R. D. Burman

Now we drift deep into the world of Bollywood. “Hare Rama, hare Krishna” is an Indian movie from 1971 which features an odd story about family problems, the flight of a young girl into the hippie lifestyle far from home and the quest of her brother to bring her back home. The musical framework of this movie has been created by Rahul Dev Burman (1939 – 1994), one of the most prolific soundtrack score composers from India. And the music alone plays a movie in your mind even though you may not know the original flick. It is a rich and deep sound obviously rooted within the music of India but always with a pop approach. There is some acid rock typical for the era, there are Hindi pop tunes with haunting vocals on a background of traditional acoustic instruments. Some western oriented moments hook up with colorful Indian harmonies and even the obvious pop hits have a mystifying power. The playing here is surely excellent for all tunes have been executed by well educated professional musicians. This gets the compositions flowing easily into, through and out of your mind. If you are a fan of Bollywood movies and therefore love the soundtracks, this should be the right thing for you to enjoy. If you wish to go for some music with a straight flow but exotic flavor, this is a great way to start your journey. It is what I would call Hindi Pop, micro elements of ancient traditional music from India transported into new and rather accessible song structures. Since all of this happened during the era of psychedelic rock and powerfunk, you will find traces of these styles popular in the West as well but just in a very small dose so the whole atmosphere and spirit of this music is definitely Indian. It is a different route R.D. Burman takes compared to other contemporary Indian pop artists such as Ananda Shankar who let Western rock and pop and traditional Indian music stand as two equally strong aspects. If this is still new to your ears and soul you will be astonished by its beauty. But anyway, this is some music you won’t get to listen to every day.