PROJEKT iVIEW : Of Moods and Memories
iView Author:
Subrat
(Bangalore, India)
EMAIL:
withheld
In his magisterial account of modern Indian history, ‘India After Gandhi’,
Ramachandra Guha devotes about twenty odd pages to a chapter titled ‘A
People’s Entertainment’ where he clubs together some of India’s greatest
passions – movies, music and spectator sports. I personally felt Guha
under-served these sections and their impact on the nation’s populace.
However, what caught my attention were two passages as part of this chapter
where Guha set his trained anthropologist/sociologist/historian eye on the
cult of popular Hindi movies. I quote both below.
“Where the Indian film rises above stock themes and stereotypes, and becomes
truly original, is in its music.”
“Indian audiences, writes the film historian Nasreen Munni Kabir, are
resigned to stock characters and predictable dialogue. But they know, and
hope, that these tired old stories can yet be brought back to life by
good-looking stars and six or eight great songs. These audiences can accept
repetition in storylines but they will reject a film’s music if it has no
originality.”
When I last cast a cursory view on the people who grace PFC pages, I didn’t
see too many music directors or lyricists. So I am not sure how palatable
the worthies on this forum find the above conclusions, but I tend to agree
with Guha for two reasons. Firstly, as he rightly states, there are many a
mediocre movies which have been redeemed (often momentarily) by great music.
The second is more psychological; it is about how some songs create an
alternate universe for me, complete with sights, sounds and smells, where I
disappear and lead a different life. Two of me co-exist at the same time and
space. Movies don’t do this to me, their songs often do.
Some of this is natural especially when the songs are deeply associated with
not just a stray event in your memory but with the entire landscape of a
time gone by. Was it pre-destined that I would turn sixteen exactly two
months after Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander released? So when I hear first strains
of Pehla Nasha fifteen years later I can still smell the impending monsoon
in the air and feel the tingle of the first flush of love. It was eerie when
I read Marquez’s ‘Love in the time of Cholera’ which started with “It was
inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of
unrequited love.” Pehla Nasha does the same to me though with a pleasanter
after-taste than that of Marquez’s. Why did I watch Kabzaa on the evening
before a monthly exam? The exam didn’t go too well and I as sat staring at
the test paper, the song ‘Dil ki adalat, pyar ka muqadama, dekho vakil babu
ban gaye balma’ kept playing in my head over and over again. Every single
difficult exam since then has this song making a guest appearance as I sit
sweating over the answers. It has been impossible to shake it off nor the
imagery of Sanjay Dutt and Amrita Singh horsing around Raj Babbar and
Dimple, which you might agree, can be most distracting when you are trying
to get your hands around a complex Operations Research problem. What divine
work was at play when I first heard ‘Le Chale’ from My Brother Nikhil?
“…dopahar garmiyon ki, shaamein woh sard si…”; I traverse the so familiar
path to my childhood playground through a little forest, the mandatory stop
to buy a bubble gum, calling out to my friend in front of his home who lived
closest to the ground and graciously stocked the wickets, bat and the ball
at his home and then playing on till dusk. How does Amitabh Verma take me
back there and exactly capture this period of my life in just a few lines
set to some exquisite music of Vivek Philips?
But what explains the images that other songs evoke for which you have no
bearing point or no anchor to moor your nostalgia. Why do the same images
dance in my mind everytime Lata weaves her magic in that deliciously
melancholic “hum pyaar mein jalne waalon ko” from the unheralded Jailor? Or
when you find yourself transported to a windy night on the beach when Hemant
Kumar croons “Pedon ke saakhon pe..” from “Sun ja dil ki daastan” of Jaal.
The words dance out of my car stereo when I play “Aap yun faaslon se guzarte
rahe..” and morph into characters of my parallel world which is so apt for a
song from a movie (Shankar Hussain) which had dual identity as its theme or
so I have heard. Or that intense sense of solitude that envelopes me when I
hear “subah na aayi kai baar need se jaage; ke ek raat si yeh umr yun guzar
chale; ruke ruke se kadam…” And finally, “roz roz aankhon tale” from Jeeva,
a dacoit saga that I refused to watch but a song that also makes me wonder
if any kind of storyline or picturization could do justice to its words. It
is possibly best left for you to create your kaleidoscope of images and
memories with those lines.
While I bring out the above as supporting evidence to concur with Guha on
the fact that music in our films often props up a hackneyed plot and average
production values while leaving a lasting impact on its audiences, I am
still plagued by an alternate notion. Is it music which is the cause for the
possible lack of innovation in story telling in our movies? Is it the
buffer, the comfort zone that eases creative minds from pushing the
frontiers and take the less arduous route through some original lyrics and
music with a few bankable stars? It is indeed an interesting point, worthy
of a debate. But then who is to say that creating original music and lyrics
are easier creative processes than breaking new ground on the plot.
