Later, Bakshi ji called me up and said, “I have written the mukhda.” When he recited the words, “Choli ke peeche kya hai”, I said I did not want such words and hung up! He rang up again and said, ‘Listen to the next two lines at least-“Choli mein dil hai mera, chunari mein dil hai mera, yeh dil main doongi mere yaar ko, pyar ko.” He liked it and modified the tune, and we added the refrain “kuk-kuk-kuk-kuk”. I recorded it, tipped the boy, and played it to Laxmi-ji. I was going to Mount Abu to hunt for locations and I saw a small kid on the way playing an attractive tune on his iktara (a single-stringed instrument). Bakshi ji asked me what kind of a song I wanted, and my reply was that it should be the kind of raunchy song classically found in North Indian folk, if need be with abuses, as my male lead is a villain. “Choli Ke Peeche”, the much-maligned song from Khal Nayak, around which an artificial controversy was created, was another example of their brilliance. I can write a 500-page book on these magicians who met so many challenges successfully! Our understanding and affection was so complete and wonderful that you can just see the progression of our music- Ram Lakhan, Saudagar, Khal Nayak. Pyare-bhai asked me what kind of orchestration I had thought of for the same song, and my answer was, “It should be like Delhi’s Vividh Bharati music!” And so the theme music was made by him in that fashion! He had composed the tune you hear now, a tune he made in less than five minutes but lives on 35 years down! I gave Laxmi-ji the lines and was leaving his sitting room, as many producers were waiting, when he called me back. I remember that I had penned the thematic lines for Karma in my script, “Har karam apna karenge ae watan tere liye / Dil diya hai jaan bhi denge ae watan tere liye”. Such was the visionary greatness of these two composers.
I thought more would come, as L-P’s normal orchestra would be around 100-strong, but he told me that Reshma would sing in her free, open way and the orchestration should make her voice stand out, not intimidate her. On the day Reshma was recording, I entered the recording studio to find Pyare-bhai rehearsing with nine musicians. The complex tune had all the three verses structured differently, and hat’s off to Laxmikant for treating the song that way. Only they could have given a Western colour to a ghazal-like composition in “Dard-e-Dil Dard-e-Jigar”, in which they used a drum instead of a dholak! And they decided to use Mohammed Rafi’s voice in a score that had Kishore Kumar singing all other songs. The saga of Laxmikant-Pyarelal is the story of two emperors, each unrivalled in his own right. I don’t know music, but I react to it, and after the theme music became cult, Pyare-bhai admitted that I had made the correct choice! He liked the fifth one he offered, but I preferred the third, which is the famous one now. Pyare-bhai had made different musical pieces for the theme, which was the first to be recorded. Burman for it, but I was impressed by their range and told L-P to accept the challenge that I was giving them. And yet, people said that I was a good director but had no music sense, so I thought my next film should be a musical.
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