Lyrics revival
Print“Let’ s put a moratorium on the use of words like dil, jigar, pyar, mohabbat in the lyrics for a few years. This might bring about some improvement in the quality of lyrics” – Javed Akhtar in an interview on a TV channel a few years ago
It seems Javed Saab’s wish has been fulfilled. Stock words like ‘dil’, ‘pyar’ etc do not appear with that sickening regularity nowadays. A revival in the quality of Hindi film lyrics is definitely underway. It is quite visible (or should I say audible).
I am so happy to hear words like “sifarish”, “shagufta”, “zarra”, “be-shubah”, “guzarish” etc being used in the lyrics __ and was absolutely delighted when I heard “dafa’tan” in a song from Delhi-6 (Prasoon Joshi, take a bow). The pronunciation though is not always correct, and sometimes is even atrocious, but that is a different matter altogether.
Kaifi Azmi, Sahir Ludhianvi
Till the end of the 70s, I think, no significant deterioration in quality was spotted. It began showing up only after Sahir had passed away, Kaifi had virtually retired, and some great filmmakers of the past two decades had suddenly lost their ‘touch’ (Nasir Husain, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Manoj Kumar, Shakti Samant to name a few). So, by the time Bappi Lahiri brand of music came on the scene and lyrics’ quality started going south (in the early 80s) we already had acquired a taste and were displeased with this ‘development’. But I personally had thought that this is just a passing phase and that the quality is bound to return.
The phase lasted much longer (till the mid-90s) and though the quality did return, it did so in bits and spurts, and not in any sweeping way. Javed Akhtar debuted as a lyricist but did just a few films in his first innings (SILSILA, MASHAAL, SAATH SAATH). Hasan Kamaal did a few BR Chopra and JP Dutta films (NIKAAH, BATWARA etc). He was good but did not last long. Shaharyar came to the movies with Muzaffar Ali’s UMRAO JAAN but was not heard much thereafter. Late S H Bihari made a comeback and had had a short burst of glory post PYAR JHUKTA NAHIN. Ditto Late Asad Bhopali in MAINE PYAR KIYA. Anand Bakshi replaced Sahir Ludhianvi in the Yash Raj camp and became more quality conscious. Though the great Majrooh Saab was there but he was not very prolific.
Most of the songs during this phase were being written by the likes of Indeevar (in the 80s) and Sameer (in the 90s). I must add at this point that Indeevar, in fact, was a very good poet (his lyrics in films like POORAB AUR PASCHIM etc prove it) and Sameer too has done a lot of quality work, but this is also a fact that both these gentlemen have had a phase where they were the principal contributors towards mediocre, mundane and even un-savory lyrics.
Early to mid 90s perhaps was the worst phase of lyrics quality in Hindi films as double-meaning found its way in. Some songs churned out in those days really set the bar very low. A host of new lyricists had appeared in the last decade but none made any impact. In fact, I remember only Payam Saeedi (PARINDA) and Rahat Indori (KAREEB) as contributing something of quality. By this time Majrooh and Bakshi saab were not very active and Javed Saab’s appearance was still sporadic and Gulzar’s career as a lyricist had not yet embarked on a revival. One was really not sure how long this low tide will have to be endured.
But as they say the night is at its darkest just before the dawn. So it happened that soon after touching its nadir the quality took a turn for the better. Javed Akhtar took up lyrics writing as his main calling. Post MAACHIS Gulzar Saab and post DDLJ Anand Baksi hit top form again. Majrooh Saab’ career though, sadly, could not see another period of glory. His last best work before he passed away in year 2000 perhaps was the non-film album JAANAM SAMJHA KARO (1997). During his last days he was shunned by all his regulars including Nasir Husain’s son Mansoor Khan.
After Anand Bakshi saab too passed away in 2002 we were left with just two stalwarts in Javed Akhtar and Gulzar. There was a clear difference in the quality of lyrics penned by these two and the others. This big gap has now been filled after the arrival of the likes of Saeed Quadri and Prasoon Joshi. Both these gentlemen produce work that is very different from each other but both are maintaining good quality, consistently. In fact Joshi’s “Maa” from TAARE ZAMEEN PAR is, according to me, the most poignant song of the current decade.
