The lost art of Lyric writing
My first thought while writing this article is that most people wouldn’t want to read it. Simply because most people don’t give a flyin fuck about lyrics and so wouldn’t want to read anything associated with it. It’s unfortunate but it’s true. Yet, I write it because I feel for it.
Over the years, the quality of lyric writing has deteriorated a lot but most people don’t know because music today is more about beats and melody than about the words. Sorry guys, if I sound like nida fazli but it’s true. And though a lot of lyrics writers are responsible for this, the main culprit today, according to me, is lyric writer Sameer. And I will explain why…
“Jaane who kaise log they jinke pyaar ko pyaar milla
Humne to jab kaliya maangi, kaaton ka haar milla”
Or
“milo na tum to hum ghabraaye
Milo to aankh churaaye
Humain kya ho gaya hai”
When you hear the above couplets you know for sure that the poets who wrote these had fallen in love at some point in their lives. Sahir Ludhianvi saab must have been a loner to write the first couplet while Kaifi Azmi saab must have felt that nervousness, that anxiety when in love, to write those immortal lines. While Sahir saab craves love and acceptance, Kaifi azmi saab describes the feeling, which I felt, when I had my first crush.
Now compare this to
“subah subah raat raat
Aankhon main dil main tu
24 7 I think of you”
“I love you o sayoni
I love you o sayoni
Koi shak, whats up?”
Now someone please explain what the fuck is this??? The words are crap! There is no thought! Both the above couplets are written by Sameer and composed by Himesh. Yet Himeshbhai rules!!! And yet people in the film industry refer to Sameer as Sameersaab. He is considered to be almost on the same league as the elitist and esoteric Gulzar and the common man’s poet Javed Akhtar. And I don’t blame them. They can get away with this crap is because the audience, like I said, doesn’t give a fuck! They are almost illiterate when comes to poetry. And so Himesh today is a rockstar!
Everyone knows what a big hit ‘Kajra re’ is. Yet how many know the meaning of the song ‘Kajra re’? How many know that the song itself is a love story. Hence the lines
“surme pe likhe tere vaade Aankhon ki jabaani aate hai
Mere rumaal pe lab tere Baandh ke nishaani jaate hai”
The expectations of the girl in love, who holds on to the promises of her lover is so well said…
And everyone loves Chaiyya Chaiyya but how many understand the meaning of the lines
“Chal chaiyaa chaiyaa
Jinke sar ho ishq ki chaanv paanv ke neeche jannat hogi”
who yaar hai jo khushbu ki tarah, jiski zubaan urdu ki tarah
Meri shaam raat meri kaaynath who yaar mera saiya saiya
The sufi thought that a man, when in love, finds paradise and so should walk in the shadows of love hence ‘chaiya chaiyya’ meaning walk in the shadow…
And where he praises his love as someone who is as sweet as urdu when she talks(urdu is a sweet language and so the comparison) and who is the lovers day, night and the the universe…
Yet most 18 year olds today don’t understand it! The song is a hit because of Rahman and not Gulzar. And this will continue to be so…
Sorry Gulzarsaab but Sameer has more hits…or rather sameersaab has more hits!!! And that fuckin hurts!
Tags: Songwriting
Anurag Kashyap
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- Hell why wouldn’t you write this article!!! You are right. And one of the other reasons the quality of songwriting has gone down is that the consistently shrinking vocubulary of the general public.
Yes, it is true. If the songs of Gulzar are a hit it’s not because the general public understood and loved the “ENTIRE” lyrics, it was because of AR Rehman (Chaiyya Chaiyya) and Shankar Loy Ehsaan (Kajra re). (this however does not take away anything from the beautiful poetry written by Gulzar saab in Chaiyya Chaiyya or Kajra re).
It’s been a long time someone brought up the name of Saahir Ludhianvi. Tragic as it many sound but not many of the current Bollywood movie viewers know much about him. Some of his gems that immediately come to my mind are
- “Aurat ne janam diya mardon ko, mardon ne use bazaar diya”
- “Kabhi Khud Pe Kabhi Haalaat Pe Rona Aaya
Baat Nikli To Har Ik Baat Pe Rona Aaya”
- “Kiska Rasta Dekhe
Ae Dil Ae Saudaai
Meelon Hai Khamoshi
Barson Hai Tanhaai”
Oh and the songs of “Pyasa”!!!
