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. 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 January 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.
Death
C. Ramchandra died on 5 January 1982, at age 63, in Mumbai, India.
The following is a short list of some of Ramchandra's best compositions:
- Yeh Zindagi Usi Ki Hai (Anarkali)
- Baarish (1957)
- Bachchon Ka Khel (1946)
- Badla (1943)
- Bahadur (1944 film)
- Bahadur Pratap (1947)
- Bahurani (1963)