When the composer Sachin Dev Burman died on October 31, 1975, his death was arguably one of Hindi cinema’s greatest music careers stretching some 38 years from 1937 producing hundreds of minimalist melodies that endure over decades hence. However, before he became a composer Burman, born on October 1, 1906, was as his biographer, the well-known journalist and writer Sathya Saran says, a prince without a throne. He was born in a princely family in Tripura and grew up in the lush green hamlet of Comilla in what is now Bangladesh. Burman spent his early life surrounded by music both at home, where his father Nabadwip Chandra was an accomplished singer and outside where the lilt of the folksy songs stirred the air.
To get a flavor of Burman’s life Mayank Chhaya reports spoke to Sathya Saran who has just released the paperback version of her biography ‘ The Musical World of S D Burman—Sun Mere Bandhu Re’.

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