Chhaayaageet #127 - “Yaar, bar mein baithe hain to wahan koi gaana bhi to chal raha hoga.”

BGM. The industry lingo for Background Music.

The composer is working on BGM for the film. It’s a cops and robbers gangland type of film. There are two heroes and two heroines but there’s not much in the script by way of romantic situations. It’s a tight script. The film is all done. It is complete in all respects, except for BGM.

The composer lights up a cigarette as he plays, rewinds, and plays the scene for the umpteenth time. The hero and heroine are in a bar. So there’s room for some slow jazz mixed with the blues.

It is the first time the hero and heroine meet each other. So there’s gotta be some sparks. The scene is electric.

The composer takes a long drag, just like the heroine in the scene. He rewinds the film again.

The heroine has seen the hero sitting alone at the bar. She has been waiting to make a move, so when he takes a cigar and checks his pocket for a lighter, she moves in and lights it for him.

With this scene, all stereotypes of the typical Hindi film heroine are shattered.

The composer plays around with some tunes, some light music to heighten the anticipation. It’s late in the night, but this scene is too captivating.

He looks at her. He is not expecting any company. He is there on assignment, to be the willful target of an assassination. It’s complicated. She takes a long drag and blows smoke in his direction, directly on his face. She is doing all the talking. Some small talk about why people drink. He isn’t verbose. He prefers to speak in one liners, or silence, whichever says the most.

The composer rewinds the scene and plays it from the top again. This time he is humming a tune.

“Yahan ek gaane hona chahiye”, he says to his core group of musicians. “Yaar, bar mein baithe hain to wahan koi gaana bhi to chal raha hoga”. A song is needed here. They are sitting in a bar, so some song has to be playing there.

The composer scribbles a few lines himself. He isn’t a lyricist or a poet by any stretch of imagination. But right now, right here, he knows exactly what BGM is needed. And the BGM needs to include a song, so he is going to just write a few lines himself.

RD Burman wrote the lines of the song I’m falling in love with a stranger for Deewar (1975), directed by Yash Chopra. The song is sung by Ursula Vaz. This scene with Amitabh Bachchan and Parveen Babi in the bar is their first meeting, while Vijay is waiting for the clock to strike 10:30, when he needs to walk out of the bar alone and unarmed.

RD’s background music heightens the anticipation in the bar scene, punctuating important moments like the watch showing 10:30. As Vijay walks out of the bar towards his car, the BGM picks up pace.

RD’s core teams of musicians comprising of Basu Chakraborty, Manohari Singh, and Maruti Rao Keer have done a masterful music arrangement for this song and the BGM, with the trumpet, saxophone, Thumba all enhancing the effect of the scene. Yash Chopra’s camera angles zooming in and out are excellent.

Deewar is considered a ground breaking film in Hindi cinema, cementing Amitabh Bachchan’s image as the ‘angry young man’. The film won a plethora of FilmFare awards - Best Film (Gulshan Rai), Best Director (Yash Chopra, won over Ramesh Sippy for Sholay and Gulzar for Aandhi), Best Supporting Actor (Shashi Kapoor, won over Amjad Khan for Sholay), Best Story (Salim-Javed), Best Screenplay (Salim-Javed), Best Dialogue (Salim-Javed), Best Sound (MA Sheikh). Amitabh Bachchan was nominated for Best Actor but lost to Sanjeev Kumar for Aandhi. Nirupa Roy was nominated for Best Supporting Actress but lost to Nadira for Julie.

Watch the scene where this song plays in the film, and feel free to get carried away to watch the rest of the film!

Music: RD Burman
Lyrics: RD Burman
Singer: Ursula Vaz
*ing: Amitabh Bachchan, Parveen Babi
Director: Yash Chopra
Film: Deewar (1975)