Chhaayaageet #101 - "O yaar, bas yun samajh meri zindagi te picture bana rahe hain."
This is the filmmaker’s favorite poem from a book written by his favorite poet. He doesn’t know the poet personally. Just an unknown fan like thousand others. The poem is about unrequited, lost love. What if? And what then? The filmmaker can sense a romantic story calling out to him between the lines as he reads them.
The poet’s journey from Lahore to Ludhiana and then all the way to Bombay has been transformational. Two reasons have compelled him to leave Ludhiana. One, the desire to write film songs. The other is a matter of the heart. In Ludhiana his poetry caught the fancy of a young woman, herself a novelist and poet. Love blossoms, however, her father disapproves. The father ensures the young woman marries the groom of his choice. She does not find the strength to go with her heart.
What if? And what then?
The poet arrives in Bombay with nothing but his words and dreams. He has been glad to write a couplet here and there, and over time finds a niche writing songs that have strong poetic style, shayarana andaz.
It is thus that the filmmaker who has been a lifelong fan, and the poet cross paths. They are the perfect foil for one another, one would make the films and the other would write the lyrics. The rest of the ensemble cast could change but not them.
One of their films becomes a hit. The music is well received but it had been quite a strain for the filmmaker to manage the egos and emotions of the poet and the music composer. He can still remember the back-and-forth that used to take place.
“Can we change the words or lines to something else? The tune does not go well with what you have written.” The composer would always have such suggestions. It’s pretty typical in the industry.
The poet would hate that. “That’s my job and who are you to say what the words or lines should be. Please focus on your tunes.”
And that’s when the filmmaker would have to get involved and try to diffuse the situation. This would happen all the time.
Now the filmmaker has a new film on his mind. The one based on his favorite poem. Even the title of the poem is nice. A romantic film about unrequited love. What if? And what then? It is all about romance, poetry, snow-capped mountains, valleys, and plenty of nature, a departure from his typical films. The plan is to go to Kashmir for a month and shoot the entire film.
The filmmaker and the poet get together to talk about lyrics and music.
“Let’s use the same composer duo from our last hit. They are quite popular and provide pretty good music”, the filmmaker proposes.
“If you are going to choose them, then count me out. There is no way I can work with them again”, the poet threatens. The wounds from all the back and forth tussles between them are still fresh. This is a dilemma. The filmmaker offers a few other names. “No, I cannot work with any of them”, the poet is adamant.
The filmmaker is at his wit’s end. “These are all big-name brands. If not any of these, then who will compose the music?”
The poet takes it on himself to come up with an answer. He knows a composer from the past, who was doing well when the music was mostly traditional and classical in nature. But since the whole western music trend arrived on the scene, he had fallen out of favor and wasn’t that busy.
“I know someone who I can work with. He is really good and we have mutual respect for each other”, the poet proposes. The filmmaker will require some convincing.
“I heard from my sources about this recent song that he recorded. It is based on an old poem and it is totally out of the world”, the poet continues. The filmmaker is still not convinced. He would like to listen to it first and then decide for himself.
The filmmaker phones the lead actor’s wife. “I think you stay right opposite this composer we are considering. Can you go to his house and get a tape of this recent song?”
It is 2am. She is trying to process what this strange request is that has her not only woken up at an odd hour, but to then be asked to step out of the house and ring someone else’s doorbell. “You want me to get it right now? It is 2am. Can’t this wait till tomorrow?”, she speaks into the phone. The filmmaker is obsessed and can care less about time. “Yes, please. This is very important. We have to finalize the composer.”
She reaches the composer’s house and rings the bell. “Sorry for bothering you this late. Can I get your recording of this song? My husband and filmmaker are interested in listening to it.”
Now it is the composer’s turn to look at the watch. Why do people need to listen to a song at 2am? “I don't have it with me here. You can get this from the film production house tomorrow”, he informs the lead actor’s wife.
The next morning, they manage to get a copy of the song. “Let’s listen to what the fuss is all about.” The poet plays the tape. The filmmaker’s face changes from curiosity to complete awe. “Yes, I am convinced. Let’s go meet him”, he tells the poet.
The filmmaker and the poet reach the composer’s house. The composer’s wife opens the door. She is a popular singer herself. “He is not at home yet but should be back any minute”, she informs them. “No problem, we will wait for him”, they tell her.
