They KISSed and How ???!!!
First a confession. The use of word KISS in the title is to get some more extra views. In one of those boring management classes i was told that KISS is Keep It Simple Stupid! The guru-mantra of advertising and marketing world. That day i decided i cant take this anymore. Life without the most purest emotion..lust! How non-lusty can you be! Thank God, Feroze Khan never went to any of those classes otherwise who would have given us that lip-lock of Vinod Khanna and Madhuri Dixit. And if you are still wondering how censor board passed that scene, then click here And whenever i think about this scene ( not the dayavan but the link) am ROFL!!
Though I hated the film but loved it when K Jo got everything colour coordinated in KANK’stumhi dekho na song. I also liked it when Anurag Basu made Pritam and his band climb up on top of the water tank of a 32-storied building for Life in A Metro. And when Vishal Bharadwaj decided to choreograph an action sequence on the beats of Omkara’s title track, i thought, wow this is also possible!
But then, there are some songs where nothing happens. Much like Sofia Coppola’s Lost In Translation ( two characters and nothing happens! ) Whenever these songs play on tv, everytime i think the same. How they kept it so simple and still it works ? Nothing really happens. No fancy camera movement, no chaiyya chaiyya, not even much variation in the shots. Mostly two characters in the frame and thats it. Sometimes not even two. Just one. So was it accident or was it planned ? May be the choreographer had an accident, wasnt well, wasnt in mood and he/she told the director to “just roll”. what the director thought ? Did he just roll it ? Or everyone knew that the song is so good that even if you keep the screen blank for few minutes, people would still not get bored. I dont know the stories behind these songs but have a look and let me know what you think. May be Pavan, Subrat, WB or RK can tell us some intersting stories about these songs.
And i am not talking about ghazals, bhajans, loriss or the the usual soapy sad numbers. Becuase there you dont have much choice but to stand or sit at one place and sing the song.
So, here’s my list of seven songs which followed the KISS funda and i am still wondering how ?
1) Bade acche lagte hain – just sit and sing.
How ? Just how they thought about it ? And how it works ? Dont know if there is any other song which has been picturised in more simpler manner than this one. Two actors. They are sitting & singing. Yes, thats about it. The camera occasionaly moves to capture the blue, green, white colours around them and comes back to them.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3pN7sITXVyk
2) Maang ke saath tumhara - just sit and sing. But in a tonga.
And whenever you feel like just move your right or left hand. Who said you need to jump around to show chemistry between the actors. The face can say a lot more.
3) Rimjhim Gire Sawaan - Walk and walk more. Let it rain.
sir its a rain song ? so will the heroine be in a wet saree ? yes! and we will shoot close-ups! yes ofcourse! nahi to baarish ka maza kahan hai. In bollywood, rain is every director and choreographer’s delight. Heroine in a wet saree is the ultimate bollywood wet dream! And if its white saree, then say no more! So what happened in this song ? You guys just walk and walk more and we will roll and roll more.
4) Na jiya lage na - walk from this corner to that.
Everytime i see this song, i think something is gonna happen soon. Someone will just walk in. but nothing happens. The actress just walks from this door to that window and that window to this door. And in between she stops in front of the mirror. Btw, the lusty in me always wonders if the pallu dropping act was intentional or it just happened ?
5) Aajkal Zameen par paanv nahi padte mere - walk and run ( and some slo-mo)
Main udna chahti thi. Main alag thi.( i wanted to fly. i was different ) I dont get this. From Ponds to Femina to Frankfinn Academy, whenever they talk about a girl’s dream, its all about flying. Recently a female collegue cracked it for me. She said may be udna chahti thi is nice way of talking about having orgasm. Its more that just career talks. So, as Vinod Khanna and Rekha run in slo-mo, i wonder if Gulzar also dicovered a new meaning of “udte huye” in this song.
6) Churi nahi yeh mera dil hai - churi and chocholate.
