Bollywood Movie Hindi Songs

LONG, LONG AGO, before music videos became the talk of the town, a beautiful heroine walked out through the clouds in a dream sequence and the good-looking hero gawked and they sang. The song played itself into the collective thought of the nation and one of the reasons was that the
picturisation laid the foundation of strong visuals for strong music, generally a mainstay for many an immortal number. A couple of generations
after Awara caught the attention of a nation that thrives on dreams, we continue to produce great music and our cinematography is improving by leaps and bounds.


Music videos have entered our bloodstream and, in cinema, the director not
only gets a captive audience to watch his film, he can also experiment and
have fun filming the song sequences, without which no self respecting Indian
film is complete. Yet, we have seen many great bollywood songs that, when heard, enter
our hearts, occupy our thoughts and present themselves as song on our lips.
But when we wait for an hour in the theatre to see how well it is
picturised, we are woken up, a liffle dazed. Rehna tu from Dilli 6 is to my
mind a path breaking song in Indian cinema; it has a great tune, is deeply
passionate and resonant, and mixes old Indian tunes with the latest
technological wizardry The lyrics are fantastic and it had the potential to
redefme the way Hindi songs are played out. So we waited, after the
movie began, to find the song playing itself into obscurity as Rishi Kapoor
and Abhishek Bachchan are driven through the streets of Delhi and end up
having beer and playing a game of pool in an old house. Good acting, great
cinematography, poignant scene. But what on earth was the song doing there?
And, more importantly, what was the scene doing in that song???

And I flashback to a couple of years ago when the soundtrack of Guru was
released. A brffliant number, Dum tara, was an auspicious note to set up the
movie for release. And then the song and even Mani Ratnam, that genius of
filmmakers, failed us. The song fell, and the movie went through with
itself. An opportunity to carve itself into the annals of Indian film music
went abegging. Recently, two fine numbers, the peppy Khabar na/tin from
Dostana and Kahin toh from Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na both looked like, to
borrow a football term, penalty kicks shot wide. The set-up was there, the
inahaul was created and then lost with absurd goings on, onscreen. Perhaps
the songs would have been happiest being in our memory with our own thoughts
around what might have been. Too bad, we went to watch the film, so we
remembered the film and forgot the song. Rewinding to the RD Burman era,
many bollywood Hindi songs were themselves powerful enough to move the film forward, but
scant respect for the screen shots was visible.Roz roz aankhon tale from
Jeeva, Tu tu ham vahin from Yeh Vaada Raha and Kya yahi pyaar hai from Rocky
were all wasted opportunities to score. That the songs still remain on our
lips is true testimony to the sheer quality of the music. A word of advice
for incipient filmmakers: please do watch how Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand and V
Shantaram made the songs organic to the film. It is not always true that the
context of the film decides if we hum the number to our grave. However, in
an age when the music video itself has become a profession and great videos
have rocketed average songs to the top of the charts and mediocre artistes
to stardom, our expectation from good directors to back up the music with
deep and relevant screens is justified. Otherwise, like the ironically named
Rehna tu, the song might not remain in our memory.. Hai jaisa tu... thoda sa
dard tu, but no sukoon.