Here’s some links to Saahir’s work and analysis by lovers of his poetry.
http://www.urdustan.com/adeeb/sahir.htm
http://www.geocities.com/~sm0e/R-sahirGul.txt
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/4797/svg_1.txt
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/4797/svg_2.txt
(Finally an article on music!)
Firstly, I disagree with your comment that Sameer has given more hits than Gulzarsaab. Because Sameer’s song are only popular cos of the music and they only last for a month or even a week, and he writes songs like he his making chappatis at dhaba. Also hardly any people respects him for his poetry/writing. Where as Gulzarsaab is respected as a writer and as a poet. His songs lasts forever. He is the legend. So who has given more hits?
erm.. common there will be some songs that will be popular cos of the music and not lyrics. but then there will be songs which are popular cos of lyrics. “Khatta Meetha”, “Golmaal”, “Musafir” are classic songs cos of the lyrics.
Secondly, the quality of music and lyrics is gone a lot crap, is cos there are plenty of cheap lyrcists/musician without any principles. they will copy music or write any crap. However, we have Prasoon Joshi’s work to look forward.
there are some good lyrical songs out in market, for example:
“Roobaroo”, “Khoon Chala”, “Aashayein”, “Jag Ja”….
Nice article. Being a musician myself, I can completely understand your frustration. I would like to expand this to the Indian rock music scene too. The rock bands in India have come of age and are writing some amazing songs that are brilliant in terms of music as well as original musical arrangements. But still, there are no record companies willing to launch any of them. And that ass-wipe Himesh is selling junk like hot cakes. They are calling him a rockstar :o Rockstar my a**
For me, the lyrics need to be honest for me to really enjoy the song and that’s why I end up listening to a lot of rock and metal stuff or the hindi oldies such as Rafi and Kishore-da hits
~Manoj~
a correction in my comment…
i wrote “…brilliant in terms of music…”
i wanted to write “…brilliant in terms of lyrics…”
A good lyric plus a good tune makes a good song that can stand the test of time.Take the two songs of Sahid Ludhianvi and Kaifi Azmi you quoted to make your point.Both had good lyrics as well as good music.That’s the reason even today in functions people request for these songs,they touch a chord in our hearts when played in FM. Chaiyan-Chaiyan was a hit and will continue to be so…but does anybody still Dil Se title song.Music was as brilliant,but somehow the lyrics was not as profound as Chaiyaan-Chaiyaan. So whenever you think of Dil Se movie Chaiyaan-Chaiyaan and Jiya Jaale would be two songs that strikes first…although personal favourite happens to be Aye Ajnaabi.Sameer and Himesh might be hot today, but will their hits of today be remembered by posterity ? But anyday you hear a Gulzar and RD deadly combo, your heart will miss a beat or two.
@ nu good article. I had been waiting for something to come up. Nice that you brought this topic up. Sameer always was a mystery to me. Even during his Nadeem Shravan days, he used to churn out “hit” music but the lyrics were never something to think about, the lyrics were pretty “STRAIGHT FORWARD”. No underlining message behind it. His lyrics inspire no one i guess. Then he went underground or wherever for quite some time, and then our very own Himesh Bhaiyya has un-earthed him, and with Indian Idol giving him so much publicity… we see hima a lot too.
Sameer works at the same frantic pace as Himesh. They have a competition going on ” kaun pehle kartha hain..music ya lyrics?” The result of the competion is we going %-( and later ~X(
Having said all that.. One song which i liked a lot in the recent times has is
Guncha Koi Mere naam Kar diya
Saaki ne phir se mera jaam bhar diya
From Main meri patni Aur Woh
Its a very good ghazal.
Fender Bender… Yeah man i was also wondering why dont we promote Rock, Metal, Heavy Metal in india? I am sure we have loads of talent in that field. Am not sure how much can our public accept Psychedellic Rocks like Marlyn Mansion or even Godsmack to that extent. But, something on the lines of Ra(music band), Black sabbath, or Katie would be really good. Hope we someday have an invasion of Rock!!
Wow !!!!!!!!!!!!
