Lyrics Today Aren't Poetry, Just Bad Prose - Gulzar
Ritu
This is an old interview of Gulzar that I found on a blog. Makes good
reading. Apologies if it has been posted before.
Regards,
Ritu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Lyrics Today Aren't Poetry, Just Bad Prose'
One of Bollywood's last active links with its golden era, the veteran
lyricist shares his unique musical insight and sense of history in a
freewheeling conversation
SAIBAL CHATTERJEE
Poet, short story writer, scenarist and filmmaker, Gulzar wrote his
first film lyric in the early '60s. In the decades since, he has
penned a string of timeless songs. From Mora gora ang lai le, mohe
shyam rang dei de to Kajra re, Gulzar's has been a journey that
mirrors the ebb and flow of Hindi film music. Who else but him then to
talk about the abiding themes of our film songs? Why do we always sing
of love, longing and pain? Why not anger, cynicism, disillusionment or
idealism? How has the expression of love itself changed over the
years? One of Bollywood's last active links with its golden era, the
veteran lyricist shares his unique musical insight and sense of
history in a freewheeling conversation with Saibal Chatterjee.
It was India's very first sound film, Alam Ara, that established the
song-n-dance convention in our cinema. Seventy-five years on, how
would you assess the state of film lyrics?
It would be unfair to judge film songs in isolation. Lyrics can be
only as good as the film, the script and the music they're written
for. If the quality of the film and its music is poor, the lyrics too
are bound to deteriorate.... The lyrics should not only reflect the
spirit of a film, but also capture the essence of the time and place
it's set in. If some of today's songs seem laboured, it's because of a
huge disconnect between lyric writing and poetry. Words are rustled up
to fit pre-composed tunes. The beat is important, not the words.
When exactly did this decline begin?
The slide started when dance became gymnastics and songs turned into a
meaningless stringing together of words. Today's lyrics aren't poetry.
They aren't even prose. They are bad prose. The attempts at rhyming
are painfully laboured. In the past, a Hindi film lyricist had 70-75
words to play around with. Today he has no more than 30 or 35. Their
vocabulary is very limited. Today's cinema has no gentle dissolves, no
flashbacks. It's cut-to-cut. Images and sounds are thrown at you one
after the other. In song sequences, the movements usually have no
connection with the words. Words are just an excuse to hang a tune on.
Is that a reason why our film songs are predominantly about a single
emotion-romantic love? Elements like anger, cynicism and social satire
are virtually absent...
Well, most of our films are love stories. We don't tell stories about
older people. Our stories are usually about boys and girls falling in
love. If I tell somebody I'm doing a film with A.K. Hangal and Dr
Shreeram Lagoo, the first question I'd be asked is: "Hero aur heroine
kaun hai?" We are so stuck with this kind of cinema, it seems
impossible for us to get out of this mindset.
So, is the situation unlikely to change ever?
Some contemporary filmmakers are bucking the trend. Nagesh Kukunoor's
Iqbal does not have a heroine. Rang de Basanti isn't a typical boy-
meets-girl story either. The songs in these films, especially in the
latter, reflect this departure quite distinctly.
How would you describe the love songs you've penned over the years?
I've often tried to inject Sufism into purportedly romantic songs.
Take Chhaiyyan Chhaiyyan as an example. It has the influence of Bulle
Shah and Baba Farid, the great Sufi poet-singers of Punjab. In
Saathiya, too, I wrote Mera yaar mila de saiyyan, which isn't a
typical romantic number though it's essentially a love song. My songs
aren't exactly romantic; they are often pastoral vignettes of life in
Punjab, redolent with nostalgia and a sense of loss. I'm talking about
songs like Chappa Chappa charkha chale and Chhod aaye hum, woh
galiyaan from Maachis.With someone like A.R. Rahman, I can work on the
words and imagery strictly in relation to scenes and visuals.
In that sense your romantic songs are probably closer in spirit to the
outpourings of the great Romantics of English poetry like John Keats
and P.B. Shelley...
I'm not sure of that, but yes, it is important for our film lyrics to
keep evolving. The imagery of Krishna serenading Radha, trying to wake
her up, teasing her as she sits on a branch or trying to break her
earthen pot as she heads for the well, used to work once. It can't
work anymore, yet our lyrics are stuck in that imagery drawn from our
folklore and mythology. Life has changed, the images in our songs
haven't.
Your own lyrics have always had a degree of playfulness about them.
Would you agree were I to say it has only increased in recent times?
You don't have to wear heavy glasses to write film lyrics. Beeti na
beetayi raina in Parichay was a classical bandish that conveyed the
pain of separation. It worked wonderfully well in the '70s. Today's
Hindi cinema has no room for such songs. If we think old classical
poetry will still work, we'd be deluding ourselves. Do we still wear
the kurtas or pants we wore in the '60s? To survive, you have to move
with the times. You have to think of images relevant to the
contemporary environment. In Satya, I wrote sara din sadkon pe khaali
rickshey sa peechhe peechhe chalta hai to refer to a lover pursuing
her beloved. I couldn't have used the traditional Radha-Krishna
imagery here. It would've been completely out of place.
Does your being a director help?
