SWEET SONG OF THE HEART
Nasreen Munni Kabir’s conversations with Gulzar yield an excellent book that treats the Hindi film song with the respect it deserves
Jiya Jale; The Stories of Songs
The discussion about the school prayer in – which many assume is a traditional
written by a poet made anonymous by the passing centuries, and the one on
from are informative. While the listener might have originally reacted entirely at the emotional level to Chaiyya Chaiyya, the lyrics, rendered in the book in Roman, accompanied by an English translation, add an intellectual layer by illuminating intended meanings. The reader learns, after years of wondering, that the electrifying
Guddi – Humko Mann Ki Shakti Dena bhajan Chaiyya Dil Se Chaiyya Gulposh kabhi itraaye kahin/mehke to nazar aa jaaye kahin
(The One draped in flowers will come into sight as the fragrance spreads) is a spiritual reference, a reference to God. These line translations also propel the reader to listen to the songs, and to enjoy afresh the gift of Gulzar’s linguistic invent- iveness. As a bridge figure who has worked successfully over half a century with many generations of creative professionals in the Hindi film industry and whose work continues to be sought after, Gulzar is a great repository of anecdotes:
NMK: Was there anything unexpected that you’ve observed about the personalities of the music composers with whom you have worked? G: I noticed how much they enjoyed cooking… I’d like to first talk about how fascinating it was to watch Madan Mohanji in the kitchen. He would hold a glass of whisky in one hand and, with the other hand, he stirred some mutton in a pan. He hummed a tune throughout the stirring and frying – ti ti tee… And if the mutton curry needed a bit of water, because it had started to stick to the bottom of the pan - in went his whisky! (both NMK: In O humdum, you use the word ‘beswaadi’. I don’t think I’ve heard that word in a song before. G: No, I haven’t either (smiles). But I liked the idea of a tasteless night. You said you wanted to use ‘without flavour’? Maybe it works better than tasteless. When you translate ‘sautan’ you can say ‘rival’. NMK: I might go with ‘mistress’ for ‘sautan’.
The exchange also reveals some surprising things about Gulzar. For someone who continues to be relevant, his aversion to remixes of old songs is puzzling: “One must respect the past, respect the work and creators of that work. In the same way, if you changed the instruments of Hemant Kumar used in his songs, you would take away the musical history of those times... That is why I am against remixing and the colourization of black and white classics. The arts are a history of a civilization.” Remixes of Shakespeare by Vishal Bharadwaj are, thankfully, not verboten. Incidentally, Bharadwaj, Gulzar reveals, is adept at the Sanchari, a “form of poetry that does not come straight from to – which is the pattern the film song has traditionally followed…”
Kabir has done similar conversation books before but Jiya Jale is different. It marks the happy birth of a new genre -- the Hindi film songbook that combines anecdote, line translations, serious discussion on craft and song vocabulary. Happily, it speaks simultaneously to our English medium exteriors and our exuberant vernacular inner selves.
antara mukhda