Even otherwise too the quality of lyrics, in recent times, has generally gone up only. Almost every film from the Bhatt camp has good lyrics in almost every song. And, in general, every film has at least one song with good lyrics; and many have several. Some well known examples: LOVE AAJ KAL, JAB WE MET, NAMASTE LONDON, DELHI-6, METRO, FANAA, HUM TUM, MUJH SE SHADI KAROGI, AITRAZ, PARINEETA, RACE, NEW YORK, DEV.D and of course TAARE ZAMEEN PAR. I have only listed commercially successful films; I have not gone back beyond 2004 and have not included Bhatt camp movies and works of Javed saab and Gulzar saab.
This is definitely a heartening trend that the lyricists, in general, are showing an inclination towards quality. Let’s also try to figure out what might have brought about this positive trend. Well, there could be a number of factors (a natural cycle, people got sick of mediocrity and wanted change, arrival of new talent etc) but, in my opinion, the single biggest factor is the new-found confidence that the film makers now have in their products. And this in turn has come about as a result of the new structure and style of film production.
Stories, plots and characters are no longer stereotypes that used to straightjacket an average filmmaker and made him demand some particular types of lyrics only. And most lyricists just used to oblige. They would still oblige if the compulsion was still there. But thank God those compulsions are a thing of the past. Now you can pretty much do your own thing. Once the project is backed by some established production house the filmmaker does not need to make compromises. Security brings in confidence. This confidence makes the filmmaker back quality and back the lyricists who want to experiment with new words.
Now the next frontier, in logical progression, should be for the lyricists to get the credit they deserve. Nowadays, except for two or three big names, others’ names don’t get used in the promos at all. In the 1980s, when the quality was down, they got a better rating. Every film poster used to mention the lyricists’ name (of course his name would appear last and sometimes in a smaller print, but nevertheless it used to be there). Now it doesn’t. You have to be alert to catch their names when the credits roll or have to read the labels on the audio media.
Another platform where their work needs to be acknowledged is in the award functions. Often the lyricist does not get to speak after the receiving the award. He should.
Tags: Lyrics Javed Akhtar Gulzar Prasoon Joshi Indeevar Sameer Payaam Saeedi Rahat Indori Sahir Majrooh
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Varma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Very good article Yusuf..
During 90s Sameer had become like a lyrics machine. He continued to dish out mediocre songs with recurring themes. The words like dil, ishq, pyar, jaanam, jaan were there in all songs. You could always tell the other lines by listening to the 1st one.
Thank god we are out of it!
And the main reason for the new-found love in good lyrics among filmmakers, in my opinion, is the success of some great songs like RDB, TZP and all.They created considerable buzz among the audience and pushed other filmmakers to give more attention to poetry.(more like popularity-rise of cricket after 83 world cup)
Nothing inspires like success.
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You can add Amitabh Bhattacharya to list of new upcoming talent.
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Great Post… Just a point… Isn`t the lyrics of Parinda written by Khursheed Hallapuri and not Payam saeedi?
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Yes it is Khursheed Hallauri (not Hallapuri).
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What does dafatan mean? Even the online urdu dictionary doesn’t show this word.
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dafatan i believe means unexpectedly… or say all of a sudden… shockingly kinds…
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Thanks Prasanna
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This word was used in that immortal ghazal by Ghulam Ali, from the movie Nikaah, Chupke Chupke Raat Din.
“Kheench lena woh mera parde ka kona, daffatan”
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Loved the post. I have zero knowledge about the lyricists of the past. Yet, lyrics is an interesting subject for me. I’d like to broaden the discussion by asking y’ll the parameters you judge lyrics by. I’m usually happy if the work explores language, has new ideas rather than cliches, innovative with language to represent real people, reflective of modern language, explores emotions I haven’t imagined before. I’m one of those who deflected towards rock music for the diversity of poetry and its rate of innovation. Having tasted that, Hindi film music started seeming very insipid. Since our music industry is mostly dependent on films, therefore dependent on the limited number of subjects in our films, poetry is arrested. The lyrics that most impressed me in the last few years were by Amitosh Nagpal for Superchor from the film Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. I felt few works have exploited language like that song (and that album). Similar praise for most of DevD’s songs. While I like urdu poetry influenced songs [because they seem classy] I can’t relate with them. I don’t speak like that. Certainly don’t blame the poet or the language for that. But the reason I love DevD and OLLO (the lyrics have helped me love them even more) is because I feel they represent me.