It certainly does. When I write lyrics, I know what will work. In
Satya, only Goli maar bheje mein bheja shor karta hai would have been
apt. I could not have written Dil-e-naadaan tujhe hua kya hai.
Similarly, when I wrote Chhadi re chhadi kaise gale mein padi in
Mausam, I knew nothing else would work.
Film songs made pre-Independence often exuded a strong nationalistic
fervour, but that changed once India attained freedom and cinema
became a medium of sheer entertainment. Would you agree?
Yes, indeed. Songs like Door hato ae duniyawaalon Hindustan hamara hai
or the use of Vande Mataram in numerous lyrics was the norm in pre-
Independence Hindi cinema. Bhajans sung by fakirs were also popular.
These songs commented upon life; the wandering minstrel was like a
sutradhar or chorus throwing light on the drama. That has been a
tradition. I used a blind man in Kitaab to sing a similar song. In Aap
Ki Kasam, Rajesh Khanna, in the garb of an old man, sings Zindagi ke
safar mein guzar jaate hain jo mukaam, woh phir nahin aate. This
convention springs from India's age-old katha tradition that rests on
a solo narration of the Ramayana or Mahabharat. In post-Independence
films, songs that reflected disillusionment were also common. The
songs of Dharti Ke Lal, which brought together the talents of Ali
Sardar Jafri, Khwaja Ahmed Abbas and Ravi Shankar, did that.
Who, to your mind, are the greatest Hindi film lyricists of all time?
Shailendra was the best. He knew the medium and he knew poetry. He
would write Mera joota hai Japani to go with the image of a tramp but
would invest the song with many layers of meaning. He could turn a
film song into a piece of literature. Sahir Ludhianvi was another
great. For him words always came before the tune. Who else but he
could write Pedon ki shaakhon pe khili khili chandni?
And among contemporary lyricists...
There are quite a few, but how much difference they'll make will
depend on how long they can last. Remember Yogesh, the poet who wrote
Kahin door jab din dhal jaaye, saanjh ki dulhan badan churaye, chupke
se aaye in Anand, and other lovely lyrics for Salil Chowdhury? He
vanished all too soon.Prasoon Joshi uses language very skilfully. His
lyrics for Rang de Basanti are a classic case of songs matching the
film and its characters perfectly. Another lyricist I'd like to hear
more of is Nida Fazli. He is a wonderful poet.
Abhay Jain
"Ritu" <ritucha...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1173453578....@30g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Hi Folks,
>
> This is an old interview of Gulzar that I found on a blog. Makes good
> reading. Apologies if it has been posted before.
>
> Regards,
> Ritu
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 'Lyrics Today Aren't Poetry, Just Bad Prose'
>
> One of Bollywood's last active links with its golden era, the veteran
> lyricist shares his unique musical insight and sense of history in a
> freewheeling conversation
>
> SAIBAL CHATTERJEE
>
> When exactly did this decline begin?
> The slide started when dance became gymnastics and songs turned into a
> meaningless stringing together of words. Today's lyrics aren't poetry.
> They aren't even prose. They are bad prose. The attempts at rhyming
> are painfully laboured. In the past, a Hindi film lyricist had 70-75
> words to play around with. Today he has no more than 30 or 35. Their
> vocabulary is very limited. Today's cinema has no gentle dissolves, no
> flashbacks. It's cut-to-cut. Images and sounds are thrown at you one
> after the other. In song sequences, the movements usually have no
> connection with the words. Words are just an excuse to hang a tune on.
>
In a useless exercise, I counted different scene change in 10 songs
of last few years. I came up with between 300 to 400.
I wanted to embark on another useless exercise as to number
of different dresses in a song - but I gave up as it is too taxing on eyes.
AJ
>
Srinivas Ganti
>
> In a useless exercise, I counted different scene change in 10 songs
> of last few years. I came up with between 300 to 400.
> I wanted to embark on another useless exercise as to number
> of different dresses in a song - but I gave up as it is too taxing on eyes.
Too bad. I wud have recommended some Jitendra - Sridevi movies for
this exercise ;)
Narsingh
>> When exactly did this decline begin?
> The slide started when dance became gymnastics and songs turned into a
> meaningless stringing together of words. Today's lyrics aren't poetry.
> They aren't even prose. They are bad prose. The attempts at rhyming
> are painfully laboured. In the past, a Hindi film lyricist had 70-75
> words to play around with. Today he has no more than 30 or 35. Their
> vocabulary is very limited. Today's cinema has no gentle dissolves, no
>
Of the tens of thousands of movies made, every one had one or two love
songs (we are in love; the world is a wonderful place to live). It is
amazing that the lyricists kept on coming with new lyrics to say the
same thing: we are in love. They finally ran out of all the good
words. Since the previous lyricists had already "used up" all the
romantic poetry, the poor lyricists of today are left with lyrics like
Apun ko you se love hai
You ko apun se love hai kya
Narsingh
Sukesh
The fault lies with film makers - only songs with group dancing. No
song situations for pain, separation, family values, patriotism and
other elements of humankind's existence - unlike the good old days.
Iske waaste apun ko aaj ka mujik jaraa bhi achhaa nahi lagtaa.
Regards
Sukesh