Well, all of these ruminations can be set aside for another day. Purists
might lament the death of golden age of Hindi film music but I like to
believe given its prodigious output I still get those moments every year
which transports me far away. Into that parallel universe, that alternate
real world of images and memories and it is for those moments I pray that
may I never be one with myself ever.
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Damn… a lot in common… Aap yun en faaslon se guzarte rahe is indeed from Shankar Husaain, and yes it deals with the dual personality (though no great shakes)… I was about 5, when I saw this movie and vaguely remember the opening scene where the floods have ruined many villages and Sriram Lagoo is in a boat trying to find survivors. The other scene is where the heroine wakes up in the arms of the second hero while Vikram (I think it was him) along with the villagers goes out searching for her.(The heroine’s a sleep walker)
A song which constantly bugs me on many a evening is the one I seem to have lost and cannot find anywhere on the internet. The memory attached to the song is driving like four in the morning with my parents to Bombay Central station to catch the train for delhi and the taxi driver had this portable transistor (that’s what they called radios in those days and car stereos still had not been invented or made their way into India) and not sure what station was it that darn early but it was playing “Mere mehboob shayad aaj kuch naaraz hain mujhse… main itne paas hoon phir bhi woh kitne door hain mujhse”… fifteen odd years later (and that a similarity with your post)… it’s raining damn hard in Pune, half the college has gone home and here I am with a few guys giving some gear design exam… the wind carries some light splashes of the heavy rain inside the class and bing… for some odd reason that first line of the song starts playing in a constant loop. and carries till late evening over butter chicken and old monk…
Many songs which have memories attached to them. Some play by itself in the head when I do something similar which I guess serves as a trigger…
Long drives in California by the sea shore or while driving to San Francisco through those hills always triggers off “Katra Katra” or “Choti si kahani se”… On lone drives I have no idea but the songs of an obscure film by Jalal Agha which had one of the best music starts playing in the head and tragically I don’t have the songs for that movie too… it’s a quickly forgotton upon it’s release movie called “Goonj” starring Kumar Gaurav and Juhi Chawla (and I wouldn’t advise you to look for the movie for it wasn’t any great shakes)… but the songs…during my college days were always played over late night submissions works, Pune’s cold cloudy windy evenings that have a melancholic life of their own, over many a college round of drinks… “Soota lagao yaaro”… “Sama yeh suhaana, akele tum ho, akele hum hain” or “Jawani ke din hain” or even the beautiful song sung by Manna Dey ‘Jo Goonjay wohi dil ki awaaz hain’… the music was by Biddu. I had a recorded tape of the whole soundtrack. lost it. Now I can’t find it. And every now and then on those long drives the music of Goonj just starts playing in my head from nowhere…
Nice post… triggered many memories in replay mode…
Oz,
Thanks for sharing your memmories.
How can I not remember Goonj!! I watched the movie (late 1988) too and had the track till about 5 years back. Sama hai suhaana had a boat-on-the-lake stock picturization.
The other song which I have similarly lost is Tum jo mile to laga hai from Drohi. RDB and Suresh Wadkar! How I wish I oculd have this track again!!
- S
yeh there is a strange connection between heavy rains and cinema halls…..I too found myself invariably in one of them when it rained very heavily….on the top of the mind….Shiva Ka Insaf,Naseeb[played in open air during Ganpati....watched the film drenched actually....thankfully the screen was covered as it was placed in a pandal],Hum Dono,Daud,Satya,
Subrat, In Drohi, for me, it’ll always be… “Dhadkati mere dil ko aayee tu” with Nagarjuna starting the song with the jerk of the neck to his left…
Oz, yes I remember that Drohi song as well. Was a rumbling staccato number.
- S
Oz,
Any idea who has sung, written and composed
it’s been years… and I may be wrong here but I think it was Amit Kumar (Kishore Kumar’s son) let me see what I can find.
I have 3 songs from Drohi (”Tum jo mile”, “Dhadkaati dil ko mere”, and “Panchhi gaaye re”). If you guys need the mp3’s, let me know and I can e-mail it.
Oz,
Let me know your email address.. will transfer the Goonj… haven’t lost it as yet buddy..
Pavan
Subrat,this could also be one very strong argument for presence of song and dance in Hindi Films..Music from our films is a staple..a catharsis..an inspiration..a tooth-brush ritual..Its raison d’etre of common man’s existence..Another way to look at it is to see the popularity of singing talent reality shows..Its one of the most direct ways to connect us with our ownselves, thats why it is surviving regardless of its lapsed golden age.