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Sriram – not sure if you already know this, but if you are into rock, love poetry and desigiri, check out Agnee.
From Firangis, check out Iron and Wine.
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Thanks for the tip Tejas. Checked out a few of Agnee’s songs. loved the music. Yet to find good original poetry (have only heard 3 songs). I heard this song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73k09Vt3TrQ and felt, “damn, looks like the language has arrested poetry to limited topics.” Guess that’s what happens when Hindi becomes the second language. To explain my point better, would like to direct y’ll t this post by Abbas Tyrewalla from 2000
http://abbas-tyrewala.sulekha.com/blog/post/2000/01/so-who-speaks-hindi.htm
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Nice article. I have pestered someone else before and I will do it again with a question similar to Sriram’s. How do you judge poetry or lyrics on any parameters? To me also, it either connects or it does not. But on PFC we have had discussions before where people judged Piyush Mishra’s work for Gulaal on some basis of some technical parameters, and their opinion was not so good about those lyrics. At the same time all of us were going ga-ga over them.
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Yusuf Miyan,
Aapki post ke baad ye do pankityan dimag main aa rahi hain
Dekhiye paate haiN ushshaaq butoN se kya faiz
Ik birahaman ne kaha hai, ke yeh saal achcha hai
~~ Ghalib
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I like your post. Wriiten quite well. I like the way you traced the path of lyrical evolution.although I felt you left it high and dry for this decade. Expected you to stress more. Also how could you forget Gulal? Still I liked your post !
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To continue from where you left, the last few years have seen a host of punjabi lyrics being forced down our ears. Munda, Sohni, mahi ve, marjana, marjani, dholna….. yuck. Dev D songs, and all songs composed by A R Rahman, Vishal Bharadwaj, etc stand out
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ka ki has been replaced by da di
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Good Post.
I agree with Tejas .. .How could u miss Piyush Mishra for Gulaal.
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Also, vishal Bharadwaj has excelled almost everytime he has penned anything.
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Vishal is not a lyricist. I dont know of songs that he wrote
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Yup, Vishal Bhardwaj is not a lyricist. Are you referring to Vishal Daldani?
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Yup . .apologies .. i meant the title song . .which was penned by Gulzar saab only ..
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Like the post.But i think you forgot Swanand Kirkire….of
Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi,Parineeta,Lage Raho Munna Bhai ,Khoya Khoya Chand,Laaga Chunari Mein Daag….
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yes…swanand’s works are pretty good…but I don’t see them too often…somewhat like Ismail Darbar, who disappears for a long time after one good work… :wacko:
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Yup, Swanand Kirkire has done some really good work. And he’s a pretty good singer as well.
Ismali Darabr’s another album, Devdas, featured lyrics by Nusrat Badr. Very impressive lyrics – but unfortunately he didn’t perform as well afterwards.
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Sorry for being the sore thumb.
point 1. Nida Fazli(whom you have not mentioned) and Rahat Indori are those two rare gentlemen who did not sell out. They stick to that old world Ghazal and never really craved for limelight. For their occasional genius one can try , “ye rishte” from Meenakshi or “Jiban Kya Hain” from Is Raat Ke Subah Nahin
poit 2. Gulzar is stalwart…no doubt about that. But Javed-saab? Come on his writing is for mass, by mass and pleasing mass. Please don’t tell me the same Silsila-Javed akhtaar you found in his comeback innigs with songs like “Main tu ho pagal” etc ???? whereas still Gulzar refuses to change his words(love mera hit hit incident) and God forbids, brings the same touch that he used to bring with “Jaane kya soch kar nahin gujraa ” or “Musafir hu Yaaron”.
