Whose Lyrics is it Anyway
A creative aspect in film making that is generally overlooked suddenly jumped to limelight courtesy Aaja Nachle..In the title song of the movie a line ‘Mochi bhi samjhe apne ko sunaar re’(A shoemaker thinks of himself as goldsmith) inadvertently created a furore that led to politics of casteism marring the box office fortunes of the movie in Hindi heartland..Suddenly everyone was discussing what are the connotations of such a line, what could be its implications and whose line and lyrics is it anyway?
And lyrics writers suddenly found themselves basking under their fifteen minutes of fame..Otherwise who cares for the lyrics writers per se in present times !
There was a time when lyrics writers commanded a presence in film making process..Those were the days when giants like Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Majhrooh Sultanpuri lent their signature to the film’s story through their soul-stirring, meaningful songs..It was poetry getting wings through equally melodious music compositions..
Sample few of the gems from the masters of lyrics writing (The listings are just representative and subjective and in no way takes away their other masterly renditions)..
Sahir Ludhianvi:
Main zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya
Dekhi zamane ki yaari, bicchde sabhi baari baari
Kaifi Azmi :
Main ye sochkar uske dar se uttha thha, wo rok legi mana legi mujhko
Itna jo muskraa rahe ho, kya gam hai jisko chhipa rahe ho >
Majrooh Sultanpuri
Kya se kya ho gaya, bewafa tere pyaar mein
Papa kehte hain bada naam karega
Then very earthy,close-to-reality lyrics of Anand Bakshi ruled the marquee.
Chingari Koi bhadke,toh saawan usey bujhai, saawan jo aag lagaye usey kaun bujhaye.
Main nikla gadi leke, ek sadak pe, raste mein ik modh aaya
There was Indeevar who reflected upon the world through his poetic lyrics with metaphysical connotations:
Zindagi ke safar mein guzar jaate hain jo makaam, wo phir nahin aate..
Another lyricist who had remarkable sense of poetry and seems to have not gotten his deserving due is Yogesh..Incidentally he was introduced in Anand where Amitabh Bachchan got noticed as Babu Moshaye..
Couple of his gems:
Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye, saanjh ki dulhan badan churaaye , chupke se aaye.
Rim jhim gire saawan, sulag, sulag jaye mann
Prior to Yogesh, writers who really wrote lyrics (that could actually be called Geet) were Shailendra, Hasrat Jaipuri ,Shakeel Badayuni and Naqsh Layalpuri..There was another gem of a writer Neeraj who preceded Yogesh by few years and combined poetry with songs-for-situations in a remarkable way.
Sample his fare:
Khiltey hain gul yahan, khil kay bikharney ko,miltey hain dil yahan,mil kay bichhurne ko. Phoolon kay rang se dil ki kalam se, tujhko likhi roz baati ..
Neeraj could not adapt himself to the networking and groupism of Hindi film industry and went back to Uttar Pradesh and film industry lost a valuable asset.
Shahryaar ( Umrao Jaan) and Nida Fazli( Aap Toh Aisey Na Thhe, Nikaah)—the true blooded poets tried to fit in with the culture of Bollywood but withdrew in its dumbed down atmosphere..In early sixties another poet Raja Mehndi Ali Khan (Dil ne Phir Yaad Kiya, bark si lahraayi hai, phir koi chot mohabbat ki ubhar aayi hai) also found himself swamped away by the coterie culture seeping into the film industry.
Few others who come to mind, who had shone for a while and then faded–Pt. Narendra Dev,Verma Malik,Santosh Anand,Amit Khanna..
One writer whose career spans almost four decades and has won maximum number of filmfare awards for his writing is Gulzar..His poetry has almost become a brand..One amongst those few poet/lyricists who wrote lyrics or poetry first and music director had to compose accordingly (Sahir Ludhianvi was another one)..Gulzar Saab had a good fortune in getting R D Burman as a music composer who could do justice to what he wrote..He has found his alter-ego in Vishal Bhardwaj of late and is again on the roll.
Gulzar’s classics
Tum Aa gaye ho noor aa gaya hai,nahin toh chiraagon se lau jaa rahi thhi..
Tujhse naaraaz nahi zindagi, hairaan hoon main
Then Javed –Akhtar has adapted himself very well from his screenplay writing to lyrics writing starting with Saath-Saath ,Silsila, Tezaab, Border and practically all films with YRF of late..He has got much more appreciation and recognition than his poet-lyricist father Jaan-Nissar- Akhtar..
Another son of a lyricist who has got much more fame and recognition than his father is Sameer ( son of lyricist Anjaan)..
Though Sameer is one of the most prolific lyrics writer since his Aashiqui days, he still is way behind in writing a gem of a writing song like what his father Anjaan wrote :
Aap ki Nigaah ne kaha toh kuchh zaroor hai, mera dil machal gaya toh mera kya kasoor hai..
That was a golden era of Hindi Film music..That was then..Now what’s the state of affairs in the domain of lyrics writing?
To me it seems lyrics writers have been reduced to just jugglers and rhymesters(like scamsters) as there is hardly anything lyrical about what they write..Lyrics are supposed to heighten the experience of kaleidoscope of emotions portraying joy, ecstasy, anguish, pangs of separation, flush of first love et al..Of late there is hardly any depth in words or layers of meanings or any philosophy behind the songs..They simply are props to visual representation of one dominant theme i.e.sexuality on the screen..
It sounds that the more you are conversant with gibberish the more successful you can be writing songs especially with rapping in English..And the songs (especially so called item numbers) are an ode to cultural imperialism in name of expressing the culture of our country.
The reasons are many:
The lyrics writers bemoan that they are told to write those kind of lyrics because public wants it..And public in general feels short changed because of such shallowness in songwriting..Lyrics writers have another grouse..The kind of one time fee they are paid per song is peanuts in overall budget for the music score composed for the film.. ‘How can you expect us to give the best at such unremnuerative price’, they complain..And their heartfelt poetry—meaningful and moving– created within spartan livelihood source has, as such no takers..So they give what the producers and music companies’ want at basement sale prices( Pudiya baandh kay dete hain, jahan zaroorat hoti hai)..There are though exceptions..(Javed Akhtar and Gulzaar are in a stratosphere of fee structure charging around a lakh per song)!
Another lament of lyricists is that there are hardly any music directors who can or want to compose to the written word and poetry..They crave for that freedom where they don’t have to follow the meter and rhythm dictated by a composition..Whereas music directors feel comfortable making a composition first ,even on the dummy words, but actual lyrics have to fit in with their musical treatment..
In a professional field where not more than 300 words are used in various permutation and combinations to express everything concerning human state of affairs, rare is the virtuosity, flare and unusual play of words to give expression to various emotional states..Its exponents are very rare..Gulzaar saab seems to be the last living bastion of such lyrical lineage.
A R Rahman with his unique brand of music kick- started a trend of songs written by Mehboob that are till date difficult to sing in one flow..Later on Ram Gopal Verma in his films used lyrics by Nitin Raikawar that fobbed off colloquial conversations as songs..And the trend is being beaten to death..Oh! when the demise will take place, I wonder!
The ‘y’ & ‘z’ generation of 15-24years old seems to have no idea of beautiful and lyrical quality of Urdu language..To some even Hindi is no-no..And to me songs in Hinglish are nothing more than a gibberish..Indeed a kind of dumbing down has happened..
Still it is ironical and paradoxical too, that in all the reality shows for talent- hunt for new voices/ singers, the ‘z’ generation guys and girls sing songs from the golden era of Hindi Film music between late sixtees and early eighties..Even in Antakashri programmes or sessions the singing eventually harps back to songs sung by Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle et al..I wonder how this ‘z’ generation even recalls and remembers songs that were composed much before their birth also!
That is a singular proof to the fact that these songs are recalled, remembered and sung again and again because they have wonderful, heart-tugging, soul-stirring words that just make the prevalent mood manifest in all its glory or pathos.
Inspite of overall dumbing down and accusation of lyrics writers catering to lowest denominator I still feel there is some good stuff being churned out by some new-age writers who make an extra effort to go beyond their brief and make their presence felt in a world where rhythm is riotous and beat is upbeat.
Few of the songs from Hindi cinema that have stayed with me in last couple of years in the first decade of 21st century are:
Allah ke bande hasde, allah ke bande (Waisa Bhi Hota hai, Part II)
Lamhon ki guzaarish hai, paas aa jaayein hum-tum ( Hum Tum)
Duniya ut-patanga, kukri dendi banga, chak de phatey (Khosla Ka Ghosla)
Masti ki Paathshaala, apni toh paathshaala (Rang De Basanti)
Har ghadi badal rahi hai roop zindagi (Kal Ho Na Ho)
Kajrare, kajrare, tere kaare kaare naina ( Bunty Aur Babli)
Bheegey hont tere, pyaasa dil mera ( Murder)
Kyun aajkal neend kam khaab zyaada hai (Wo Lamhe)
Beedi jalaile ..jigar maan badi aag hai (Omkara)
And now the most recent one:
Tujhe sab pata hai na ? meri maa (Taare Zameen Par)
At least with these songs I love the lyrics and know whose line is it anyway.
Tags: Songwriting, Soundtrack
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
@DPac,
ya I can see it now:)
Thanks for fixing the Game:d
oky doks chalo gnight!!
Sorry for ignorance, but who wrote lyrics for controversial song of Aaja Nach le?
RK – piyush mishra.
Phoenixnu: Thanks
Hope he can get out of controversy without searching any relation with Satish Chandra Mishra.:)
the lyrics is by Piyush Mishra, anyway there was another song by Piyush Mishra he wrote when he was doing theatre, the song was like ” Mulk ki le li bhaiya, baat albeli bhaiya, wo dekho nationality, cheekhti mar gayi daiyya, mulk ki le li bhaiya…”
@Mohit,
Such songs are recited in special Holi celeberation in Banaras, where people forget sense of any moral, censor etc and scold govt. famous people etc. That song may be inspired by that celeberation;)
@ RK
In fact that song was part of a play done by piyush mishra in that song a Gadha (Donkey) is showing Delhi to Gadhi, he takes her to places like India Gate and all and there was a song
Mulk ki le li bhaiya
Baat albeli bhaiya
wo dekho nationality
cheekhti mar gayi daiya…
Hey…
You forgot to mention two most eminent lyricists of our times..
Prasoon Joshi and Sayeed Qadri…
These two have the real potential to become next Gulzaars of the industry…
Sameer should get a place in the Guiness book of World Records…for writing most number of Meaningless and useless songs ever…
Bhansali did a blunder by signing him for saawariya…
what about swanand kirkere he wrote for munna bhai mbbs, and hasaron khwaishen.
hi this is anoop. i am from bangalore. i am interested in music and can compose new tunes. but i dont have any source of hindi cum urdu lyrics. If u feel interested u
can kindly contact me at anoopkatti@gmail.com. thnks
My name is Ajit Bhushan.I am a graduate right now(just passed my final year examination).My hobbies is songs writing,listen to music and watching tv.My favorite actor is Shahrukh Khan because he is such a decent and good looking guy.I can’t compare him to anyone in bollywood and thats why my favorite movie is chak de india.Apart from that I also like Amitabh Bachchan and Hrithik Roshan.
I want to grow my career in bollywood industry because I think that I would be a good lyrics and for that I need a chance to show my talent.
Behtareen article.