To the dead poets
iView Author: Varun Grover (Mumbai, India)
Email: varun[dot]grover26[at] gmail.com
To the dead poets
When was the last time you heard a line like ‘Jis kavi ki kalpana mein zindagi ho prem-geet, uss kavi ko aaj tum nakaar do’? I mean, in the Hindi Cinema ‘geet’ format? Just an off-the-cuff guess would be at least 30-years ago…and add to that lines like ‘Khwaahish mein lipti zaroorat ki duniya..’, ‘Nikley siski, aise botal ka dhaak jo uda ho’, and ‘Jab lamp-post ki katli-peeli ghupp roshni mein kuchh kuchh sa hota hai..’ and you have a full play-list of poetic masterpieces which happen only once in an era.
Listening to ‘Gulaal’, a ‘Deewaan’ of Piyush Mishra, one can’t help but be reminded of the biggest loss Cinema suffered with the arrival of Bachchan era in the 70’s. The angry-young-man image of Bachchan, Shatru, Vinod Khanna, and later matka-matka-matka…laaya-laaya-laaya 80’s worked as poison for Hindi/Urdu poetry in Cinema, something which had not only worked very well for Cinema of the 50’s and 60’s, but also for the Music Companies, which I am sure are still reaping benefits from works of Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri, Sahir, and Pradeep (among many others) done more than 50-years ago.
Ok, I know am rambling. But the excitement of finding ‘Gulaal’ and the sudden realization of loss – a loss Sahir had seen coming in ‘Main pal do pal ka shaayar hoon’, is too much to contain in a coherent late night post. Let’s start again. From the good times, and some memories.
‘HMV ke Hits’ was one cassette I loved buying on every occasion. Mom-Dad’s anniversary, let’s go get Vol. 3. School results good. Let’s get Vol 4. And so, I had all 6 of them (I think there were 6? Or 5?). And these 6 magnetic tapes, with green, red, blue covers, and HMV ke Hits written in daaku-film fonts, contained a world of poetry difficult to fathom from outside.
Shailendra’s
Sajanva bairi ho gaye humaar…
Karamwa bairi ho gaye humaar…
Chithhiya ho toh har koi baanchey,
Bhaag na baanchey re koye..
…had a world of pain, a pain – thanks to metaphoric poetry and Mukesh ji’s rendition, that reached a 10-year old too.
Hasrat Jaipuri’s
Chakkey mein chakka,
Chakkey mein gaadi..
Gaadi mein nikli,
Apni savaari…
…written in the form of a children’s poem, used word-sounds, magic, and humor in equal proportions, and we kids were hooked.
And then, there was Sahir – the silent lover, the college hero, the aam-aadmi with little faith left in society or country, seeing beyond borders with as much hope as disappointment.
Sahir’s…
Aaj sajan mohe ang laga lo,
Janam safal ho jaaye…
Deh ki again, Hriday ki peeda,
Sab sheetal ho jaaye..
…in my opinion, remains the most seething expression of longing, and failure in love. Written in (partial) Braj dialect, Sahir used the established Braj devotional poetry meters, and created a rhyme to behold.
Poetry, as an art form, was a popular medium those days and even simple songs, what we call ‘Hindi film geet’ were not untouched by this influence and hence one could find highly poetic lines in simplistic songs too. A random example: Hasrat Jaipuri’s ‘tera mera pyaar amar…phir kyun mujh ko lagta hai darr’ has a line which goes ‘Chalti hoon main taaron par, phir kyun mujh ko lagta hai darr’…! And even the most-masala songs of that era, like ‘Hansta hua nooraani chehra’ and other initial LP stuff incorporated genuine poetry rather than a ‘tune aa gayi, ab rhyme bitha do’ formula we are subjected to since Big B hit home.
So, what happened? How did we lose our poets? (Sure, Sahir was active till the 70’s…and Gulzar saab still writes, though very little real poetry and too much of ‘magic-metaphor’ style. But as they say – “That’s another post”.) Poetry, by its very form, is a two-way medium. It’s a tease…somewhere between a riddle and a prose, and the poet’s job is only half-done when it’s written. The other half, the interpretation, is left to the listener or the reader. That’s why, a single song, say ‘Caravan guzar gaya gubaar dekhte rahey’ (Neeraj) is a sad love sonnet for some, a ‘mood song’ to be played with daaru-sessions for some others, and a poetic masterpiece, that takes you up-and-down with its masterful use of repeated-words (a rare usage in Hindi film history); listen to the song and you will know.