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If you have any doubts about Javed Akhtar’s skills, check out his private album: Tarkash, and let me know if it doesn’t blow your mind away!
He might not be as philosophical as Gulzar-saab (as if that is possible!) but his lyrics are avant-grade. And I think he has found a perfect combination of mass+class.
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excellent post…in fact I grew up during late 80s & early 90s when both bollywood lyrics & music had reached abyss…(& they were immensely popular!!!) AR saved the music dramatically…& Gulzar saab’s reemergence brought the lyrics back…But even during early 2000’s I heard people complaining that they were missing the classics (i.e the sound of early 90’s) :banginghead:
talking of Prasoon Joshi, u din’t mention RDB…I thought it was awesome…
I also hold Gulaal lyrics in high regard…especially Arambh hain prachand…I think it is the best hardcore Hindi (non urdu) work in decades…after the likes of Kavi Pradeep & Bharat Vyas…
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No doubt about Piyush Mishra’s Gulaal. “Iss mulk ne har shaks ko jo kaam tha sounpa … uss shaks ne uss kaam ki maachis jala ke chod di..” now I don’t know if this is a common phrase in the Hindi belt, but I’m assuming it is Mishra’s original work. For me it shows his dexterity with the language that gives him the license to play with it. There are poets in awe and hence arrested by the language and poets who bend and twist language to make it say what they wish, and Mishra’s work is the latter. Gulaal makes me want to read Hindi literature and Navbharat Times. And here’s more evidence
“sarfaroshi ki tamanna ab hamare dil mein hai
o re bismil kashvate aaj tum hindustan
dekhte ki mulk sara yeh tashan yeh thrill mein hai
aaj ka launda yeh kehta hum to bismil thak gaye
apni aazadi to bhaiya laundiya ke til mein hai”
I can relate with the “hum to bismil thak gaye”, I also understand it, he also uses words in new combinations, he adopts from English naturally.
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yes…it was not merely poetry…he took the socio political context into consideration…
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Also –
“choro ki basti me hai shor rani … kyunki yeh dil maange more rani”
and “jaise democracy me baat baat par lagne lag gaye ban”
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Notice he pronounces it like “Ma…chis jala ke chhod di” so when you hear the ‘Ma’ part you expect an expletive coming up but after the brief gap comes ‘chis’, leaving you amused at your own expectations a moment ago.
At least that’s what happened with me..
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not just the maa…, but also the consonant after the maa.. is “ch”, so you still expect it to end you know where. But he plays a trick and makes it “is”. Wonder if the credit to this poetry element goes to the censor board
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tell me something more abt the photograph…I can identify Kaifi Azmi…which one is sahir and who is the 3rd person?
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All the good work of the new age lyricists has been negated in one stroke by the guy who wrote ‘Mann ka radio’.
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:rofl: …. DBH lyrics also has something about handpump & chewing gum…I din’t get the whole thing…
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hindi cinema is rocking once more !!! love prasoon, jaideep and piyush…
Its lovely to hear words we dont hear much of the time but are a pass of our household vocabulary all the the same. I am sure prasoon imbibed all this growing up in a small town.
Jaideeps’ dialogues are thouroughly refreshing even if they have a high dosage of punjabi…. He does it with lots of style and cheek and the variety is awesome.
And we have evergreen gulzar ji’s imaginative use of words (He is like the Dr. Seuss hindi lyrics) and javed ji’s genius…
sukh hai alag aur chain alag hain….
par jo ye dekhe wo nain alag hai
kaanon ko kaafi sukh hai aajkal
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@Swa(r)thy
Among the three we only get to hear the lyrics of Prasoon often. Gulzar saab writes lyrics only for 2-3 movies a year. There were good lyricists in every decade working sporadically, situation hasn’t changed much. Lyrics took a backseat in this age of beats and rap, it may revive but it is unlikely that music industry will see the same height which it had seen in the 90s. No matter, today how much people hate the songs of 90s but the fact still remains that it was the decade of chart busters.
Songs in hindi cinema may be rocking for some but it isn’t working for me yet. Thankfully I still have my old collection intact.