Seems like some avid discussions on lyrics writing
-OZ ….. have bookmarked those links … thanks
a ton
Kabhi khud pe …is one of the MOST FUCKING BRILLIANT GHAZALS ON HELPLESSNESS…
and who can forget another gem from the same film (the one which i always sing)
“Abhi na jao chod kar
ki dil abhi bhara nahi”
-HG yeah Prasoon joshi is thankfully the new age/generation better lyricist.
I generally think that the downfall in lyrics has happened because poets lyric writers (Sameer and the ilk) are either not well versed in Urdu/hindi literature or they are not allowed to infuse them into lyric writing.
Gulzar – Urdu/Bengali (Raakhi and Bimal Roy connection) / Sufi Literature/ Punjabi Culture
Javed Sahib – poetry for the common man… the classes and the masses !!!!
However the situation is slightly changing.. With commercial film makers like Mahesh bhatt (as much as i may hate him…) bringing in urdu poetry into film songs …. Just listen to Jism, Woh Lamhe, Gangster , Zeher….
most of the lyric writers of bhatt clan’s films are urdu poets … Some of the songs are pretty good …
Lamha lamha doori , Tu hi meri shabh hai , Aawarapan (WOW!!!), aadat, Ae bekhabar (Zeher) and the current fav Kya mujhe pyaar hai (Woh lamhe)
Yes they are needed since urdu is taking a beating these days … and the common man has lost touch with them.
true.
the situation is worse in Telugu Film Industry. most of the song lyrics in our films can be classified as ‘very short semi-porn stories’. the hero and heroine dance for such songs.
i dont have much hope for the future too.
cos the number of people who have good knowledge about the language is getting lesser by the day.
in old times, there were no(very few) english-medium schools, so a lot of people knew the native language better than anybody does right now. even educated people were very good at their native language.
our case is different. everyone wants to get educated in an english medium school. its hard to get a decent job if u dont know english. everybody, even those getting educated in local-language-medium schools, is more concerned about learning english.
its a hard case for good lyrics.
but one positive thing happening is the slowly changing face of bollywood cinema, in terms of meaningful films by sensible directors. films like these have an accommodation for good lyrics.
but how many can write? and what would be the situation after twenty years? after fifty?
@ Kalki There are some meaningful songs going on In telugu, Point in question songs from Anukokonda Okka Roju, Godavari, etc. And let us for once remove all chiru, balakrishna, nagarjuna movies from this list… They make no sense… for real no sense at all
eg: Lux papa Lux Papa Lunch ki vostava( Lux bay Lux baby will you go for lunch) WTF?
First things first, Himesh sucks.
ARR is overrated and a bloody plagiarist.
Ilayaraja is God. Now you guys will say i am a tamilian. Yes I am and I am proud of it. In Raja’s period, tamil songs had proper lyrics and flow to it. Once ARR came, it has gotten worse!
And its has been poor for a longtime in tamil nadu. When you hire singers like Udit narayanan who pronounces “Thamizh” as “Damilu”, You dont get through what you intend to say most of the time.
@ Thilak
“ARR is overrated and a bloody plagiarist”
Can you explain please… he is a Plagiarist? I am not a huge follower of music, but, i certainly would love to hear you explanation on this….out of lack of knowledge!!!
- NU – Look above to read the 12 comments…and you thought people would give a flying fuck about reading an article on lyrics!!! >:)
Check this for ARR
http://www.itwofs.com/tamil-arr.html
And there is one for IR but considering the number of songs and its far lesser toned than rip offs of ARR. But the fact that the site missed a few more rip offs by ARR.
“Take his latest venture with mani ratnam in tamil, kannathil muthamittal. maymaadham was ok. the music in kannathil muthamitaal was loud and overused.
take “Vellai Pookal” for example.
Check out this interlude (starts at 2:19)
“Kaatrin pesaiyum, mazhai paadum paadalgalum, oru maunam pol inabam tharuumo…” and check out “Ghost and the Darkness theme”. It is a rip off and he has just rehashed it a bit for the entire song. And he used this same bit again and again as a BGM to create an eerie mood.
Take “Vidai kodu endhan naade”. And this is one song where ARR was inspired by the great IR himself. Listen to “Rojaavai Thaalattu” from Ninaivellam Nithya or “Ninnai Saran Adaindhen” from Bharathi. The same ragas used by IR to weave magic on us has been copied shamelessly by ARR.