Devanand in driver’s seat and has churi and chocholate as props. Check out the way he uses them. Everything is inside the car and you have only the frontal view. But as they, Devsaab is Devsaab! Though you can spot the cadbury’s logo there, am sure there was no funda of in-film branding then.
7) Musafir hoon yaaron - Sit and sing. Again in a tonga.
Have a look at this song and think about the Jeetendra of that famous matka-jhatka dance number. Is he the same actor ? It makes me believe that Jeetuji has a twin brother. Or may be thats why they say it all depends on the director.
Am sure there are many other songs like these. But these seven songs top my list. And i can bet on bade acche lagte hain for the top post. Let me know if there is any other song which is more simpler than that and still it works.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
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
Would love to add one song that is soooo much in sync with the list. Navin Nischol and Priya Rajvansh in the taxi in Bombay rains and Navin Nischol sings (via Rafi sahab ofcourse) “Tum jo mil gaye ho… toh yeh lagta hain… ke jahaan… mil gaya”… that is one of the most haunting and conversely romantic songs in Hindi cinema. The movie is Hanste Zakham and here’s the video:
Probably you could add “Chaudvin Ka Chand Ho” beautifully sung by Mohd Rafi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSW1HUd2438
Kashti Ka Khamosh Safar ( film _ Girlfriend 1960 ) can give tough competition to “bade achche lagte hain”
great list pnu…as i said earlier..it was a co-incidence that i was listening to “Aaj kal paav”…and kaboom..your post..here is another one..with Randhir Kapoor and Rekha in Rampur ka Lakshman..
and this is one of my fav of Kamal Hassan…superb acting..
not to forget Sadma..two of the best performances EVER in hindi film industry…god..
What a great post and list! You guys are all geniuses. You mad emy day. Thank you!
song no 5 … hero is not vinod khanna he is vinod mehra
nd there is no such line (Main udna chahti thi. Main alag thi) in the song …
sum confusion is there…female got it 100%wrong…
i ve seen in old films,, only ppl singing the songs used 2 b there in the song …but now 20-30 ppl r shown singing nd dancing in background nd they appear suddenly from no where…
my favorite neat romantic songs
chingari koi bhadke
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpM0jPd6-7w
jis gali mein tera ghar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B_BOpS-W_I
ek hi khwab kai bar
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TPw2we10Zg
chalo dildar chalo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCiMjNWfHw8
kabhi kabhi mere dil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VooHala_fAw
ek shahanshah ne bana ke hasin tajmahal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-T1×1dBt20
asman ke niche
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRWle6CNIc4
nd somany other
cant believe you missed this pnu
Tumse Milke from Parinda
[youtube]3oW_x5MIn1I[/youtube]
oops….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oW_x5MIn1I
this song belongs to the list —
ranjnigandha phool tumhare –
link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP4sllE7wBM
Pretty much everything by Bimal Roy, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee etc. A few examples:
Saawan Ki Raaton Mein (Prem Patra)
Husn Ki Baharein Liye (Benazir)
Na Jane Kyun (Chhoti Si Baat)
Saawan Ke Jhoole pade (Jurmana)
my two nominations are both from baaton baaton mein..
uthe sabke kadam, which has the entire family sitting around in the living room, barely lifting a kadam, save for where amol palekar and tina munim get up off their chairs to do a little jig..
and suniye kahiye.. when they’re not sitting and talking and drinking chai, they’re talking and sitting and drinking coca cola, or at the most, walking. and tina munim is HOT. what more do you want?
add:
Gori tera gaon bada pyaara – Chitchor. simple and beautiful.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=vejr2_PXVQo
Thoda hai thode ki zaroorat hai- khatta meetha
http://youtube.com/watch?v=j_8vASjq7ms
ab ke saja saawan mein- chupke chupke
http://youtube.com/watch?v=zNzdXzZfOIc
teri bindiya re- abhimaan
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DAb-ru6rjXs
New:
sawan barse tarse dil-dahek
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JmEQNr17cFQ
Sarfarosh- hosh waalon ko khabar kya
http://youtube.com/watch?v=i1MOHAf_oy8