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Gulzar writes as much as Prasoon Joshi if not more. In last 7 years Prasoon has written for just 10-15 movies.
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Prasoon came into limelight after Rang De Basanti though Hum Tum was popular as well and currently we get his writings more frequently than Gulzar saab.
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If one were to diagnose the reason behind the sad demise lyrics in early 80’s and then in the 90′, Amitabh Bachchan and A R Rahman – two of the three movie-personalities whom I almost worship (third one being Gulzar) – can be blamed for butchering the importance of lyrics… to some extent.
Amitabh really started this light-conversational-lyrics (mere angane mein, aap ka kya hoga, john jaani janardan tara ram pam (4), etc.). And because of his persona (combined with peppy music) these songs became so popular that directors stopped giving enough importance to lyrics.
Then, in the 90’s came A R Rahman with his pathetically translated lyrics (of songs that were originally written in Tamil), albeit with mind-blowing music that revolutionized the music industry in India. Remember Telephone dhun mein, jurassic park mein sundar se jode, bagal seat par buddhi ho to etc.?
No offense to these two great personalities. They have given us so much that they make up for these things. In fact, recent ARR albums (except Ghajini) has given us some top-notch lyrics.
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As you talk about “telephone dhun mein” I remember these lyrics from the song
teri galiyon mein koyi mard na chhoduunga aurat bhi na chhoduunga
…………………
showroom mein saajan aurat ki murat chhuunein na duungi
…………
WTF? Was that the absolute nadir in Hindi lyrics history?
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ha ha .. i remember that .. also ..the very famous ‘patti rap’ ..
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“teri galiyon mein koyi mard na chhoduunga aurat bhi na chhoduunga”….1st reference to lesbianism in the history of Indian Cinema :banginghead:
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wait a minute!
do you think Pandit P.K.Mishra and Mehboob did all the translation in a bogus way?
you talk of ‘Telephone’, but you did not talk of “Kehnaa hi Kya yeh nayan ik anjaan se jo mile’ (Mehboob) or “Sukriyaa tera Sukriyaa” from that Priyadarshan movie.
even P.K.Mishra wrote lyrics for album “Mere Jaan Hindusthan” and Lucky Ali’s “Anjaan-e Rahon Pe” really stands out.
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even if we do talk abt ‘telephone dhun’ or ‘patti rap’, its not the fault of the lyricists. they just translated the song from tamil to hindi. the original song itself came with such crappy thoughts
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on the contrary, i think pk misra did great work of writing in metre to an existing tune with confines of translating/lip-syncing to match the original video
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roja had some fab lyrics and so did bombay
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Yup, “Ik aankh roye to dooji bolo soyegi kaise bhala?”
But seriously though, I agree with you about the unique challenges that translation and lip-sync creates for any lyricist. Did they do a great job given these two constraints? I don’t think so.
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Lucky Ali’s “Anjaan-e Rahon Pe” is a gem .. if P.K Mishra was the lyricist .. then . .100s of patti rap are okay.
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I didn’t say all. But I would say MOST of those translations were schlock. I didn’t mention Kehna Hi Kya, but I think I should have. I mean how can I undermine the imaginative stance of “hum to loot gaye khade hi khade”!
And besides, my point was *not* that Mehboob and P.K. Mishra are bad lyricist. But their work in the early 90’s for those ARR movies was nothing to be proud of. I mean, come on! “Machhli pakadneka jaal bichhane se ambar ke taare phaste kya?”
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Who has written “Badi Nazuk Hai Yeh Manzil” from “Joggers Park”?
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“I am so happy to hear words like “sifarish”, “shagufta”, “zarra”, “be-shubah”, “guzarish” etc being used in the lyrics __ and was absolutely delighted when I heard “dafa’tan” ”
Why does use of old uncommon words unheard by todays generation in songs make them better lyrics?
Would you ever hear an European critic writing “I was happy to hear a resurgence of words like ‘In Sooth’ ‘Beseech’ ‘Prithee’ and ‘Whence’ in today’s songs”?
I feel the best lyrics convey their meanings in the simplest possible way to the listener.
