for a Dharmendra, Asha Parekh & Jaya Bhaduri starrer - interestingly another double role movie - this time of a father and a son, played by Dharmendra, where RD provided some fabulous compositions. One such composition had Lata Mangeshkar as a singer. 

The song is interesting due to two reasons.

One, the compositions was unusual for a Lata's song. It was actually more suited for the songs Asha Bhosle was known for. Secondly, the mukhda of the lyrics penned by Majrooh, pretty tame from today's standard, was also something that Lata would normally not have sung. Perhaps it was the purity of the composition as well as the performer on-screen that made Lata sing this.

Pancham's composition had lovely beats, with lots of percussion - including Dholak & Duggi, and as an innovation, using sticks on leather. The sound at the beginning of each interlude suited the zany rhythm, and needed someone with the calibre of dance that few in industry could have provided. Fortunately, it was Asha Parekh who performed it on-screen, thus imbuing the song with a classiness, a lack of which otherwise could have turned it into a crass commercial composition.

As  times change, so does the society. Almost 30 years later, then a lesser known Shefali Zariwala used a remix of this song - minus its beats & the classiness - in 2003 to launch her career as DJ Doll, and became a rage overnight.

However, it is still the original composition which sound fresher as compared to just a decade old remix. Verify yourself as you listen to Kaanta Laga... from Samadhi: