The timeless patriotic song
Recently, two patriotic films, Sky Force and The Diplomat, have respectively had cult numbers re-created: ‘Ae mere watan ke logon’, the non-film cult song that has rocked the nation since it came out first in 1965, and ‘Bharat humko jaan se pyaara hai’ (from the 1993 Roja) remodelled as ‘Bharat’ (the title of the new song!) whose words go, ‘Bharat apni aankh ka taara hai’. My simple point is: while I have no quarrel with re-treating classics, if done well, why not have something original instead?
Trivia Tunes: When Hema Sardesai’s song in Pardes was attributed to Nadeem-Shravan
Surely, we have the talent to come up with such timeless songs even now? So where lies the shortfall? Is it the lack of patience? Or a lack of time that ‘justifies’ quick-fix jobs, with copyrights easily available under the concerned bodies like IPRS? A lack of dedication among writers? Or a financial crunch that makes such copies economic vis-à-vis making original music? But then, there is nothing to add to the audience’s roster of great patriotic film numbers! Today, films as varied as Haqeeqat, Upkar and Roja are as much remembered for their timeless patriotic songs as those movies themselves!
The great ‘Oscar’ divide!
Two South legends, A.R. Rahman and M.M. Keeravani, known to Hindi cinema by the “fancy name” (his definition!) of M.M. Kreem, have been winners of the Oscar. But what a divide there is so far as the Hindi cinema industry’s attitude towards them is concerned! The former is hyped by every mediaperson and in every press release as the ‘Oscar-winning maestro’, but Kreem’s scores in the Bahubali franchise and RRR (which won him the Oscar for ‘Naatu naatu’) and his brilliant work in last year’s Auron Mein Kahan Dum Tha (which went unsung after the disastrous fate of that intense film) are not even celebrated.
And while Rahman is doing films like Lahore 1947 and Ramayan, Kreem has only Anupam Kher’s Tanvi The Great, which is a musical with an international setup. But where are our other filmmakers who neglected Kreem even before his Oscar despite great albums like Zakham, Sur, Jism and Paheli?
Singing in someone else’s ‘home’!
We have heard stars singing in their own productions (Amitabh Bachchan in Paa, Salman Khan in Hero, Aamir Khan in Dangal, Hema Malini in Dream Girl and Mehmood in Do Phool et al), but it is unusual to find an actor singing in another actor’s home production. But this was the case way back in 1989 in Shatrughan Sinha’s home production, Billoo Baadshah, which also featured Govinda. It was the younger actor who sang ‘Jawan jawan o jawan’, a ‘take-off’ on Hasan Jahangir’s Pakistani hit, ‘Hawa hawa’ of those times! And though we have our doubts, the song’s tune, as per convention then, was ‘credited’ to the film’s composer Jagjit Singh, while the lyrics were written by Manoj Darpan.
‘Traditional’ conventions!
Such conventions enabled the fact that the ghazal from Maati Maangey Khoon sung by Ghulam Ali, ‘Yeh dil yeh pagal dil mera’ was actually credited to the film’s composer R.D. Burman and lyricist Anand Bakshi, though it was an original Ghulam Ali creation penned by Mohsin Naqvi, as told by the Pakistani composer-singer to me. Again, this was a Pakistani song and the film a Shatrughan Sinha home production!
From background score to award winner!
In Nache Mayuri (1986), S. Janaki’s song ‘Pag padam’ (which plays along with the opening credit-titles) seemed at odds with Laxmikant-Pyarelal’s style in their remaining five songs, all rendered by Lata Mangeshkar, including a duet with Suresh Wadkar. But when L-P won the prestigious Sur-Singar Samsad award for it as the ‘Best Classical Film-Based Song of the Year’, it was assumed that that L-P had composed the different melody as they had also composed the entire classical soundtrack of Sur-Sangam a year earlier!
However, many years later, singer S.P. Balasubramaniam, who had composed the background score of the film, revealed an unknown fact. He had composed this song for the titles of the film’s Telugu original, Mayuri, and the makers decided to keep the composition for the Hindi version too, with Anand Bakshi penning the Hindi lyrics.
And what did the singer think of L-P accepting his award? He smiled and said it was a small thing compared to the break they had given him in Hindi cinema in Ek Duuje Ke Liye! Besides, it was originally not even composed for a Hindi movie!
The Yesudas-Ilayaraja story
Another mysterious case was, this time, with Govinda’s 1988 home production, Hatya, in which Yesudas rendered ‘Zindagi mehek jaati hai’ with some portions by Lata Mangeshkar. The film had its music scored by Bappi Lahiri, while the background score was by Ilayaraja. The song was written by Indeevar, who at that time had worked with the South maestro in the Hindi film Kamagni. The Hatya song, with its refrain, ‘Aa ra ru aa ra ru’, sounds very much like a Ilayaraja tune! Wonder if that convention resulted in this as well!
More about such conventions
‘Jhanjhariya’, the only hit from the 1996 Krishna was a ‘rare’ case. The Anu Malik composition was credited to Anand Raaj Anand as its lyricist and singer, but it was also composed by him. In Ghulam, the chartbuster, ‘Aati kya Khandala’, sung by Alka Yagnik and Aamir Khan, was also composed by Nitin Raikwar, who was credited only with the lyrics, while Jatin-Lalit were the film’s composers. In Waada (2005), Kavita Seth sang ‘Zindagi ko sawaar de maula’, a song Kavita Seth had made me hear a couple of years earlier as her composition when we first met at the FRAMES convention. She had not even opened her film singing account! In Pardes, it was Hema Sardesai who was the actual composer of ‘My first day in USA’ which was ‘conventionally’ attributed to Nadeem-Shravan!
And when, even without these songs, these composers have all made substantial contribution in music, the rationale behind this eccentric convention baffles!
Also Read: Hema Sardesai and Abhijeet Sawant perform at the Mumbai Saptarang festival
More Pages: Pardes Box Office Collection
BOLLYWOOD NEWS – LIVE UPDATES
Catch us for latest Bollywood News, New Bollywood Movies update, Box office collection, New Movies Release , Bollywood News Hindi, Entertainment News, Bollywood Live News Today & Upcoming Movies 2025 and stay updated with latest hindi movies only on Bollywood Hungama.