Oz,
Your example of Kabzaa reminds me of my days.. I used to live in a guest house in Udaipur and had final examinations and one fine sunday.. next day one of the physic papers was scheduled.. I have grown up as a careless boy always busy with gully cricket or reading comics or filmi magazines.. never ever cared about the examinations and usually only before 2-3 days used to ask my classmates.. paper kiska hai, kitaab kausi hai.. (ye alag baat hai I was the only boy in the college those day to whom teachers used to request to take a class of my seniors in specific subjects I used to be very good and beyond text books).
anyway back to the kissa.. I was reading the physics books and came down to the dining hall.. at that time DD was playing Mirch Masala.. The film was so involving and the climax was brilliant (one the the finest 30 mins ever in any film), that physics books kept waiting for me..even after the film got over, it stayed with me for whole day and night… Next day when I reached Examination Center, I found I prepared for a different paper as I was totally lost and the actual scheduled paper was a different one (Optics) for which have never seen the books.. so out of five I could attempt only a couple (somehow a total of 13 marks) and had filled just 3 pages from a 24 page answer book.. and came back in 40-45 mins..
anyway when the results were announced I got a shock.. I got 29 marks out of 33 (though I attempted questions of a total of 13 marks only).. that day my faith in examination system was restored.. and I also came to know that god always keeps an eye on the film fanatics…. enough mirch masala for now.. (it still remain a very special film for me)
Goonj Songs :
-Sama ye hai suhana - Hema Sardesai (debute song) and Binju Ali
-Maaro soota - Binju Ali and Abhijeet
-Jawani ke din hain pyaar kiye ja - Binju Ali, Hema Sardesai and Abhijeet
-Jo goonje wahi dil ki aawaaj hai - Manna Dey (Lyr. Dr. Rahi Masoom Raza)
-Love Technology - Binju Ali and Electra
The Album was released on Weston (and later re.released in mid 90s as Parinda-Goonj combo)..
Krysh, I agree with you on the role of music and lyrics in Hindi cinema
Pratik, Pavan - thanks for sharing your views as well. I would love to have those songs from Drohi and Goonj. you can reach me at subrat_mohanty[at]hotmail
thanks
i still remember was in school and desperately wanted to watch Goonj in 1989,it had some real nice songs,i guess it was jalal agha only movie directed by him.
sj,
Jalal Agha’s directional debute was nightmare for him.. it got started and burnt his hands in a very controversial film titled “Niravan” with Sarika as the leading lady. The film never got released due to censor problems.. the audio was released on CBS and had a beautiful song (that I have lost!!!) by Jagjeet singh “Raatein thi sooni sooni, din bhi udaas the mere”.. still In Search (not the name of the album:)…
Pavan
Anyone know what happened to Binjoo ali. Goonj
seems to be his only movie.
does any one has songs of movie goonj…i.e maro soota,samma ye suhana,jawani ke din hai e.ts…if anyone of u have pls mail them to me ill be highly obliged….iam searching for the songs of the movie…and after long searching i came to this site and read the reviews of oz and pavan..pls help me with it
id is
kapoorsumant@gmail.com
waiting for ur reply
sumant kapoor
does any one has songs of movie goonj
Hi Pavan,
Please Share goonj album with me too… I think you are only one on net who has this album. Plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Share it with me too.
my mail Id is gurujie@gmail.com
hi pavan
seems like you are the only person with the song of goonj can you please email them to me on prashants66@hotmail.com i will be very great full to you
cheers
I have “Sama yeh suhana” from Goonj.. If anybody else wants it other than Prashant, mail me at asrivastava[at]gmail[dot]com. Prashant, this song is on your way :-).
@@@@ A Srivastava
Hi there…. Fellow Indian here do you have the song “Samaa Yeh Suhaana” from Goonj…. I’d be very grateful if u can send me a copy of the song…. My id : alessandrodelpiero@gmail.com
Awaiting your reply,
Raj
:d:d
Hi Amit
I would be grateful if a copy was sent to me too :-)))))please. My id is sangeeta.chakravarti@gmail.com
@ raj and Sangeeta,
you guys are barking up the wrong tree. we dont do illegal file sharing here.
I also want the Goonj song “jawani ke din hain pyaar kiye ja”. Can sombody please send me at codegenerator2004@rediffmail.com
hi Pavan / Amit
Can u please share the goonj song
“jawani ke din hain pyaar kiye ja” with me. My email id is anant.cs@gmail.com
Can anyone send me the songs of the movie Goonj?
I really loved the songs of that movie.
Lost the AUdio cassette in 1994 never heard any of its songs since then :’(
My mailing address is mrinquisitive2000@yahoo.com
Hi, it would be really great if u could plz send the song “sama ye suhana” from the movies Goonj to me at my email id.
Thanks