I do agree that ARR has been noticed by one too many but am ashamed that it had to be through movies like Roja, Indian and the likes (by tamilians).
As I mentioned before the problem is that the youth today have a very different taste. Something that YSR, HJ and ARR can cater to. Preferences have changed. And it is always customary for tamilains to accept someone who shines in Bollywood as a legend. And the fact that Hindi audience welcomed ARR when they shunned IR, has the current generation drooling. Anyone who is a big shot in Bollywood has to be great is the typical mindset of a teenager today. No wonder people still think that Amitabh is a better actor than Kamal and Mohanlal. Idiots I would say.”
Courtesy: Orkut community. But I agree with that person. Although she deviated a bit into IR-ARR comparison later, she is right about ARR. He is overhyped by many!
Ohh wow… Very interesting.. Now one thing…
Where does Inspiration end and Plagarism start?
Inspiration end and Plagarism start
Unless its blatantly sensed!
it’s like this what’s that saying.. Glass is half empty.
out of 100% you can say that 1% of his work is not original. Why can’t you see that majority of his work is original and breathtaking?
also i think the quality of tamil films started to drop since 90s and that was before A R Rahman entered the scene – am I right? And that reflects the poor quality of lyrics – is that A R Rahman’s fault?
Do you seriously think ‘Raja has not been inspired or copied anyone’s work?
Even our great R D Burman had been inspired by Beetles and all – right?
Also did you know Star Wars is sort of copy of our Hindu Mythologies?
Whatever you say Thilak, I love A R Rahman – he has the voice of god; his voice would touch your hearts even if he his just singing without no music in background. And his music is miles better than any composers out there in market.
A R Rahman’s music/voice is slick, beautiful and attracting to my ears; like Arsenal’s football is slick, beautiful and attracting to our eyes.
“also i think the quality of tamil films started to drop since 90s and that was before A R Rahman entered the scene – am I right? And that reflects the poor quality of lyrics – is that A R Rahman’s fault?”
I partly agree here.
“like Arsenal’s football is slick, beautiful and attracting to our eyes.”
Ironically I am a Gooner too.
@ Thilak
I agree that AR Rahman is overrated, but so were the Beatles. The common thing between the two is that they are a major hit with the masses because their music has a different edge than the rest out there.
As for plagiarist, that’s a big accusation isn’t it? Just because a riff or an interlude sounds similar to that in some other song doesn’t make a person a plagiarist. I hope you know that music revolves around just 7 notes and we have a gazillion songs out there. There surely will be some pieces of music that sound the same.
Plagiarism is simply using someone else’s material without any contribution from your side. I think I have lost count of the number of hindi movies that have blatantly used the themes from Knight Rider, Terminator, The Good The Bad The Ugly as their background scores. That my friend is plagiarism.
that was a blind shot and it worked :d yeah, i know you are an arsenal fan cos i read one of your comments and you mentioned that.
anyway, nobody’s perfect, like that when you will analyze an artist’s portfolio – you will get so many results, and A R Rahman comes out with better results in all departments than any other composers.
and other thing are you tiny winy jealous that A R Rahman has taken your ‘Raja-ji’s thron and gone far than him, eh? :-”
FenderBender – How can you say that he is overrated? If you listen to radio or watch music channels then you won’t hear or see that many songs by him. Why is that? I would say that his voice is underrated.
“Dhakka Laga Bhukka
Khayega Re Mukka
Ban Ja Re Ban Ja Mashal-E-Raah
O Yuva Yuva… O Yuva
Hum Albely Bade Manchaley
Dhum Jo Lagi To Chale Hum Chale
Chahee Phir Kaee”
yes oz….i am pleasantly surprised!!!
“and other thing are you tiny winy jealous that A R Rahman has taken your ‘Raja-ji’s thron and gone far than him, eh?”
Yes, I am too big a fan of Raja and I cant accept that people mention ARR ahead of him. Raja is God! Some of his songs were pure class. His background score is more involving. The problem is he is too much southern and suited to tamilians most of the time.
