It was one of those cooler nights at the edge of Warje. One could see the highway about half a kilometre away from where one sat in the balcony of a two bedroom place on a ninth floor.
It was one of those nights when the noise became distant. Televisions in bedrooms. Families talking. Noises emanating. From kitchens and bathrooms. The faint whir from the trees in the breeze. The occasional laughter from drawing rooms where families sat watching a laughter show. They all faded away as one sat and ruminated about what may have been a good day at work.
The music floated up. An accordion playing a much revered and much liked familiar musical piece.
The riff after Kishore Kumar’s opening line in Roop Tera Mastana from Aradhana. Only difference was that someone wasn’t listening to the song. Someone was actually playing an accordion in the confines of his home.
Ears perked up. All other sound receded to the far distance.
A minute later. The familiar vibration sound of the accordion again was heard. And a man going “da da da da” with someone else banging a table for rhythm. And the accordion played. Oh! How it played!!
I was mesmerised, to say the least. The work was just right. The immortal vibrations stealing it’s way into the senses the same way it did all those years back when one heard it during a Ganpati Puja on a father’s lap. Just out of infancy.
My first tryst with Hindi film music.
I sat and sang. Ankhon se ankhein, milti hai jaise, bechain hoke, Toofan mein jaise…
The accordion a few floors below providing all the orchestra that I needed.
I never came to know the man who played that little bit of magic that night. But I knew the man who played it for the Boss, R.D. Burman many moons ago.
Kersi Lord. He passed on last week. After a very eventful life and some mindblowing stuff such as Roop Tera Mastana!
Rest in peace, Sir!
- Beta MBA nahin kiya? - November 23, 2016
- Indraneel Majumdar: The Day I went in search of Lakes - November 15, 2016
- Indraneel Majumdar: Roop Tera Mastana - November 8, 2016