As they are sitting outside the house waiting for the composer to come back, a car pulls up dropping the composer off. He notices them chatting away. It’s his friend, the poet, and there’s someone else with him.
“Yaar Veer, ae mera dost producer ek shayarana picture bana riya hai.” Brother, this is my friend producer who is planning to make a poetic film. The poet kicks it off in a strong Punjabi accent. Punjabi language is one of those things that bind them.
“Koi shayar di zindagi par ye picture bana riya hai?” Is it on the life of some poet? The composer is curious about the plot.
“O yaar, bas yun samajh meri zindagi te picture bana rahe hai. Assi dovan ne ae sochya ki iss picture da music je tu daven ta, bahut acchaa hoyega.” Dear friend, just assume it is a movie about my life. We both would like you to compose the music.
The composer cannot believe his ears. He is giddy. “Tussi doven mahan hastiyan ho. Meri badi khushnaseebi hai. Yakeenan mein music dawanga.” You both are such big celebrities. Working with you is the greatest gift for me. I will definitely compose the music.
The words and music are a magical match to each other. What if? And what then?
Khayyam composed the music for the film Kabhi Kabhie (1976), produced and directed by Yash Chopra, poetry and lyrics penned by Sahir Ludhianvi. The song Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein was taken from Sahir’s collection of poems, Talkhiyan which he had written back in Lahore during his youth days. Yash Chopra was a big fan of Sahir’s writings, especially the Kabhi Kabhie poem. Mukesh and Lata Mangeshkar provided playback to two different versions of the song. There is another version where the opening verses are recited by Amitabh Bachchan. In all these versions, Sahir made modifications and simplified the lyrics to mainstream Urdu.
Sahir grew up in the city of Ludhiana in Punjab and decided to adopt his city as his surname. His collection of poems, Talkhiyan was a big hit and made him famous overnight. This caught the eye of Amrita Pritam, a Punjabi poetess of that time who ended up falling in love with Sahir. Several of Amrita Pritam’s poems refer to Sahir by name. The song Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein was written by Sahir thinking of his beloved, Amrita Pritam. Sahir believed that Kabhi Kabhie, the film was loosely based on his life and this is what he told Khayyam to bring him over as a composer.
In Bombay, both Sahir and Yash Chopra worked for Yash Chopra's elder brother, B.R. Chopra in his production house. They developed a strong liking for each other given their interest in poetry. At one point Yash Chopra decided to split from his elder brother to start his own production company and took Sahir along with him.
Sahir was not an easy person to work with. He was extremely proud of his poetry and hated when composers asked him to modify the lyrics to match the tune. This came up during Yash Chopra’s film Daag where he wrote the lyrics and Shankar Jaikishan composed the music. Even though the film was a big hit and fetched the Filmfare Best Director Award for Yash Chopra, he could not convince Sahir to work with them again. Sahir also refused to work with other big composers such as SD Burman, RD Burman, and Kalyanji Anandji among many others.
Sahir had a liking for Khayyam. Part of it was due to Khayyam’s inclination towards composing music for pure poetry. The other factor was their common upbringing back in Punjab. They respected each other a lot. The song that Sahir had Yash Chopra listen and was picked up from Kamalistaan (Kamal Arohi’s studios) by Jaya Bachchan was Aye Dil-E-Nadaan from the film Razia Sultan. Yash Chopra was impressed by how Khayyam played with the poetry along with long pauses to emphasize the power of the words.
Khayyam did full justice to the songs from Kabhi Kabhie. The film dealt with two generations, one that was more mature and poetic in nature, and the other which was a younger generation and into much more rhythmic and fast music. Yash Chopra was superstitious and added an "e" to the second kabhi to bring good luck to the film based on the suggestion of an astrologer.
Sahir won the Filmfare Best Lyricist award for the song Kabhi Kabhie Mere Dil Mein, Mukesh won the Filmfare Best Male Playback singer award for the same song and Khayyam won the Filmfare Best Music Director award.
Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Mukesh, Amitabh Bachchan
Music: Khayyam
Lyrics: Sahir Ludhianvi
*ing: Rakhee, Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor
Director: Yash Chopra
Producer: Yash Chopra
Film: Kabhi Kabhie (1976)