So, in short, poetry demands. It demands knowledge of metaphor, rhythm, patterns, and novelty of expression – and then, it’s slightly easier to understand why it died. Our cinema turned into a bang-bang, dhi-dhin-tinak-dhin variety of circus where ‘Gunda’ became a cult (very few Guru ji fans may acknowledge the fact) only because it had ‘poetic lines’ and Javed Akhtar’s ‘Ek do teen…tera karoon din gin gin ke intezaar’ remained the last hideout of pun in poetry. And mind you, they didn’t throw the songs out, no sir, they were not cleaning up cinema off these irritating loo-breaks sung and composed by RD or Kishore…they kept the songs, just removed the ‘demanding’ portions. And I know what’s coming. Were there any poets worth Sahir’s or Shailendra’s salt in the 80’s? And the sad truth is – there were. There always will be. Just that, they didn’t board that train to Bombay…and instead moved their asses to the ‘Hindi Sansthaan’ in their states, struggling to get their poetry books published. The loss was as much theirs as ours.
And that’s why, ‘Gulaal’ is a surprise, invoking Ghalib, Faiz, Soz, Firaaq, Momin, Meer, and (in the same breath) Sahir’s souls – and telling us, just a few lines later – ‘Ae bujhte huye chand baasi chiraagon, tumhaare yeh kale iraadon ki duniya…’.
Piyush Bhai (that’s what people lovingly call you, I am told) – thanks for sharing a poet’s angst. Thanks for telling us where we stand, and what we stand to lose, if we fall. Sadly, we are already half-way there.
Tags: Gulaal, Hasrat Jaipuri, Hindi Film Lyricists, piyush mishra, Poetry in Hindi Films, Sahir Ludhianvi
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nice thought…
so, where have the poets gone, tats a question for the sahitya akademi. as far as poetry in movies is concerned, tats a different story.
with the trend of lyrics being written on pre-recorded music or pre-composed stuff, suffocates and kills the imagination as they have to stick to the metre. also, filmy situations are not demanding enough for the poet to give vent to his feelings. once in a while u get a movie like lagaan, swades, rang de basanti, tzp etc which helps u explore. 90% of the movies are filled with trashy stuff like bhootnike, talli, pyar, dosti etc. just look at the quality of lyricists around us, all writing 3 minute compositions because they need to fill in words like pappu cant dance saala, tandoori nites, i wanna make love to u etc etc
by the way, talking of sahir ludhianvi…the moviedom suffocated him as well. listen to his lyrics in trishul, he has written stuff like gapuchi gapuchi gum-gum
so, blaming bigB and vinod khanna is like missing the entire issue of quality as such. good lyrics have always existed, its just that now they are few and far in between :(
Crazyrals…
I was not talking abt good or bad lyrics…they have always existed according to the good or bad cinema of the times. This article is about ‘POETRY’ in hindi film lyrics…something which has made a comeback through ‘Gulaal’.
Dear Varun
I read your story denube ka pathar on Pratilipi.
I found it very interesting.Would love to read another stuff of yours.If you feel like sharing that with me.
You can mail me at umesti@yahoo.co.in
Kindly note:
1. it’s ‘deewaan’ and not ‘deewaar’ in the first line of second para.
2. I hate to spell it out, but the article is about loss of ‘poetry’ in hindi film lyrics and not about good or bad hindi film lyrics.
Shh…comments were not appearing so I reposted one of them…sorry for the redundancy.
Poetry is still thriving in songs/movies were it is respected. For example I was bowled over when I listened the songs of LuckByChance.
“Bagiya bagiya balak bhage
titli phir bhi haath na lage
es pagle ko kaun bataye
doondh raha tu jag me jo,
wo koi jo paye maan me hi payee..
sapno se bhare naiana..
to neend hai na chanina…. “
Then another song from same movie
“Jaag utthe hai raaste
o rahi tere waste..
Teri jindagi tujhse har ghadi
aur har kadam
hai ye poochti
Rahi dekh raha hai kya
har har disha hai rasta
bol tera hai kaun sa rasta..
O rahi re o rahi re
Kisi ko nahi hai pata
Kaha ja raha hai baata..”
Then there is Piyush Joshi leading the poet brigade with awesome lines like
(Song : Kise mujhe tuM mil gayi….Gajini)
“jindagi malhar ho
Rimjhim sitar ho gayi..”
When the second line is sung there is sitar playing in background. This leaves a magical effect. I think the above two lines are the most melodies lines in recent time.
Then this line from song bahaika, From same movie.
“Uska chalana
Rituye badlana ”.
Try to imagine above lines.
Hats off to Piyush Joshi for bringing such poetic lines in movie songs.
Apart these Dilli 6 also has very good poetry is songs.
@Varun: guess u did not read it well, thats exactly what i have tried to explain in my commnets 1&2. how do u differentiate between lyrics and poetry. words tat are set into a tune makes it lyrics, else its poetry. lyircs, like poetry, need emotions, logic and meaning and overall a sense of purpose.
wat i meant was tat, good movies which require intense writing is not there these days; hence the quality is deteriorating :(
but by giving a few examples like rdb and tzp, i was trying to establish tat good poetry still exists but few in number
@Rals
Think you are missing the point here. He isn’t blaming AB for the low in music n lyrics. It’s the kind of movies that ruled around that time – the kind of poetry/lyrics we are talking about here it didn’t fit with those movies. You cannot have ‘ye duniya agar mil bhi jaaye’ kind of song in a gangster movie, can you?
@Varun
Nice post.
It’s ‘hriday ki peeda, deh ki agni’.
I do not see how this song expresses ‘failure in love’. Longing, yes. It has always been to me a happy song of realization and longing.
@Neeraja: i thought i mis-read the post, so i revisited it. here’s wat the post says “one can’t help but be reminded of the biggest loss Cinema suffered with the arrival of Bachchan era in the 70’s. The angry-young-man image of Bachchan, Shatru, Vinod Khanna, and later matka-matka-matka…laaya-laaya-laaya 80’s worked as poison for Hindi/Urdu poetry in Cinema”
i surely think its a blame-game, nevertheless, the best poetry came from sahir for kabhi kabhi and javed akhtar in silsila
wat an irony….
@Crazyrals
arrival of bachchan = arrival of gangster movies era = end of kind of sensitive movies we had before that (I don’t mean it in a bad way. I like Bachchan’s movies. Just classifying the genre)…so lets not take what Varun says ekdum literally.
Cinema did suffer a huge loss in terms of songs and poetry around that time. The downfall started at that time.
And you surely don’t mean that kabhi kabhi and silsila have the best lyrics that Indian cinema has seen so far?
Pyaasa is just one example which has much better songs (lyrics-wise as well as on the whole)than both kabhi kabhi and silsila.
But we should also remember that Amitabh era was the same time during which Gulzar made his movies.Jaane kya soch kar nahi guzra,Naam gum jayega,Aaj kal paon zameen par nahi padte mere,is mod se jaate hain,O majhi re apna kinara nadiya ki dhara hai(the poetry is beautiful in this song),Ek akela is shehar mein….sooo many beautiful songs …all in the 70’s.
@Neeraja: you are missing the point. i have already conceeded tat lyrics/poetry deteriorated and tats bcoz mediocrity set in. i have also mentioned abt the trend of filling in words bcoz the music is pre-composed and words are written to go in ‘metre’ etc. i have also mentioned tat good poetry still exists, but they are few and far in between.
i m nowhere claiming tat onslaught of the action genre has not affected poetry/lyrics. but just blaming the action genre is wat i m questioning.
its an insult to anybody’s intelligence if u say tat action movies killed poetry/lyrics. poetry dies when ppl stop writing stuff tat moves them or ppl stop reading/understanding deep-rooted thoughts. even when lyrics like ‘mai to raste se jaa raha tha’ was there gulzar wrote ‘paani paani re’…so, wats the lesson. next u may say tat raunchy numbers in 90’s killed poetry/lyrics.
tats the basic flaw in the premise, we will keep looking for excuses to shift responsibility from one shoulder to another.
why did i mention lagaan, swades, tzp, rdb…to tell tat inspite of the tandoori nites, and pappus cant dance saala we have good poetry. we need to decipher wats good and wats mediocre.
dont nail action movies of 70’s and 80’s, bcos even in tat era u had songs from silsila/kabhi-kabhi/ijaazat/chhoti si baat etc. and even during bandini/pyasa days we had songs of half-ticket
@Crazyrals
I never said that poetry died off completely. Nobody is saying that. We still have RDB and Gulaal like we had Ijaazat etc. in 70s. Am not denying it. But as you say “they are far and few in between.”
You can’t deny that the movie and its genre affects the kind of songs it will have. I am not saying thats the only reason. I think what Varun said was just a way to classify the era. You are reading too much into it.
Varun sir,It is more decline of urdu in common man’s language that is costing the shaayare/poetry.
Now,hindi songs are blended more with english words to get beat of new generation. Beside Gulzar and Javed Akhter,no one has authority with urdu language.
Phew. I am out of town so cudn’t check the responses earlier. Guess the article was half-bad, half-misunderstood and may be just a bit too abstract to be taken in the right spirit.
The whole point(and the driving force) behind this article of ‘death of poetry’ in Hindi cinema lyrics. That doesn’t mean that lyrics which are not in the form of poetry (will explain more, about ‘poetry’) are bad or lacking or whatever. In fact, some of the best ‘lyrics’ over the last 50 years may not have a single line of ‘poetry’ in them and lyrics are not supposed to adhere to the structure, rules, or essence of poetry.
What i tried to put forth was a more technical issue and not some abstract thematic(dare i say, poetic) idea. just like ‘ghazal’, ’sher’, and ‘geet’…’kavita’ is a vidha or form of literature which was once used(moulded) into Hindi film songs and isn’t seen as much as it was in the 50’s and 60’s. Of course, in addition to this form or structure, a poem can be distinguished by its better use of language, various ‘alankaars’, and the over-all feeling of ‘chamatkaar’ (the last one, as i said, very strongly visible in Gulzaar’s works)…and i just meant that Gulaal uses that form to great effect in many places.
I can understand that once transformed (say Sahir’s Jinhein naaz hai hind par woh kahaan hai), it’s difficult to really point out that was it a poem or written straight into a song…but still, there are ways for the discerning listener…and i hope, we all push ourselves this much before jumping to grand conclusions over simple references.
Gulaal’s ‘Duniya’ song reminded me of Pyassa’s -’Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye toh kya hain’ and you know well that how greatly that line justified the lost poet’s state of mind.Now, same line again in Gulaal almost after 50 years; I am waiting to see that scene badly.
Well, deteriorating lyrics..
1.In today’s bollywood, we compose music first and then fill in the lyrics, you know that it’s not too hard; even you can write it too with music, with any random lines for that matter.
2.Gulzaar sahab was writing a song for Billu barber,Pritam stepped in – “Gulzaar sahab can you please fill ‘dil mein khitpit’ in this song, it goes well with music”. Gulzaar sahab left that project. We don’t have many like Gulzaar sahab who has such an integrity with his work, or if we have, then we haven’t seen many of them. May be directors like Anurag and others can get some of them for us.We would be very grateful.
3.Emphasis on music is more than lyrics, because we need some crazy thumping to move up on our feet, who cares if the lyrics is Pappu can’t sance saala or Pritam can’t fart saala, arre Pritam paad nahi saktaa for that matter.
4.Money is honey,people are there to make money not to please us with some great lyrics.
@PFC
The bolded text in second last para was not in my original draft…and I don’t see any reason for it to be put in bold.(in fact, it sends out a wrong message about the central point of the article) Is that an editorial touch or a typo?
@Varun. let me look into the matter and getback to you. thanks for pointing it out
@Varun. Apologies for error. It has been corrected now.
Thanks OM!
I was waiting for this movie and I watched yday.
The poetry of Piyush and his music is the soul of the movie. I bought the audio CD of Gulal Immediately after watching the movie but it was a disappointment that one of the best song : SARFAROSHI KI TAMANNA AB HUMARE DIL main hai.
If anyone has the song??? As collection is incomplete without that song
PLEASE HELP
gurmeet21[as] gmail dot com