Putting it in Writing

“We were told that the title of the film was Shiela Ki Jawani ,so the bold bit comes from there and that is how we went about composing it,” says Shekhar Ravjiani of Vishal-Shekhar duo who composed the number with Dadlani and closely monitored the lyrics. Youngsters have bonded over the song on dance floors,though many senior lyrics writers have junked it,but Dadlani has produced a song that is catchy and announces his entry as a lyrics writer finally. But he is not the only one bringing a different kind of vocabulary into the B-Town.

Amitabh Bhattacharya showcased his talent with Dev D and the soft and comforting Iktaara,that won almost all the musical awards last year. And as Bittoo in Band Baaja Baraat sings Chai mein dooba biscuit ho gaya while trying to impress his Punjabi girlfriend,the conversational and cheeky lyrics,full of small-time polite brashness have caught the pulse of people. These lyrics are miles away from the genteel,urdu-heavy pieces written by Gulzar and Javed Akhtar in the previous era.

“The best thing is that the new group of lyricists are able to straddle different words and are as comfortable with snappy numbers as they are with a romantic ballad,” says city-based journalist-turned-musician and lyricist Neelesh Mishra.

While dialogue writer-turned-lyricist Niranjan Iyenger,42,has gone the sufi way with My Name is Khan ,Anvita Dutt Guptan,39,is utilising her experience in the ad world to deliver lyrics that are colloquial,easily understood and identifiable. “A fresh approach is what works. One has to add colour to what already exists,” says Guptan,who travelled the country because of her Air Force background.

Bhattacharya says that it helps that several directors do not force a strict blueprint of demands on the lyricists. “The creative freedom that I work with is immense and this is thanks to the young and new directors. I try my best to figure out the sensibilities of the characters when I write something,” says Bhattacharya,whose recent venture Udaan ,won him a lot of accolades.

But not all directors want to work like that. When director Sanjay Leela Bhansali wanted some simple lyrics with philosophical undertones for a song in Guzaarish,where a quadriplegic wants to make every moment of his life meaningful,Vibhu Puri,29,was told to stay as close to the character as possible. “I was to know my characters very well and my songs were to branch out of characters,not a situation,” says Puri,who has also written the dialogues for the film. He delivered sau gram zindagi,a soothing ditty sung by Kunal Ganjawala that is away from the vocabulary of sharab and ishq dialect that infused the songs of Zafar Gorakhpuri and Pankaj Udhas. “It was an effort to find one’s own idiom,” he confesses.

Iyenger’s Sajda,a quasi-quwwali piece from My Name is Khan,which instantly struck a chord with its profound writing,was originally a part of the dummy lyrics written for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy to work on. “But Karan Johar and Shankar Mahdevan loved the song so much that they wanted it right away,” says Iyenger,who also ended up penning the film’s tear-jerker Noor-E-Khuda and the beautiful Allah Hi Rahem.

“I grew up in Dombivili but I was always interested in Sufi poetry and the Urdu language and that is how I write songs which stem out of that sensibility,” says Iyenger.

Another new lyricist is Shellee,whose rustic Pardesi and Hiknaal from Dev D were well received by audiences. He is currently busy with projects like F.O.S.L.A and Na Ye Hoti,Na Vo Hota,by first-time directors like Suraj Jaiswal and Praveen Kumar respectively .