Poetry on cellulloid

Vishal-Shekhars friendship with Amitabh Bachchan,which got them to record songs with him in films like...

Vishal-Shekhars friendship with Amitabh Bachchan,which got them to record songs with him in films like Bhoothnath,Aladin and Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap entered a new league when the superstar agreed to record this famous Rabindranath Tagore poem Jodi tor daak shune keu na ase tobe ekla chalo re If no one responds to your call,then go your way alone for their new film Kahaani. Kolkata,the city,is almost like a character in the film and for the young composers it was a high when they tweaked the poem with some English and Hindi lines but essentially kept the original,which was recorded between 1905 and 1908.

The song has been used with a specific concept. The thrust of the song is that in this world you have to travel alone and fight your own battles, says Sujoy Ghosh,the director of the film. The concept is probably even more relevant today. No one helps you,certainly not without expectations. Anand Bakshisaab wrote as much in his own way in the 1982 Insaan when he stated Koi na jab tera saathi ho to chal mere man tu akela. This song was very relevant to my film as Vidya Balan,who is in Kolkata to search for her missing husband,realizes that she will have to go it alone. The Tagore song being in Bengali and the film being a thriller sans scope for conventional music made it imperative that the original language be maintained. Bachchan,of course,was the obvious choice to make the song universally acceptable.

Speaking of Bachchan,Jaya Bachchans whopping impact in her debut film Guddi,was to a major extent thanks to Hrishikesh Mukherjees and composer Vasant Desais sagacious use of the old song Bole re papiharaa,as recorded afresh in the voice of Vani Jairam. The situation was light-hearted,to display the girls singing abilities to important guests. The original lyricist is no longer known,but the song had been rendered decades before by classical luminaries like Pandit D.V.Paluskar.

Amitabh and Jaya came together for the first time in Ek Nazar 1972,and the first duet they vocalised was Patta patta buta buta,whose starting point was a Ghalib poems first couplet or sher. Lyricist Majrooh Sultanpuri imaginatively took the concept forward to show the defiance of the two loversas the girl was a tawaif.

Bulleh Shah was a 17th century Sufi poet who rebelled against orthodox Islam and religious bigotry. His best-known poem was thus used by Raj Kapoor tellingly in the inter-religious love story,Bobby,when the lovers are parted by their families. Beshak mandir masjid todo,Bulleh Shah hai kehta / Par pyar bhara dil kabhi no todo,iss dil mein dilbar rehta Bulleh Shah says that it is better to destroy a temple or a mosque rather than a heart that houses a beloved was one of the cult songs composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal.

Bulleh Shahs verse was also adapted and used in Chal chhaiyyaan chhaiyyaan in the 1998 film Dil Se8230;,and in Raanjha Raanjha in the 2010 film Raavan. Both the films were directed by Mani Ratnam,had lyrics by Gulzar and music by A.R.Rahman.

Mir Taqi Mir,one of the pioneers of the ghazal,achieved immortality in popular art when Khayyam composed his creation Dikhayi diye yun ke bekhud kiya in Sagar Sarhadis Bazaar. Lata Mangeshkar,who sang the song,was lucky in three more cases: Chhap tilak sab chhini with Asha Bhosle was the extremely popular version of the Ameer Khusro a 13th century Sufi mystic qalaam in Main Tulsi Tere Aangan Ki 1978; 18th century poet Ameer Meenais poem Sarakti jaaye hai was filmed on Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim and sung along with Kishore Kumar also under L-P in Deedaar-E-Yaar1982. Lata also sang Panditji mere marne ke baad,adapted by lyricist Verma Malik in Manoj Kumars Roti Kapada Aur Makaan 1974. While the first two songs spoke of complete surrender to love, the third was a declaration of passion heightened by the unveling of the beloveds face. The last song was a philosophy by itself and used intelligently in a pre-climactic sequence. Manoj and Verma Malik had bought the rights of the song before simplifying the lyrics and getting it composed by L-P.

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Manoj Kumar made excellent and situational use of traditional songs like Raghupati Raghav Raja Ram and Om jai Jagdish Hare in his earlier film Purab Aur Pacchim to graphically highlight differences in Western and Eastern culture.

First published in 1904 and sung in jail hundreds of times during the Freedom struggle was poet Iqbals Saare jahaan se accha Hindustan hamara,which was finally incorporated by filmmaker Atma Ram in his a Republic Day Parade sequence in Yeh Gulistan Hamara 1972.

The Lata Mangeshkar version composed by Hemant Kumar of Bankim Chandra Chaterjees Vande Mataram in the 1954 Jagriti supercedes all in popularity while martyr Bhagat Singhs poems Mere rang de basanti chola,Sarfaroshi ki tamanna and Pagdi sambhaal jatta have been used in every Bhagat Singh film made,beginning with the 1965 Manoj Kumar classic Shaheed.

Bahadur Shah Zafar was one of the later Mughal rulers who had a flair for poetry. His most famous litany,Na kisi ki aankh ka noor hoon has been adapted in different films over the years: by composer Nashad in a 40s film Toote Taare with Talat Mahmood as singer,by S.N.Tripathi in the voice of Mohammed Rafi in Lal Quila in the 60s and by Talat Aziz as late as in Sajid-Wajids Sharaarat 2003.

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In a world where lyrics are written to order to suit a specific situation,it is not surprising at all that several times existing poems fit the bill best or only need a bit of modification to become what the doctor ordered for a situation. In a literal sense,we therefore get to enjoy poetry on celluloid.