ARR is more of a sound engineer. I dont know about hindi, but in tamil he cant pronounce the words correctly. Being a tamilian, I hate the way singers sing in ARR’s songs. He gets nothern singers to sing most of the time. People think its Hi-fi, they are probably suffereing from inferiority complex or self-diminishment. I am hevily offended by the improper usage in ARR’s movies. Worst of all the lyrics from Vairamuthu in ARR songs are jumbled to suit ARR’s music. I believe thats reflected in my tastes. I love my language and feel proud of it. IR maintains tamil pronunciation in his songs. Thats another reason I admire him.
IR is a composer while ARR is more of sound engineer. He relies on his musical instruments to a great extent. A true composer is someone who can compose music with almost negligible dependence on musical instruments and Illaiyaraja is one such music director.
Take the music out of ARR’s songs and all that you get to hear would be trash. Tatz not the case with Illaiyaraja. Take “Karumaathur Kattukulle” from Virumandi as an example. Most people would give this song a miss but this is probably the best song in Virumandi album and sadly was missing from the movie. Use some software like “U Compose” and try extracting the voice alone from that song and you would be surprised to find out that the song still has the same effect on you. I was so lost in the song that the absence of music had little effect on me.
To be able to appreciate Illaiyaraja’s music one really needs to have a passion for rural music and folklore music which the X and Z generation dont have an appetite for. So not having many fans amongst the youth doesnt make ARR better than IR. Neither does it mean that illaiyaraja has lost his magical touch. He is still the best tamil music director and will probably be one for years to come.
And the less said about BGMs the better. Alaipaayuthey and Roja had the crappiest BGMs I have ever heard. Those are supposedly ARRs best works. Tat just goes to show his musical acumen. Forgive me if you think I have a hatred for arr. It is just that am so passionate about music and ARR just hasnt left a very strong or favorable impression on me.
Forget hindi, we are talking about tamil alone. I dont listen to hindi songs much. IR and ARR in tamil, IR hands down rulez!
Interesting points you all have brought up here. Thilak, all the while we have been talking about ARR and IR, how do you rate Keeravani or MM.Kreem in Hindi Film Industry? I like Keervani, he has a very unique voice. Now, i am not going to play the number game here… But, just want to see what you guys feel about his music and his singing capabilities?
“Take the music out of ARR’s songs and all that you get to hear would be trash.”
i’m just going to give you a latest example, “Khoon Chala” from RDB. have you heard that song? Do you think that is trash or not kind of your music? In Hindi Cinema music – He is the class act.
- Hey no one say anything against “Dhaka Laga Bukka… ” :-t
That song has been labelled by yours truly and the first Desi Gangsta Rap and is played in his car with windows rolled down at full blast. The car by the way is a timid Prius and as soon as it stops next to a huge black SUV which is playing the latest hip hop at full blast, my window slowly and steadily roll up and the volume is conviniently turned down.:”>
tut-tut. i would never ever do that. in fact, i would turn the music up – turn the blaster on and open up all the windows.
:-”
@sumeet
yes ofcourse there are some meaningful lyrics in telugu film industry. but very few. proportional to the number of meaningful films.
by the way, i was so pissed off with the songs in Stalin(latest chiranjeevi starrer).
just check the titles of all the songs – http://www.raaga.com/channels/telugu/movie/A0000819.html
theyre not even telugu! like ‘Go Go Gova’ , ‘Parare Parare’ , ‘Tauba re tauba’. thats not telugu. and we have ‘I Wanna Spider Man ‘ . unbelievable shit.
i think the above page sums up the present situation of telugu song lyrics.
you know what beats me, we have talented singers, talented lyricists, talented composers, but we don’t even have a genuine musical film.
i have not seen any movies by V Shantaram but what I have read about him and heard about him from me ma, tells me that he was the only guy who did genuine musical hindi films.
can anybody shed more light on that?
The last Musical was probably sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Khamoshi?
Nah, Lagaan is more of a musical film than Khamoshi.
@HG i doubt if you can categorise Lagaan as a musical..
mmm, thsi article of yours reminded me of your writings in teh begining, simple , humble and lyrical..:)
just like gulzar, all those self introspections,confusion and boyhood..sincerity..gone are those Oz days..now your blog site looks like a Fuckin dukaan or kholi where buisiness is brisk, itis so hard to meander and wander on your blogs..and why hsould u be so openionated that u criticize everything that exists on teh earth?
now come to this one, maybe people xdo not bother baout lyrics cos todays’ world is fast phased, no one has time, shukr karo they are still listening,what does it matter atleast these songs connect thousands of youngsters to each other in the name of music, as for the lay man is concerned.