To me “Zara zara kiss me” works better than
“Tu aa gayi dil ko raas raas hai guzarish”
(words wise, not meaning wise)
On a broader note, I feel it is this unchanging attitude of Indian artists towards their ‘kala’ (be it the strict guru chela disciplines in classical music, or the unchanging norms of Kathak) that prevent the rich Indian culture from progressing beyond what our ancestors created. The same holds true for our laws our politics our farming our civic sense etc.
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You nailed it. Attitude seems to be that if I dont understand it, it must be good.
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can’t really agree with this…there r certain beautiful words & expressions that the so called “Hinglish” is uncapable of expressing…& apart from the ones who use english as first language, people still understand these words…Moreover, why should we ape the western critics (yes we copy stories, stunts, visual effects & even some music…) but we do have a strong literary legacy…
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The problem with Hindi is, it is a dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghat ka. If we say sing words in any language that we speak, be it english french japanese etc they sound fine.
Day to day words in Hindi when sung sound ridiculous. Because our minds are attuned to shayris and their repetitive words like dil nazar aitbaar etc only to be used in songs.
Suppose I want to write a song about how I was making a cup of coffee in the kitchen one day and life suddenly sprung a surprise on me.
In English it would go something like -
“I was in the kitchen making coffee
When life suddenly took a u-turn on me’
Sing it as a ballad, rock, rap, it will sound alright.
Try to say make the same song in Hindi -
“Main Chauke mein chai bana rahi thi
Zindagi ne achanak palti kha lee”
It sounds ridiculous any way you sing it (except a Baba Saigal rap).
Years of conditioning by orthodox lyricists have made hindi unusable as a medium for lyrics unless you are using the same old shayrana words. Which is why people are forced to turn to english, punjabi, urdu etc. We find the same words in other languages beautiful (kiss, passion) but in hindi they turn out sounding ridiculous (chumma, hawas).
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No, there are songs like that Hindi.
Main to Raste se jaa raha tha,
Main to Bhel-puri kha raha tha,
Raste se jaa raha tha, bhel-puri kha raha tha, seetee baja raha tha…. (three taal of dholak)
Tujh ko mirchi lagi toh main kya karoon..
Not ridiculous!
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Hah, exactly! When someone tries to put new thoughts (including ‘Telephone dhun’ and ‘Columbus chutti hai aayi’ and ‘Thanda thanda pani’) the lyrics are simply waved away as the dredges of literature world. Throw in a daastan and sarfaroshi and guzarish the lyrics are applauded as masterpieces.
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good lyrics is not just about having esoteric words…it is the whole combination…the imagery that is created through them…you might have taken the beginning paragraph of this article a bit too seriously…it’s not only the words but how they r put into context…
as far as the western pop lyrics is concerned you should note that it is not the only music they have…I’m not really a fan of pop or hiphop…but some rock stuff have really profound & revolutionary lyrics…they also have a good tradition of opera & classical music…
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jitaditya : I agree, creating imagery through richly used words is one thing, and hindi shayri and lyrics does this nicely.
But the more important motive behind any song is expressing your thoughts, whatever they may be. If I want to write a song about (this is richard marx’s ‘Hazard’) -
“My mother came to Hazard when I was just seven
Even then the folks in town said with prejudiced eyes
That boy’s not right …
Three years ago when I came to know Mary
First time that someone looked beyond the rumours and the lies
And saw the man inside …
We used to walk down by the river
She loved to watch the sun go down
We used to walk along the river
And dream our way out of this town … ”
It is simply impossible to write this song in hindi without it either soudning ridiculous or outdated.
Hindi language as used in films severely limits lyrical creativity and this has what has lead to stagnation of lyrical thoughts.
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Hindi as a language is a rich one and can be used as a single one without relying on English, Punjabi etc. People didn’t start writing in Hindi only few years before. When Tulsi and Meera were writings their songs, they didn’t rely on other languages. Today if somebody writes in Hindi purely, the song will become complex and sophisticated. This is also depends upon perspective only, because Hindi as a language hasn’t found the acceptance in India. Most people only know general Hindi which they use while talking and not the literary one. The common language used by the people is Hinglish so it’s no surprise that in popular culture like Bollywood, the lyrics are written in Hinglish. Bollywood has also glorified the Punjab and Punjabis by constantly churning out the movies with Punjabi characters so Punjabi words have also found a way in the songs.
