From Bahrain to Bharat
The film Dhurandhar has a contemporary yet scintillating score by Shashwat Sachdev with “imports” from Roshan, R.D. Burman and Bappi Lahiri and a song co-composed with Charanjit Ahuja, the Punjabi composer who turned singer Amar Singh into Amar Singh Chamkila and did a single Hindi film, Kohra, in 1993.
But Sachdev’s greatest triumph perhaps is his consent to have the Bahrain rapper Flipperachi’s track ‘Fa9la’ incorporated in the film while Akshaye Khanna is dancing. The track has now gone viral globally. It is originally a Bahraini Hip-Hop song written and performed by Flipperachi and Daffy.
But what about its odd spelling? As per what Flipperachi told a portal, “The 9 is used when we type Arabic using English letters to replace an Arabic letter that sounds close to S but (is) heavier. The word Fa9la loosely translated, is a vibe or having fun/letting loose. It’s usually used in the context of dancing/partying or just having fun in general.”
When Roshan was inspired!
The late composer Roshan created a 12-minute qawwali ‘Na to karvaan ki talash hai’ for Barsaat Ki Raat, his long-delayed breakthrough in the big league in 1960. Buzz is that the song took over 24 hours to record with five singers (Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Asha Bhosle, Sudha Malhotra and S.D. Batish). In those days of live recordings, it is said that there were incredibly over 70 retakes, all necessitated if there was a single mistake by either singer, chorus or musician! But the song is majorly inspired by the Pakistani number, ‘Jahaan lut gaya hai sukoon-e-dil’ by Ustad Fateh Ali Khan (Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s father) and his brother Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan. And what do you know? ‘Na to karvaan ki talash hai’ has been used to great effect in Dhurandhar, a film that looks at Pakistan’s subversive activities!
…And so were Shankar-Jaikishan!
Shankar-Jaikishan’s cult Lata classic, ‘Ajeeb dastaan hai yeh’ from Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai was inspired by Jim Reeve’s ‘My lips are sealed’. But the S-J version in both mukhda and antara is eons superior. In turn, around 2011, the Hindi song was licensed to Australian pop singer Ivy York, who made a lovely version that had a modicum of the haunting quality of the S-J composition. Ivy also designed her album, Call of Spring with two more Hindi film tunes reworked—‘Call of spring’ itself from O.P. Nayyar’s ‘Pukarta chala hoon main’ from Mere Sanam and ‘My happiness’ from ‘Jawaniyan yeh mast mast’ from his Tumsa Nahin Dekha.
Yes Boss! 28 years is a long time
Javed Akhtar penned the hit song, ‘Chand taare tod laaoon / Saari duniya par main chhaoon / Bas itna sa khwab hai’ for Yes Boss way back in 1997. 28 years later, composer-lyricist Mithoon considers that concept very fanciful. In the youth-centric hit, Saiyaara, his song, ‘Dhun’ has the line, ‘Chaand taare le aaoon / Hai yeh to mumkin nahin / Par waada hai yeh kasam se / Tere saath main rahoonga’. Time, clearly, for lyricists and lovebirds both to shift to a real world!
Change the only constant!
That reminds me of Gulzar, who once told me, “Change is axiomatic and nothing can remain the same. For 30 years in cinema, the moon was a symbol of a beloved’s face or something unattainable. But then man reached it, set his foot upon it, and achieved that which was a fantasy for centuries. My songs too have constantly reflected these changes. The moon has been a favourite topic in my songs, like in ‘Roz akeli aaye’ (Mere Apne) and ‘Chand churaakar laaya hoon’ (Devta), but now I have even alluded to the Black Hole in one of my songs with the lines, ‘Chand ke paar jo sadak jaati hai’ in Guru. Today, I cannot use `chand’ in an outdated way in my work.”
When Kishore Kumar suggested the ‘ideal’ singer
Kishore Kumar was known to suggest Rafi’s names for a few songs, like ‘Sacchai chhup nahin sakti’ from Dushmun, whereby Laxmikant-Pyarelal had to persuade him that the song would be dropped if he did not sing it! But one song that recently came to mind, as per a reel, was the classic, ‘Apni aankhon mein basaakar’ from a low-budget movie, Thokar, which had a delayed release in 1974. The album was out in 1972 and was composed by Shamji Ghanshamji, a small-time composer. The filmmakers wanted the audience to “Weep with the song” (written by small-timer Sajan Dehlvi) as it was a moving melody. But Kishore, when approached, told the composer that the right voice for it would be Mohammed Rafi. And Rafi’s rendition truly made it achieve the filmmakers’ intentions.
Names that can mislead!
One would naturally think that the name Shamji Ghanshamji was of a duo, but it was one single composer! Similarly, there are other names that are rarities in Hindi cinema. There was actually a composer named B.D. Burman, who did a handful of films between 1955 and 1962, while there was a 1962 film called Baje Ghunghroo, which had a lyricist named Madanmohan (single word)! Then we had a lyricist named Irshad, who wrote lyrics for just three known films, and gave us the timeless classics, ‘Bekaraar dil tu gaaye jaa’ composed by Kishore Kumar and sung by him with Sulakshana Pandit, as also ‘Panthi hoon main’ and four more songs in Kishore’s own 1971 production and directorial, Door Ka Rahi.
Also Read: Will The RajaSaab be able to beat the Dhurandhar wave? Trade experts speak
The post Trivia Tunes: How Dhurandhar took inspiration from a Pakistani song in a film about Pakistan’s subversive activities appeared first on Bollywood Hungama.
