C. Ramchandra

Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar (12 January 1918 – 5 January 1982), also known as C. Ramchandra or Chitalkar or Anna Sahib, was an Indian music director and playback singer.As a composer, he mostly used the name C. Ramchandra, though he also used the names Annasaheb (in the movies Bahadur Pratap, Matwale, and Madadgaar), Ram Chitalkar (in the movies Sukhi Jeevan, Badla, Mr. Jhatpat, Bahadur, and Dosti), and Shyamoo (in the movie Yeh hai duniya). Further, he often sang and acted in Marathi movies under the name R. N. Chitalkar. For his career as an occasional playback singer he used only his surname Chitalkar. Chitalkar sang some renowned and unforgettable duets with Lata Mangeshkar such as "Kitna Haseen Hai Mausam" in the film Azaad (1955) and "Shola Jo Bhadke" in Albela (1951). Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar was born on 12 January 1918 in Puntamba into a Marathi Brahmin family, a small town in Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, India. He studied music under Vinayakbua Patwardhan at "Gandharva Mahavidyalaya" and also under Shankarrao Sapre of Nagpur where he studied music alongside Vasantrao Deshpande. He joined the movie industry playing the lead role in Y. V. Rao's movie, Naganand. He also had some small roles at Minerva Movietone in the movies Said-e-Havas (1936) and Atma Tarang (1937).

Ramchandra provided harmonium accompaniment for Minerva composers Bundu Khan and Habib Khan. He debuted as music director in Tamil movies with Jayakkodi and Vana Mohini. He received public notice as a good composer in Bhagwan Dada's Sukhi Jeevan (1942), and established a long association that culminated with the musical box office hit Albela (1951).Influenced by Benny Goodman, Ramchandra introduced in his compositions the alto sax in combination with guitar and harmonica. He also included whistling in one of his famous songs, Aana meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday in film Shehnai (1947). He used a combination of a bongo, an oboe, a trumpet, a clarinet and a sax for the song Shola Jo Bhadke in film Albela. He sang the title song "Shin Shinaki Boobla Boo" with Lata Mangeshkar, which included rock rhythms. He provided the musical score for the scat song "Ina mina dika" in Aasha (1957).

Perhaps C. Ramchandra's biggest success as a music composer was the 1953 movie Anarkali starring Beena Roy in the title role and Pradeep Kumar. The songs that he composed for this movie are today legendary. Songs of this movie like "Yeh Zindagi Usiki Hai", "Mujhse Mat Poochh Mere Ishq Main Kya Rakha Hai", "Mohabbat Aisi Dhadkan Hai", "Jaag Dard-E-Ishq Jaag" etc. went on to become huge hits and were highly acclaimed. Anarkali also perhaps saw the famed composer-singer combination of Ramchandra and Lata Mangeshkar at their best ever together. A film critic in London who watched the movie is said to have remarked that the heroine sang like an angel without knowing that the angel was actually Lata giving playback for the actress. Similarly, C. Ramchandra's compositions in V. Shantaram's Navrang (1959) and Stree (1961) were also quite popular and are still remembered.

The highly popular patriotic song "Aye Mere Watan Ke Logon", which was sung by Lata Mangeshkar and penned by poet Pradeep, was a composition of Ramchandra. It was later performed live, by Lata Mangeshkar, in the presence of Jawaharlal Nehru at the National Stadium, in New Delhi on Republic Day in 1963. It is said Jawaharlal Nehru became so sentimental that tears rolled down his cheeks. On 27 Jan 2014, Lata Mangeshkar was felicitated by the then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi at Mumbai to commemorate the 51st Anniversary of this song.

Ramchandra similarly provided a memorable musical score accompanying a competition between two dancers whose roles were played by Padmini and Vyjayanthimala for the song Kannum Kannum Kalanthu lyrics penned by Kothamangalam Subbu, sung by P. Leela and Jikki in the Tamil movie Vanjikottai Valiban (1958). He remade the song in Hindi as "Aaja Tu Raja Aaja" from Raj Tilak (1958) written by P. L. Santoshi where Asha Bhosle and Sudha Malhotra rendered their voice.

Ramchandra provided music compositions for a few Marathi, Telugu, Tamil, and Bhojpuri movies besides Hindi movies. He also produced three Hindi movies with New Sai Productions namely Jhanjhar (1953), Lehren (1953), Duniya Gol Hai (1955).

In the late 1960s, Ramchandra produced two Marathi movies, Dhananjay (1966) and Gharkul (1970). Apart from composing music, he also acted in them. Ramchandra wrote his autobiography The Symphony of My Life (माझ्या जीवनाची सरगम in Marathi) in 1977.