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“Main Chauke mein chai bana rahi thi
Zindagi ne achanak palti kha lee”
I don’t find anything ridiculous in it. Lines written in prose form can be used in poetry or singing. Actually these lines reminded me of ‘Mera Kuch Samaan…‘ and that song was not sung as a rap.
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Hindi for the kiss is chumban and English for Hawas is Lust.
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“Main Chauke mein chai bana rahi thi
Zindagi ne achanak palti kha lee”
If a music director were to put these lines to a good tune Im sure a majority of the critics and listeners would complain about the quality of lyrics, regardless of the meaning of the song.
“Give me a kiss and prove to me its love not lust baby” would sound nice in Rihanna’s voice but picture Sunidhi singing the same thoughts in Hindi “Ek chumban de ke saabit kar de tera pyar hawas nahi hai”
Hindi words just dont lend themselves to good songs the way our ears have got deconditioned to them. We are forced to hinglishify them or stick to purane khayalat ke geet.
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I think it is not a problem of lyrics but a problem with the society…there are people who use F-word regularly & say language in Omkara was cheap… :banginghead:
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Nitin,
your translation of Rihanna song is simply too simple, give the same line to a seasoned poet and he will translate it into a beautiful phrase and make it count.
e.g Gulzar:
Omkara :: ja padosi ke chulhe se aag lai le.
B&B : aankhein bhee kamaal karti hai personal se sawaal karti hain.
that’s why a literary figure is important !!
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Actually Hawas is still a Urdu word. Direct translation will do no good. The same thing can be said as
Labo ko hotho pe sajakar keh do ye prem hai laalsa nahi.
It isn’t perfect yet, some good writer will use better words for the same.
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jitaditya : I agree completely!
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Yaatri: About your examples from Gulzaar, he is an exception and I bow down to his ability to break through limitations and write modern sounding meaningful lyrics. (Of course in your example he too resorts to hinglish ‘personal’)
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Yaatri – I wasn’t translating, I just wrote a random idea in English and Hindi, and the hindi one sounds ridiculous while the english sounds fine.
My point is, is most languages around the world there is not much difference in what is spoken and what is sung. But in Hindi songs, you cannot sing what you speak and you cannot speak what you sing.
Imagine speaking these lines (as written by Jahanpanah) to a girl – “Labo ko hotho pe sajakar keh do ye prem hai laalsa nahi.”
If you think about it our movie dialogues used to be like these till a few years back. Now someone writing dialogs like these is called outdated, as realistic dialogues have taken over.
The same is happening to songs – shayri is being taken over by real life words in lyrics. And to me it is a good thing, even as the ‘over 40s’ crowd laments the loss of good lyrics.
Jahanpanah – No disrespect but personally I find lyrics like those severely outdated and probably not usable by any contemporary music director.
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I think this is the root problem because mostly good lyrics are more like that only and they are considered to be outdated by people. Strange paradox here.
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Haha you are right. I think this dilemma exists with all of art – thats why no one can agree on good movies, books, paintings, music etc because everyone has different criteria for what they consider good or bad.
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Nitin,
Other folks have answered your basic question, but I just wanted to point out that your ‘translation’ of English (Life took a U-Turn) example is rather skewed.
The language you’ve used in the English version – the U-Turn bit, isn’t common English either, a normal guy wouldn’t say something like that, he’d just say, I had a shock, or I was suddenly surprised. So you’re already writing the English lyrics with an eye for metre and poetry.
Whereas, in the Hindi version (Paltee Khaa gayee), you’ve chosen words that sound out of place, and are Mumbaiyya slang, to boot. There are dozens of better-sounding ways to say the same thing in Hindi – I’m not saying Mumbaiyya slang is bad, but it, like any other distinct vocabulary, needs to fit into the context. You don’t need to use shayrana words to make Hindi lyrics sounds better, just the most appropriate words, with the right connotations.
