Chhaayaageet #162 - "But I made a mistake during recording."
The singer is in the studio waiting for the music sitting to begin. She has been trying to get a break as a playback singer. Most of the times when she is called to the studio, it is to do a dummy recording. The dummy recording allows the shoot to proceed until the real playback singer, typically one of the two sisters, can come in at a later date to do the real recording when their dates are available. The singer is used to this. This time also, it's another dummy recording. In today's sitting, the song lyrics are being finalized.
One of the composers has written a few scratch words of the opening of the song. The lyricist has written the whole song but they need some random words at the opening. Some musicians come in and wish "Namaste" to the composers. One of them asks in some slang, "Ki hua?" What is happening? One of them says "Assi tussi", the other throws around "Lassi pissi". Everybody is going off on a tangent throwing random words around. Someone says "Hong Kong". Hearing that, another says, "Jahan Hong Kong hai, to King Kong bhi hona chahiye". Where there is Hong Kong, there must also be King Kong. They are just shooting the breeze until the lyricist shows up.
Finally at 2pm the lyricist shows up. "Kal raat ko mujhe laga is gaane mein Mombasa hona chahiye". Last night I felt that the word Mombasa should be in this song.
After some time, they feel like all the random words are in place and set to tune. Tomorrow they will do the dummy recording. She comes back to the studio. While opening the song with the dummy words, she can't stop laughing. The musicians in the orchestra also burst out laughing. The composer is dead serious. He reprimands them with a stern warning. Recording a funny song is serious business.
Lo and behold, the dummy song is recorded in the first take. The composers are now relieved that the shoot can proceed. It is a big budget film on a tight schedule.
Fast forward to filming. The set is getting ready. The choreographer dance master, the heroine, all the other actors are present. The heroine looks at the space where the song and dance has to be performed. It's a rather small space with not much room. There are cables going all over the place, which the crew will eventually remove. But there is no space to rehearse right now. And she definitely wants to rehearse this one. In fact, she always puts in a lot of effort in the rehearsals for all her songs.
There is a small corridor to the side. She asks the dance master to come with her there. "I am willing to dance in the corridor." She rehearses the entire song in the narrow space.
The filmmaker is watching all this from the corner of his eye while keeping an eye on the production. When the shoot begins, the heroine transforms herself into the character, exuding high energy. The filmmaker is puzzled. She is dancing with her whole body. If he focuses on her face, he might lose capturing her feet. To him, it feels like even her toes are emoting. "Her mind doesn't know what her body is doing", he would say of her later. The shoot is completed with the dummy recording.
The singer, meanwhile, has moved on to recording other dummy songs for not just the composers on this film, but also for other composers. It's been six months. They must have recorded the final song in the voice of one of the sisters, she thinks to herself. One day the phone rings. It is the composer on the other line, "Congratulations, we have decided to keep the song in your voice."
She cannot believe it! But how could it be? She replies on the phone, "But I made a mistake during recording. I have pronounced one word incorrectly. We will need to record again."
The composer replies, "Don't worry. The way Sridevi has danced, everyone will think that is the correct word."
Kavita Krishnamurthy became a household name after singing Hawa Hawai for Mr. India (1987), directed by Shekhar Kapur, music by Laxmikant Pyarelal, and lyrics by Javed Akhtar. The song is filmed on Sridevi, with dance choreography by Saroj Khan.
The song was to be originally sung by Asha Bhosle, however, Laxmikant Pyarelal decided to retain the dummy recording done by Kavita Krishnamurthy. In the song, at the 3:32 mark, Kavita ji sings "Jino jo tumne baat chhupayi" instead of "Jaanu jo tumne baat chhupayi", which she sings correctly the second time!
Mr. India became a massive commercial success and received widespread acclaim, with everybody appreciating the performances of Sridevi and Anil Kapoor. Everything about the film became popular, especially the line "Mogambo khush hua". Shekhar Kapur thought this line was repeating too often, and wanted to cut out a few instances during editing. However Javed Akhtar convinced him saying whenever something good happens people will say this line. He predicted that when Kapil Dev hits a sixer, people will say this line. And it indeed happened that Shekhar Kapur was watching a cricket match in Sharjah when Kapil Dev hit a sixer, and someone in the stands held aloft a banner that said "Mogambo Khush Hua"!
The Filmfare Awards were not held that year, and so, in 2013 Sridevi was awarded a Special Jury Award at the 58th Filmfare Awards ceremony for her performance in Mr. India.
Kavita Krishnamurthy performing this song live.
Singer: Kavita Krishnamurthy
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Music: Laxmikant Pyarelal
*ing: Sridevi
Choreography: Saroj Khan
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Film: Mr. India (1987)