Chhaayaageet #143 - “Lagta hai maine iss gaane pe malai maar di.”

This band thing has been working really well for him lately. He plays the three-chord guitar and gets to hang around with other band members of the same age group. His parents have been supportive of his decision to pursue music as his career. And these are Indian parents. What else could he ask for?

One of his old buddies calls him. He had worked as an Assistant Director for some of the bigger directors such as Subhash Ghai and Mukul Anand. Lately, he wasn’t involved in films and was spending time doing commercials. “Hey, how are you doing? There is an interesting opportunity that has come by. I think I am going to make my directorial debut. I want to talk to you. Can we meet?”

They both decide to meet. The filmmaker is eager to break the ice. "Listen, I will need a music composer for my film. Do you have any tunes handy?” Tunes handy? Who does that? Lately, the composer has been trying to impress his girlfriend with his own songs. There is something he recently came up with. “Let me play something this for you.” He plays the guitar and hums along with it for the filmmaker. His voice is what a rockstar should be. The right amount of huskiness. It doesn’t take a lot to impress the rookie filmmaker. “This is it. I need this tune and a few others for my film.” The filmmaker is ecstatic that he has nailed down one position on his team. Who cares if the composer is also making his debut.

The newly hired composer is really excited about this opportunity as he's walking back to his house. It suddenly dawns on him that he has never done this work before. There is a conflict of panic and exhilaration. Eventually, he convinces himself to move forward.

He is ready to compose one of the songs. There is a specific situation. It's a bunch of young people full of life and romance. He had recently listened to a Nepali song sung by a private band. He really loved the opening of that. Didn’t really understand the words but it was so pleasing to the ear. He decides to go ahead and use that in the opening of this song as well.

He knows a budding solo artist, a singer who was been trying to break into playback. Amazing tonal quality and ability to sing both Hindi and Western songs with the same ease.

He invites him to a rehearsal. “Hey, remember I told you about this song where I'm starting with some Nepali lyrics. Let me know what you think.” The singer is looking for a break in films. “Sure I would love to sing it. Can you write it down in Hindi or English so I can sing it phonetically?” The composer looks up in the air, trying to recollect the lyrics of the song, and scribbles something on a piece of paper. He hands it over to the singer. “Here it is. Can you add this to the front of all the other Hindi lyrics that the lyricist has already written?”

It is the recording day. They finish the recording and decide to take a break. They are sipping nice piping hot coffee, discussing the other sides of their lives. The composer is still active in his band and the singer is chasing other things outside of films. Great time to catch up, especially since there is satisfaction in completing their first song. The first song of their first film.

The Assistant Director of the film has been there observing all this while the recording was going on. Something doesn't sound right. The words sound so close to what they should be but still, there is something different. She comes by the couch where the singer and composer are chilling out.

“Sir, iss mein kuch to gadbad hai.” Sir, there seems to be a problem. The singer and composer look at each other with the expression - excuse me you are an assistant director so please mind your own business. This is about music. She continues, “Sir, mein Nepal se hoon. Aur ye jo aapne Malai word use kiya gaane mein, woh Malai nahin, Nalai hai.” Sir, I am from Nepal. You just use the word Malai in the song. It's not Malai it’s Nalai. The singer and composer again exchange looks. The thought of going back into the studio, and recording for another few hours just seems too gargantuan. The singer realizes that he may have misread the lyrics that were scribbled. “Lagta hai maine iss gaane pe malai maar di.” Looks like I have smeared Malai all over this song. The composer starts laughing. “Mera khayaal hai isko aise hi rehne dete hain.” I am thinking let’s keep it this way.

Vishal Dadlani composed the music for the song Musu Musu Haasi Deu in the film Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi. The playback for the song was provided by Shaan and the lyrics were written by Raj Kaushal and Vishal Dadlani. This was the debut film not just for Vishal and Shaan but also for the director, Raj Kaushal, and countless other folks including the leading cast of the film. The entire film sounded like a big experiment with a whole bunch of newbies.

Vishal Dadlani was a member of the Pentagram band where he played the 3-chord guitar and also provided vocals. He was very happy in the rock music world until this opportunity came. He met with his old friend Raj Kaushal who invited him to be a composer for his directorial debut film. During that meeting, Vishal played for him one of the songs that he had written for his longtime girlfriend. Raj loved that and immediately decided to have him as a composer in the film. That song was Woh Pehli Baar.

For the other song, he decided to use the mukhda with Nepali lyrics from a Nepali private album produced by a band called Himalayan. He knew Shaan from his days in the rock band and decided to use his voice for the song. In the exchange of lyrics, there was some confusion, and Shaan ended up saying the word Malai instead of Nalai. This was pointed out by the assistant director but Vishal decided to stick with the the recorded song.

The original Musu Musu Haasi song by the Himalayan band

There is an incident with Udit Narayan and Shaan after the film was released. Udit being a Nepali pointed out the obvious thing to him. “Ye aapne bahut accha gaaya par woh malai nahi nalai hai.” You sang this song really well but it's not malai, it’s nalai.

The film starred debutants Rinke Khanna, Dino Morea, and Sanjay Suri. The songs of the film were very popular although the film itself was a major flop. Also, there were other songs that were composed by a different composer. That was Shekhar Ravjiani and even he was a debutant. Vishal and Shekhar knew each other from the past but this movie is what triggered their union as a duo composer team. We all know how that went and the rest is history.

Music: Vishal Dadlani
Singer: Shaan
*ing: Rinke Khanna, Dino Morea, and Sanjay Suri
Lyrics: Raj Kaushal and Vishal Dadlani
Directed by: Raj Kaushal
Film: Pyaar Mein Kabhi Kabhi (1999)