Chhaayaageet #137 - “Ye mera genre nahin hai. Mein aise gaane nahin gaa sakti”
The news about a couple of scammers operating in Nagpur from this morning catches the filmmaker’s eye. It stays with him throughout the entire day. He cannot shake it off. This could be a good story for his next film. Storywriting has always been his passion. But a storyline about cops chasing thieves - isn’t that old school. So many films have already been made. Do we need another one? Well only if it is different.
He calls the director who worked with him in the last film. The filmmaker starts narrating the story. “Ye film ek chor police ki story hai.” This film is about cops and thieves. The director can’t get excited about it. He came in with a different expectation. The filmmaker reads his director’s mind and preempts the objection. He continues, “Par ye chor police ki film sab se hat kar hogi.” But this film about cops and thieves will be different from the rest.
The director hails from a small town in Uttar Pradesh. He realizes this film will need to have a different treatment. No big city influence. The cop and thieves will be from a small town in North India but their dreams will be big. So will be their scams. No violence and no angry young man drama.
Most of the cast is finalized. The music composers and lyricist have also been chosen. The mandate across the board is the same. “Ye film sabse hatkar honi chahiye.” This film must be different.
There is a situation in the film that calls for an item song. The thieves and the cop are in a dance bar getting drunk and they end up dancing with the courtesan. A veteran actress is signed to play the courtesan just for the item song.
The composers working through their assignment. How to do an item song that sounds different? How about a qawwali-style item song? But how do you have a bar dancer sing a qawwali song while she is shaking her voluptuous hips? Let the choreographer worry about all that. They compose the tune in half a day and decide to meet with the lyricist.
The lyricist is a connoisseur of Urdu and the king of personification. They explain to him the situation and the qawwali tune. He has been around for a while and knows what words work when.
“Tumne kabhi padha hai jo truck ke picche likha hota?”, the veteran lyricist asks the composers. Have you read what’s written behind the trucks? The composers return a blank expression.
“Mein kuch aisa hi likhoonga. Isko item song banane ke liye kuch angrezi alfaaz daal doonga. UP mein log aapas mein aise hi baatenin karte hain”, the lyricist clarifies. I will write something similar. To make it an item song, I will insert a few English words in the qawwali. This is how people in UP usually talk.
The composer has a lot of dummy words to go with the tune.
”Change all the dummy words but please don’t change the first two words”, the composer requests the lyricist. That’s an odd request. He adds further, “When I was having a shower in the morning I couldn’t stop singing the first two words. I could not get them out of my head. Please keep the first two words”.
The lyricist ponders this request. He replies in jest, “You’ve had your shower and you are all fresh, so I’ll use your first two words.”
Now the composers turn their attention to the choice of singer. Again, it must be something different. What would be more daringly different than someone with a husky, modern, Western voice singing a qawwali-style item number? The composers decide approach a Hindi pop singer who has just released a new album. They say she is the next Nazia Hassan.
The meeting is fixed. The composers introduce the tune to her along with the situation.
“Aapko ek qawwali gaani hai”, they explain the assignment. You have to sing a qawwali.
The singer is terrified to hear this. “Ye mera genre nahin hai. Mein aise gaane nahin gaa sakti”, she raises a red flag. This is not my genre. I cannot sing this song.
There is some truth to the singer’s rebuttal. She has grown up listening and singing Madonna and Barbara Streisand. The only reason she released an album was because films weren’t including enough Western tunes.
“Hum chahte hain ki aap apni style mein hi gaiye. Yehi iss gaane ki khasiyat hai. Sab kuch iss film mein hat kar hai”, the composers attempt to pacify her. We want you to sing in your original style. This is what makes the song interesting. Everything in this film is different. Finally the singer relents and records the song, a qawwali-style item number filmed on a bar dancer as she is gyrating her hips.
The big day is finally here, the day of the shoot. The actress chosen for the item song arrives at the studio and is ready for makeup. She spots the makeup artist.
“Chalo chalo jaldi karo. Shooting shuru hone wali hai.” Common on, let’s hurry up. The shooting is about to begin.
The makeup artist looks at her for a few seconds. Her beauty is mesmerizing.
“Madam, aaj iss shoot ke liye makeup rehne dete hain”, the makeup artist has a hat ke suggestion, in keeping with the spirit of the film. Madam, let’s skip the makeup for today’s shoot.
The actress is shocked. “Aapka dimaag to theek hai? Bina makeup ke maine kabhi koi shot nahin diya hai.” Have you gone nuts? I don’t do any shoots without makeup. The makeup artist knows his trade better than anyone else.
“Aapka role ek chhote se shehar ke ek dance bar mein dancer ka hai. Aapka look uske saath match hona chahiye”, the makeup artist prevails with an explanation. Your role is of a dancer at a small-town dance bar. Your looks need to match with that. The actress shoots the song without makeup.
Alisha Chinai sang the quasi qawwali item song Kajra re, filmed on Aishwarya Rai performing the dance number, for the film Bunty Aur Babli. The film was produced by Aditya Chopra, directed by Shaad Ali, with music composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and lyrics by the inimitable Gulzar Saab. The male playback for Abhishek Bachchan and Amitabh Bachchan was provided by Shankar Mahadevan, and Javed Ali.
Aditya Chopra’s vision that he drove home to everyone was to keep this filmvery different in all respects from the regular run of the mill cops and thieves films.
Shaad Ali, the director felt this film would be an homage to the chor police films from the 70s and 80s. He wanted to tell a small-town story as he was himself from a small town. He decided that the characters of Bunty and Babli would be based in Fursatganj in UP. He had recently directed the film Saathiya which was also produced by Aditya Chopra. That was successful at the box office but given it was a remake of a Tamil movie, there was not much scope to innovate. Bunty Aur Babli provided him with a clean slate where he could really show his full talent.
Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were also very creative to try a qawwali style for this item number and approached Gulzar to write the lyrics. After listening to them about the situation and their composition, Gulzar told them that the song would be inspired primarily by the lines that one sees written on trucks speeding up and down the highways in north India. There are lines such as aanken bhi kamal karti hain, personal se sawaal karti hain. It was Shankar Mahadevan who came up with the words Kajra re.
In their search for the right singer, the composers were definitely looking for something completely “hatke” outside the box. They had heard about Alisha Chinai from her initial album Made in India and then a series of Western genre songs in Hindi films. None of them had ever worked with her but if there was one person who represented the Hindi pop music at that time, it was Alisha. They approached her and after much hesitancy, she agreed to sing. Her husky voice coupled with Aishwarya’s sexy moves were definitely a huge crowd-pleaser. She got paid 15,000 rupees for the song.
During the shoot, the makeup artist, Mickey Contractor wanted to experiment with something different. He made the call that Aishwarya Rai should skip makeup completely. She tried to convince him at least to apply the base coat but he stayed firm on his decision.
At the 51st Filmfare Awards, Bunty Aur Babli received 8 nominations, including Best Film, Best Actor (Abhishek Bachchan), Best Actress (Rani Mukerji) and Best Supporting Actor (Amitabh Bachchan) and won 3 awards – Best Music Director (Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy), Best Lyricist (Gulzar) and Best Female Playback Singer (Alisha Chinai), the latter two for the song Kajra Re.
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Lyrics: Gulzar
Singer: Alisha Chinai, Shankar Mahadevan, Javed Ali
Producer: Aditya Chopra
Director: Shaad Ali
Makeup Artist: Mickey Contractor
*ing: Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan
Film: Bunty Aur Babli (2005)