BTW, the reason words like ‘kiss’ and ‘passion’ sound good to us is because they’ve been used in scores of English songs and movies in a poetic context.
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Also, many people seem to confuse pop songs and shayri. If you want good lyrics you should listen to ghazals, shayris, mushairas, qawalis, kavi sammelans.
Film music in India has increasingly become pop music, and pop music should have popularly accepted and understood lyrics. So you should not really be expecting nazms ghazals and shayris if you are listening to pop music.
Thats like an english literature professor complaining about the quality of lyrics in Beyonce and 50 Cent songs.
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Good point Nitin….I guess hindi film music dominates the music industry across genres to such a high extent that we expect it to be the torchbearer for everything.
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i dont agree with nitin at all. good lyrics is not limited to ghazal and shayaris. its all about writing with some sense.
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quality in lyrics have deteriorated because the larger public out there have reduced their standards and taste. everyone wants to hear some meaningless song which has peppy beats, good rhythm and then…forget it….wait for some more new junk songs
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Agreed with this.
Also Urdu is a language which always has been considered necessary to some extent for a Hindi writer because it brings delicacy (?????) in the language. Hindi as a language is a sophisticated one because its root lie in Sanskrit.
Sadly today Urdu has been usurped by Punjabi and English.
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delicacy (nazakat).
I wrote it in devnagari and it didn’t accept.
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“Urdu is a language which always has been considered necessary…”
- sticking with the past has been the bane of Indian art and culture. Who considers Urdu necessary? The listeners or the writers? If you write for yourself, its another thing but pop songs are meant for the population.
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Whats meaningless to you may be meaningful to the general population. Pop Songs are about connecting more than about art and sense.
“Oops I did it again” “Hit me baby one more time” Britney Spears, “I’m Bad I’m Bad You Know it I’m Bad” MJ, “Boom Boom Pow” Black Eyed Peas, – huge hits because they connect, not because they are meaningful.
“Dhan Te Nan” connects more than “Kehne Ko Jashne Bahara Hai” to a majority of Indians.
Who are you to judge taste has detiorated or improved?
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Nice post! I would like to add Swanand Kirkire’s name to the list too. I think he has done some fab work in the past and am really looking forward to 3 Idiots. Gulzar saab is a genius and Prasoon does a great job too! I also find Jaideep Sahni as a very promising lyricist, although part-time. We have a very interesting pallette of lyric writers!! Of course none of them are Sahir Ludhianvi or Kaifi Azmi. But every generation finds its own genius and its own voice. I am sure we are on that way too!
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Very good article. Lyricists are often ignored in Bollywood. Swayanand Kirkire is another name you can add to the contemporary list of Prasoon Joshi, Saeed Quadri and Amitabh Bhattacharya.
Btw did you really include Race as an example of good lyrics or was that a mistake? Zara zara touch me touch me, teri baaton ne kiya sensation? LOL!
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Isn’t it strange that to see that there are no female lyricists in Hindi Film Industry :notsure: ……the only one I heard about is Anvita Dutt Guptan(bachna ae haseeno, kambhakt ishq, luck, dostana, tashan, heyy baby, neal ‘n’ nikki…)
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@Amit,
Explore a name ” Maya Govind “. It might help in your search.
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I think she was the one who wrote many double-meaning songs in the 90s.
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yes, Kabootar in Dalaal and few other songs in other films.
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..and men of accused of being sexist. Kambakth Ishq dialogues were written by Anvita Dutt Guptan.
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Suraj Badjatya had already made Salman singing
“Hai Ram, Kudiyon ka hai zamana”
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Was there a poet by the name of something that sounds like Havva or Hawa or Hauva? I’ve heard some references here and there but never gathered enough. Would appreciate any info.
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Very good written & knowledgeable article reminding the past. Old days lyricists was really full of talent I respect them, songs were classical and melodies even in Hindi or Urdu shairi as in Amar prem, silsila but now days also lyrics is not disappointing, songs for Fana, Rock on, Jannat are the examples I feel new generation interest is more towards rock music not for classical. Good lyrics having impact on film popularity we should admire the talent of lyricists.
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