Agle Baras Tu Jaldi Aa..

On a Ganesh Visarjan day, let me just fast forward the time line to this song centered around Ganapati Visarjan. Movie: Sunil Dutt's Dard Ka Rishta - made in 1982 which focussed on Lukaemia disease. The movie was close to Sunil Dutt's heart due to his personal tragedy of having lost Nargis Dutt to this dreaded disease, just a year ago. 

Unlike most of the other Ganapati songs from Hindi movies, this song, hence had a different purpose - bring out an impending tragedy & the sense of looming loss that the hero is facing, and yet keeping alive that hope & faith, which carries most of us through such personal tribulations. 

RD chose Hariharan, then relatively a newcomer and mixed the popular beats of Ganapati immersion festival with the sound that was infused with poignancy, thus matching the mood of verse penned by Anand Bakshi portraying the emotions of all the bhakts taking their idol for the immersion:

Kitani ummidein bandh jaati hai tumase tum jab aate ho

Ab ke baras dekhen kya de jaate ho, kya le jaate ho

Apne sab bhakton ka tumako dhyaan rahe

Mere dukh se tum kaise anjaan rahe

The song has remained timeless as I can even now hear some of the bands playing this song, as the processions to the immersion ghats move outside. 

O Maajhi Re...

Burmans - RD as well as Sachin had a special affinity to the songs with boats & 'mallahs'.

One can not forget SD's Mere Sajan Hain us paar from Bandini Or Jewel Thief's Rula ke Gaya Sapna Mera - where the music in sync with the waves, moving boat, and imaginative use of sounds like ship's horn create a melancholy of impending separation.

RD, Gulzar &Kishore combined to utilise one such situation in Khushboo to create a gem that sounds as fresh today as it was 38 years ago:

Paaniyon me bah rahe hai kai kinaare toote hue
Raasto me mil gae hai sabhi sahaare chhute hue
Koi sahaaraa majhadhaare me mile vo
Apanaa sahaaraa hai