Udit, Shailendra remember Vijay Patil

Popular music composer Vijay Patil, popularly known as Raam-Laxman, passed away in the early hours on May 22 due to a heart attack at his residence in Nagpur. He was 78.

Udit Narayan, who was one of the favourites of the Raam-Laxman duo, got emotional as he remembered Vijay Patil.

"Vijay was a very talented man and so much fun to be with! His songs were such chartbusters. I think the first song I sang for him was a fun song in a film called 'I Love You' in 1992. The same year, I sang a lovely duet for Raam-Laxman with Lata Mangeshkar 'Ruk bhi jao jaan-e-jaana'. I think this was the first time I had the honour of singing with Lata ji. I was not a part of Raam-Laxman's biggest films 'Maine Pyar Kiya' and 'Hum Aapke Hain Koun' since Salman Khan preferred the great S P Balasubramaniam ji. But I did have one chorus song in Hum Aapke Hain Koun's song 'Dhik tana' and several chorus songs in Sooraj Barjatya's 'Hum Saath Saath Hain'. They were great fun to sing and they were big hits," remembered Udit.

He added, "Then there was the great Manmohan Desai ji's 'Anmol', where Raam-Laxman ji took me as the hero (Rishi Kapoor)'s voice while Lata ji sang for the heroine (Manisha Koirala). It was always a pleasure to sing for and to spend time with Raam-Laxman ji."

"Laxman was a very good composer. But he was an even better human being. He was fun to work with. He was full of anecdotes and he would make you laugh. And he was a good mimic. And the best part of singing for Laxman was that he never took too many retakes. He did not believe in them. He was always confident, 'Jo record kiya who sahi hai'. Another distinctive characteristic of Laxman's working style was the way he recorded the duets," said Shailendra Singh.

He added, "He gave the male and the female singer the lyrics written in different colours. So the singer did not have to write his or her part of the song before singing. It was all there in perfect handwriting. All the two singers in a duet had to do was sing and the recordings would be over in just three hours or so. I enjoyed singing for him."

"My first song for Laxman and Ram when Ram was alive was for the film Agent Vinod's song 'Loveleena aa gaya hoon main'. It was great working for him. His death is a personal loss for me. God bless his soul. May he rest in peace," he said further.