Even on his 157th birth anniversary, Rabindranath Tagore continues to be one of the most illustrious figures from Bengal/India. Having written Gitanjali, for which he won the Nobel prize, Rabi Thakur’s work inspired many impostors. It’s only natural that Bollywood latch on to that, and they did all the way from the 1940s.
Here are 5 times Bollywood was so enamoured by Tagore’s tunes, that they didn’t even dare to change the tune. Instead, they thought of new words and formed their own rhyming schemes. More recently, Parineeta’s Soona mann ka aangan (composed by Shantanu Moitra) was built around the mukhda of Phoole Phoole Dhole Dhole. Even in Shyam Benegal’s Bose: The Forgotten Hero – Rahman made his own version of Ekla Cholo Re… with Tanha Raahi.
However, Moitra and Rahman are only the latest in line, people like SD Burman and Rajesh Roshan did it much before. And it only reinforces the greatness of Tagore and his legacy is only all the more distinguished.
