Chhaayaageet #120 - “Kuch socha hai gaane ke liye? Shoot prepone hone wali hai.”
The music sitting is almost wrapping up. The filmmaker, lyricist, music composers and the team have been together for a few hours, discussing the situation in the film for the song, the preceding and subsequent parts of the script, and such details.
The filmmaker gets up to leave. He instructs the composers, “Mein location pe jaa raha hoon. Chhe saat din ke baad milte hain, tab tak aap tune sochiye.” I am going to check the location. Let’s meet after six or seven days. Until then you think about the tune.
The next day the filmmaker leaves to go out of town. The composers welcome the respite. They have been working nonstop on this film. Most of the songs had been composed driving around in the filmmaker’s red van. They had even come up with the music arrangement of the songs in the van, recording everything on a tape recorder.
Now with the filmmaker out of town, they can breathe and take it easy for a few days. The tune will find its way to them. But these next few days are pure bliss, no pressure.
On day 3, the phone in the music room rings. The elder brother of the composer duo picks up. It’s the producer, the filmmaker’s father. A veteran filmmaker himself, he knows a thing or two about music and songs. In his day, he had made one hit film after another with chart busting numbers.
“Kya haal chaal hai?”, the producer enquirers. How are things going?
“Bas uncle, theek thaak”, the elder brother responds. All good, uncle.
“Kuch socha hai gaane ke liye? Shoot prepone hone wali hai”, producer uncle informs. Have you thought of a tune for the song? The shoot is going to be preponed.
The elder brother is the flag bearer of truth. He never lies. But on that day, finding himself under the gun, compelled to give an answer, unknowingly a white lie escapes his lips.
“Haan uncle, do teen tarah se soche hain hum log. And you will be…mind blowing tunes hain”, he speaks into the phone. Yes uncle, we have thought from two three angles. And you will be…these are mind blowing tunes.
Producer uncle is excited to hear this over the phone. What he says next turns the elder brother white.
“Mein ek kaam karta hoon. Abhi office ke liye nikal raha hoon. Tumhari music room se hokar jaata hoon aur tune sunte huey jaata hoon”, producer uncle drops a bombshell. I’ll do one thing. I am leaving for the office right now. I’ll stop by your music room on the way and listen to the tunes.
Ordinarily in Bombay traffic this would still give the composers enough time to cook up something. But there’s one problem. Producer uncle’s house is only a mere 200 meter distance from the music room.
Elder brother keeps the phone down, wondering what a mess he has gotten himself into first thing in the morning. He is speechless, rooted to the spot like a statue, white as a sheet.
He calls his younger brother frantically and explains the situation. No time for discussion. They pull the harmonium around and turn the tape recorder on to record whatever comes out of it. With one look skywards with closed eyes, a fervent prayer to the first deity that comes to mind, his fingers start moving on the harmonium.
They record something. No sooner than they press the stop button on the tape recorder, the door bell rings. Enter producer uncle.
“Haan bhai batao kya socha hai”, he speaks as he enters the door. Yes guys, tell me what have you thought.
The brothers rewind the tape recorder and play the tune they have just recorded. If uncle asks to hear the other tunes he had lied about, it will be a problem. They only have one.
Uncle listens to the tune.
“Extraordinary. Yehi tune rakhenge. Iske antare pe kaam karo”. Phew. Extraordinary. We will keep this tune. Work on the stanzas.
Saying this uncle leaves. The brothers look at each other, thanking their stars to have avoided a calamity.
The duo of brothers Anand-Milind composed the hit numbers of the golden jubilee hit romantic musical film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), directed by Mansoor Khan, lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri. The film was produced by Mansoor Khan’s father, Nasir Hussain. Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla starred as the lead pair, with Udit Narayan and Alka Yagnik voicing playback respectively.
This was the first time that RD Burman did not give music to a Nasir Hussain film, an association that had started in 1966 with Teesri Manzil.
Apparently, during the filming of the song, Mansoor Khan wanted Juhi Chawla to kiss Aamir Khan on the lips. Juhi told choreographer Suresh Bhatt that she did not want to. She had already done two kissing shots and did not want to do a third. They had a hard time convincing her. Mansoor Khan came up to her and said, “It’s not up to you to decide what is right and wrong. Have faith in us. We will not ask you to do anything wrong.”
The film had only 5 songs, all of which became super hit numbers. This was a breakthrough film for everybody associated with the film. It was also Alka Yagnik’s first complete album. The film reinvented the romantic musical genre in Hindi films towards the end of the 1980s and into the 1990s, and became a major commercial success at the box office.
The film had one of the most innovative ad campaigns. One of the hoardings had no photos, but just one line - “Who is Aamir Khan?…Ask the girl next door.” The film also sparked a fad of long Hindi film names being abbreviated, a trend that was continued by HAHK (Hum Aapke Hain Kaun), DDLJ (Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge).
The soundtrack of QSQT was the best selling soundtrack of 1988, outselling that of Tezaab that year, selling over 1 crore cassettes. It was also the first major hit album released by T-Series. Anand-Milind won the Filmfare award for Best Music Director. The film also won many other awards: Best Film, Best Director (Mansoor Khan), Best Male Debut (Aamir Khan), Best Female Debut (Juhi Chawla), Best Male Playback Singer (Udit Narayan), Best Screenplay (Nasir Hussain), Best Cinematography (Kiran Deohans).
Music: Anand-Milind
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri
Singers: Udit Narayan, Alka Yagnik
*ing: Aamir Khan, Juhi Chawla
Director: Mansoor Khan
Producer: Nasir Hussain
Film: Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988)