Yo Boys,The Loot Song

Laughable or banal lyrics,and unoriginal music. But a campaign song isn’t meant to be music for music’s sake. It is only a tool to attract the crowd to the rally,and keep them there till the real leaders begin to speak up. Raj Babbar,an MP from Firozabad in UP,and manager of Congress’s poll songs in the state,draws from his experience in films to explain the role of music in electoral campaigns. “Music is a part of our lives,our popular culture. Like in a film,a shaadi song summarises wedding rituals,a poll song crunches a party’s manifesto,” he says. Jai Ho sums up the Congress manifesto in UP,and harps on its achievements at the national level.

Poll songs may lie at the periphery of election campaigns,with the candidate’s voice taking over from the singer,but parties do have well drawn-out plans and budgets for them. Most of the songs are recorded in Mumbai studios. Though the singers,lyricists,composers and producers may not be A-listers,they are professionals in their own right in Bollywood.

Samajwadi Party,for its CD of a dozen original songs,commissioned Nikhil Kamath,a composer of low-budget Bollywood films since the ’90s,including the soundtrack of Tum Bin (2001),and Javed Ali,who sang Nagada nagada (Jab We Met) and Jashn-e-bahara (Jodhaa Akbar). Ali has also sung BSP’s poll songs.

Making music for the Congress’s poll campaigns is Surya Raj Kamal,who has composed tracks for 168 TV serials,and 35 devotional albums. Jai Ho’s songwriter was Pandit Kiran Mishra,who has been writing devotional songs for spiritual TV channels and soap operas,including Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and Kasauti Zindagi Kii,since the ’80s.

Politics surfaces unexpectedly in these choices. Mohammed Vakil,a classical singer of the Jaipur gharana and a Sa Re Ga Ma winner,was chosen by the Congress to sing a qawwali meant to voice the aam Muslim’s angst because he was thought to have the lehja that could woo the community. (Aatanki kahe hum ko,Aatank khud karate/Bahut daraye wo,Mere zakhm dikhaye wo….utho,jaago,badlo Uttar Pradesh) “We needed someone who could pronounce Urdu correctly,” says Mishra,who has written the song with Urdu writer,Khalid Anwar.

Kamal has been composing poll songs since 1992. It started when Subroto Roy Sahara introduced him to Mulayam Singh Yadav over the phone during a recording at a Sahara studio in Mumbai. Since then,he’s made music for the SP,BJP,Congress,Shiv Sena and NCP.

Composing for elections makes Kamal feel he’s “playing a role in a large democratic exercise”,even if it stifles his creativity. “Unlike in other compositions where you can remove a line or a character from a song,in a party song,you have to ensure that the party name,the leader’s name,and all the points of its manifesto are included,” he says. But what about composing a parody? “Parties spend crores on campaigning. They can’t spend more on promoting a fresh composition,when a popular song’s parody can draw more people,” he says.

For the politicians,lyrics are the most important. While Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi writes most parodies for BJP,former MP Uday Pratap Singh has written SP’s songs. Though Congress outsourced songwriting to Mishra,the party “monitored” his words. “Jai Ho was written in a day at Babbar’s home in Delhi. Several partypersons were there,each giving his suggestion. We had many friendly arguments,” says Mishra,who finds writing poll songs easy,as they have no visuals to match to,but also need to have “more striking lyrics”.

Campaign lyrics have an unwritten rule: a ruling party boasts of its achievements,while the oppositions parties lambast it for its “misrule”,explains Naqvi. The BJP,for instance,rejigged Munni badnaam hui (Dabangg) as “UP kangaal hui behenji ke raaj mein,public behaal hui behenji ke raaj mein…”, much as it had changed Nagaada nagaada (Jab We Met) to “Kabaara,kabaara/Congress ne Dilli ka kabaara kiya” in the 2008 Delhi assembly elections.

So,it was the witty lyrics of a Kolaveri di remix,“Why this hera pheri ji?”,uploaded on YouTube last month,that grabbed BJP’s attention. Abeer Vajpayee,a 27-year-old voice-over artist,takes potshots at the UPA in the video: “Yo janta,I am telling you my story,sad story,loot story……..” The video has garnered over 9,000 hits. The BJP signed a deal with him,and now the video features on the party’s Facebook page to target the youth.

The songs match the high-pitched electoral rhetoric. “We prefer songs that are fast and peppy,” says Naqvi. Kamath used the style he employs for Bollywood and Bhojpuri films,because “popular music attracts crowds”. And Vakil was “instructed” by Babbar to sing at a “high pitch,like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan”.

The artists comply with such demands because poll songs,which are cut in a week,are not a creative assignment. Without credits being given to the artists or the albums being sold,they don’t see the songs as measures of success or performance. The only real result for them are the turnouts at the rallies. “It feels good to see on TV a crowded rally,with my music playing in the background,” says Kamath,who,along with Ali,was flown to Saifai,Mulayam Singh Yadav’s hometown,last month to launch the songs. Though “overwhelmed” by the large crowd for whom they performed live,they haven’t been invited again.

Poll songs may be recorded in plush studios in Mumbai,but for public performances,singers who can croon in the local dialect are sought. Singh says,“In UP,dialects differ across districts,and a refined voice from Bollywood wouldn’t be so familiar,” he says. So,while Ali’s voice features in SP’s TV anthem,Yeh Samajwadi ka jhanda,it is replaced by a Bhojpuri voice in eastern UP,and a Bundeli one in southern UP.

Eighty-year-old Singh has been writing songs for the SP since 1994. Has poll music changed over time? “The issues for the people are the same. Party manifestos have remained more or less constant. And the leaders are the same. So,why will the poll song change?” he says. The poll verdict is all about change though. Time to face the music.