For awards, and the luxury of understanding there is a diff genre of songs nad movies where a different set of people take interest in.
@LiL
“For awards, and the luxury of understanding there is a diff genre of songs nad movies where a different set of people take interest in”\
That is exactly what we are. Though Me, HG, Thilak, Stirker, Karthik, Oz… maynot agree on every point made by each of us we still share the common passion for cinema.. and that is exactly why this website was designed for. We never judge other person’s knowledge or fanaticism for movies, Its just a set of us, who share the same love for Movies, but maybe we love it for not the same reason..
i see lagaan as a musical film because each songs were scenes – the songs were 100% linked with the story.
- lil, umm… would you care to read who “wrote” this article. well if you find this site a “Fuckin dukaan or kholi” – you are more than welcome to not come back – nobody put a gun to your head to come to PFC. Or did they? ;)
According to www.answers.com a musical is:
“Theatrical production that is characteristically sentimental and amusing in nature, having a simple but distinctive plot and offering music, dancing, and dialogue”
If this is the right definition then all Bollywood movies come under it… It is funny!!!!
I wouldnt classify lagaan as a musical …
Musical films, yes V Shantaram is one …
Guide can be classified as a musical as well (although that is one film which cant be classified in any one category at all !!)
Recently Taal, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam …
Couple of K Balachander’s films – Punnagai mannan, Duet etc ….
according to wikiepdia:
“The musical film is a film genre in which several songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musical_film
So why cannot Lagaan seen as a musical film?
what i want to hear is semi-classical songs like “Laga Chunri Mein Daga”, “Are Ja Re Hat Natkhat”, “Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje”, “Madhubhan Mein Radhika”
now-days there is not scope for that kind of songs in movies. and our non-filmi music industry is full of cheap re-mixes.
nice article “nu”. Thanks
Sameer may have written crap but he has written some beautiful songs also. It may be possible that he takes whatever works comes his way so that producers and directors dont stop to come to him.
he wrote for Roja( ye haseen vadiyan, Devdas (bairi piya bada bedardi, Ghulam.
Dont forget he is son of Anjaan who was famous lyric writer of his time. Or we can say he writes hundredes songs per year and some 4-5 are good. So if he was doing only those 4-5 songs then he would have been called Sameer saab with respect but with less money in his hands while now he earns also. Money and continuous demand is the requirement of everybody in indian cine industry else Our favourite and brilliantly genius Gulzaar saab gets no producer to ask him to direct films. Perhaps Sameer beleives in quantity. When they dont pay much to writers and screen play writers then how much they would be paying to lyric writers`? we must see this point also.
http://in.movies.yahoo.com/060915/201/67mef.html
check above link to know more abt Sameer and his father Anjaan.
There is story behind everything. If in 90s his father’s illness was needing money then its certain that Sameer as a son cant go just for classy and chosen work where he will earn few words of praise but less money.
Irony : The correct name for that song would be ‘Kajrare’ – as in ONE WORD, an adjective. To phrase the first line in another way, “tere kaale kaale naina kajraare hai”. Don’t know which ingreji-istyle dude split the word up and totally lost its meaning. nu, not to be annoying and all, but you atleast could refer to the song correctly.
Gulzar sahab ke liye unhi ke lafzon mein:
“Nazm uljhi hui hai seeney mein,
misre atke hue hain hothon par,
udte phirte hain titliyon ki tarah,
lafz kaagaz pe baithte hi nahin.
Kab se baitha hua hoon main jaanam
saada kaagaz pe likh ke naam tera
bas tera naam hi mukammal hai
isse behtar bhi nazm kya hogi”
Aur sameer sahab ke doston/dushmanon ke liye ek khabar yeh ki unhe “Urdu Sahitya Samman” se nawaaza ja chuka hai. Itne sammanit vyakti ko apmaanit karna aap sab logon ko shobha nahi deta…;)
Kartik bhai, saahir sahab ke sammaan mein shayad yeh taareef “MOST FUCKING BRILLIANT GHAZALS” unki bhatakti aatma ko takleef hi pahunchayegi. Thoda lihaaz karke taareef karo bhai.
