At 59, Pyarelal Sharma believes that it is the timeless melodies that Laxmikant and he composed since 1952, for nearly 500 movies, that will again rule Hindi filmdom. ``We used to compose at least 25 tunes per song for Raj Kapoor's movies, and then play only the best one of them for his ears. And one of my personal favourites is Lata Mangeshkar's Satyam Shivam Sundaram, which was recorded with a chorus of 40 and 128 musicians.''

The music maestro who is passionate about Beethoven, confesses that he holds nearly 50 personal compositions close to his heart, which were rejected by the producers. A R Rehman's tunes for Roja so overwhelmed him that he played them at home for two days at a stretch. ``Today, Suresh Wadkar and Udit Narayan are the singers I admire, particularly for their original style.''

But his fondest memories are those of the friendship he forged at Ranjit Studio, Mumbai, when he was just 11, which blossomed into a working partnership that fetched the duo their first filmfare for Dosti in 1964. ``Laxmikant never said `no' to me for anything,'' he recalls. ``Nor did he ever question me about our finances. Ever since the time we split our early earnings of Rs 10,000, till his death in July 1998.'' Incidentally, fortune has favoured the duo in similar ways. Both began their career at Ranjit Studio, with Shankar and Jaikishen as their mentor, both were married in the same week and both have a son and daughter each.

Incidentally, their first movie under the Raj Kapoor banner, Bobby, was previously offered to Shankar-Jaikishen. ``When Jaikishen passed away, we abstained from music direction for 11 days, though it was during the peak of our career.''

Yet, after making music for movies that broke box office records and catapulted them to stardom, like Utsav, Aan Milo Sajana, Karz, Khilauna, Hero, and Tezaab, Pyarelal is stoic about the fact that today he has only three movies on hand. ``Laxmikant took our slump very badly, but I blame our string of flops on bad luck.''

There is a right time for every kind of music, believes Pyarelal, reiterating that his plans to bring out an international album of `world music,' a blend of yet untapped African, Japanese, Chinese, Mexican music, are still going strong. ``Give me six to eight months,'' he says. Inspired by his father Ramprasad Sharma, who has trained about 4000 students, many of them children literally picked straight off the streets and moulded into music masters, Pyarelal has ambitious plans to start a music academy in Pune, which will focus on training students to compose music for movies. ``But I need investors willing to put in Rs 2.5 crore, while I will invest about Rs 40 lakh from my pocket.''

On why he has chosen Pune, his holiday retreat, to house this academy, he replies passionately that after travelling all over the country, he has realised that true art lovers abound in Pune, who stand to gain from such an academy.