Eminent Music Legend Pyarelal (of Laxmikant Pyarelal pair) turns 75 years!

My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves…. 

Everybody has heard this super hit song from Amitabh Bachchan’s hit film AMAR AKBAR ANTHONY but few know that the name Anthony Gonsalves is not fictitious but is actually the real name of music director Pyarelal of the famous Bollywood – Laxmikant Pyarelal’s music Guru. Pyarela as a tribute to his Guru composed this timeless song. September 3 marks the birth anniversary of Pyarelal, who turns 75 years today. Raaga.Com wishes him birthday greeting and reveals the truth behind the composing of the song My Name Is Anthony Gonsalves…. 

In an interview Pyarelal had revealed how the song got conceived. He informed, “Few known that the name of Amitabh Bachchan in AMAR AKBAR ANTHONY was initially planned as Anthony D’souza, since the surname D’Souza is most prevalent amongst Christians. However when Manji told us (Laxmikant Pyarelal) that he also had one song in mind for the particular character, I immediately intervened.”

He adds, “Since I was the student of Anthony Gonsalves, the great music composer from Goa and the pioneer of introducing orchestrization in films, I thought it was great opportunity for me to immortalize my mentor and guru. Hence, I requested Manji to replace the surname from D’souza to Gonsalves so that I could pay my compliment to my music teacher.”

“Hearing this Manmohan Desai was moved over and so was film lyricist Anand Bakshi who was sitting along with us. Believe it or not within next half an hour his pen moved as swiftly as a lightening and the song was ready with both tune and lyrics. It went on to become a chartbuster,” he recalled. 

Pyarelal Ramprasad Sharma, along with his partner Laxmikant Shantaram Kudalkar remains the most popular music director duo of Indian cinema. They composed music for about 635 Hindi movies from 1963 to 1998, working for almost all notable filmmakers including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, B.R. Chopra, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai, Manoj Kumar and others. 

Some of their memorable songs include jaane vaalon zara, mud ke dekho mujhe… (DOSTI); Solah bars ki bali umar ko salam… (EK DUJE KE LIYE), Hum tum ek kamre mein Bandh ho… (BOBBY), Choli ke peeche kya hai…( KHALNAYAK), Ek do teen, char paanch che … (TEZAAB) etc.