the question of comparing gulzaar saab with sameer or for that reason with any one else is futile as every word has an energy,every sentence for me as such sacred because profound thought itself is scared and should be respected for the mere beauty of it.i do agree with the absurd lyrics being hitting the charts these days infact i call them no lyrics at all…what we as amateur readers do forget is that sameer saab may be a lyricst ,at best a good one but gulzaar saab is a poet at heart..like kaifi was ,like sahir was and this makes all the differences.i will like to put it in my own words as such
” badi baatein na kiya karo thoda mulhaiza bhi kiya karo,
jo hote sukhn ke kadrdaan “pratap”to ghalib un muflasi mein na marra hota”
Writing for gulzaar saab i would like to put a point across .Take for e.g the song from the film omkara”naina thug lenge”..kitne sundar rupak ka istimaal kiya gaya hai..agar hindi mein samajh nahin aa raha ho to english mein kehta hoon ..whatever you call it a metaphor or smileys like the line “naina das lenge/naina raat ko chalte chalte swarga mein /na likhat padat na raseed na khata..sarri baat hawaei re/how many of the so called critiques of gulzaar saad did understand…arrey isko to chhoddo lets talk about kajrare-kajrare..before this song did any one ever heard of such earthy beautiful roopak “teri baaton mein keemaam ki khusboo hai..tera aana bhi garmi ki loo hai”…miyan in alfaazon ka istemaal karne mein aur samjhne mein hi poori zindagi nikal jaayegi tab bhi aisi lyrics nahin likh paaoge..take another line of the same song”ballimarran se dareebey talak teri meri kahani delhi mein…kitno ne samjhne ki koshish ki bhai log..actually at ballimarran ghalib used to stay and his beloved was at dareeba and every day to get the deedar of his beloved ghalib would walk down from ballimarran to dareeba..thats why the preceding line say”tujhse milna puraani delhi mein chhod aaye nishaani delhi mein.abhi gulzaar ki kadr kar lijye sahir aur kaifi mein to sittaron ko chho lenge.to end the note a couplet of ghalib
“yaa rab wo-h na samjhe hain na samjhenge meri baat
de aur dil unko jo de na saka zubaan mujhe”.
.my hearty salute to gulzaar saab for keeping poetry alive.
Shailesh Pratap:
Gulzar has batting patience, brilliance and accurate eye vision of Sunil Gawaskar, ability to twist the ball at the last moment, of Mohd Azharuddin, and timing and run rate per over of Sachin Tendulkar.
Gulzar saab is “urdu adab” in hindi cinema. He can weave poetry while writing prose and vice versa. He can bring tears in eyes through his humour. words are less to describe him.
all said about gulzaar saab i feel Javed saab has been tad neglected. although he doesnt use heavy words and his words are much simpler to understand(for the non-urdu experts like me, who btw fell in love with chaiya chaiya on reading the Eng translation on DT) yet powerful enough to convey the meaning without loosing the respect of the language at the same time even maintaining the characters uniformity(of using common words that they have been using throughtout the movie and thus characters staying themselves during the songs which also is neglected by many people). Case in point the cookery song from Duplicate-
isska mazaa chak toh lun mein zaraa ohir kahunga mein ki dal gal gayi….
Radha kaise naa jale from Lagaan etc.
I think that its probably like Gulzaar saab=Naseer bhai and Javed Saab=AB as JA is respected in his field yet maintains his almost factory type production of lyrics(he probably would be the busiest lyricist at the moment or atleast until a few months/years ago).
As regards ARR and IR though am not a great fan of either but there is a song from a movie which i dont remember but its called “Rasathie yain usur mann kule” which doesnt use any kind of instrumentals composed by ARR but still sounds good. But otherwise i agree that ARR weaves magic using different kinds of sounds/instruments and thus in some respects is a sound engineer while the little that have heard of IR is less on various sounds that ARR uses.
It show the shallowness of the public that they have to invoke low calibre guys like Gulzar (who had no hesitation in plagiarizing Ghalib’s ‘dil dhoondta hai fir wahi, fursat ke woh raat din’) and Javed Akthar – who is a second rate script writer masquerading as a poet. Javed’s father or father-in-law could be better examples of quality poets in Urdu.
Kajra re does have lovely lyrics. But some urdu words are beyond me.