Chhaayaageet #196 - "Jaldi se theek ho jaiye. Aap ke liye gaane taiyar hain."
You stand out like a sore thumb when you are not serious about music. Your sister plays the sitar, and your brother plays the mandolin. Your father is a poet and lyricist who has written songs for composers like Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Usha Khanna. It's not that you have anything against music. It's just that you are more likely to pick up a cricket bat than a musical instrument. And you are good with that bat, good enough to be in the Uttar Pradesh (UP) Under-16 cricket team.
But living around tunes and taans, it would be odd if music didn't find its way into your being. You find that you can actually compose your father's poems, good enough to make your father proudly share this trivia with a film director and the crew over drinks at a Muhurat party. You are there too. Your father's pride-filled comment makes you look down at your feet, wishing your father hadn't bragged about you. Now everyone wants you to sing it. You have no choice but to oblige. Suddenly someone tells the music director, Usha Khanna, "Did you know this young boy composed the mukhda of this poem?" She is mighty impressed and asks you, "Can I use it in the film?" You nod sheepishly, not realizing how big that is.
But the cricket bat still has a magnetic hold on you. Even though the UP U-16 team makes it to the final, you are not in the starting eleven because you are from Merut. That's very frustrating. You make a weird choice. You decide to repeat Class 12 so you can play for UP. You become the Vice Captain of the UP team. But your closest friend on the team complains that it is illegal for you to play since you are repeating a year. Moreover he even gets the school to pass an order for the UP Cricket Association that you should be thrown out of the team since you are repeating the year, and that happens just before the start of a match.
A friend tells you to come to Delhi and try for the Hindu College team. You get admission in the college and are selected in the team. Two days before the match, while practicing in the nets, you break a thumb. Cricket as a possible career is over even before it started.
During this frustrating time, your father passes away. Somewhere in this time you have fallen in love with a beautiful girl who is the star of the college. But you have no money, in poor financial condition, and have no way to become rich and famous. And that's when you realize that the only way out of this is to become a music composer. Thanks to Usha Khanna, you realize this is possible. You start expanding your circle and your knowledge about music. You drink through a firehose and absorb everything you can.
All that time spent in musical circles lands you a job in Delhi as a recording manager in a recording company called CBS. Life is starting to settle down. You have a girlfriend and a job, and you feel like you have everything. And then something unexpected happens.
One day in the CBS office you learn that Gulzar Saab is going to come to the office today for a recording later in the evening. He is making a documentary on Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. You decide to wait in the office. After almost everyone has left, you occupy the chair at the reception desk, hoping to be the first person in the office to speak with Gulzar Saab. The phone rings. It's the eminent poet on the other side. He is standing at some sweet shop and not sure where to come. You run down to the street, find him and escort him to the CBS office. In the short time you tell him you want to be a composer and that you would like him to listen to your compositions. He tells you what all people in his shoes tell anyone with a dream, to come and meet him in Bombay.
Your brother in Bombay has a heart attack. You ask for a transfer and come to Bombay to work in the CBS office as a recording manager. Trying to meet Gulzar Saab is harder than one could imagine. One day a friend from Doordarshan asks you to compose the title track of a TV serial he is directing. You agree on one condition, only if Gulzar Saab writes the lyrics.
You have made friends with Suresh Wadkar. He understands your talent. He agrees to put in a word with Gulzar Saab, who agrees to meet and, lo and behold, also agrees to write the lyrics. That starts an association. Gulzar Saab likes you, your thinking, your sensibility about music and your understanding of poetry.
One Sunday morning he calls you. A song has to be written for a TV serial and it is to be recorded on Monday. He is writing it. Could you compose it? It is a children's serial. You jump at it. It becomes a rage. Slowly you start getting some work on the side. You are still at CBS but no one takes you seriously as a musician when your job involves making invoices and collecting money.
One day at the CBS office you are doing some recording work for a film starring Jaya Bachchan. She is at the studio. Some pictures are taken. Those pictures reach the head of CBS. He wonders why are you in the pictures, and who are you in the first place standing next to Jaya ji. He is surprised to learn that you have become a composer while working in Sales in his company. He calls you. He wants to make a film on the situation in Punjab and he would like Gulzar Saab to write and direct it. He asks if you would make an introduction to Gulzar Saab. That's called life coming full circle, to some extent.
You arrange the meeting. Gulzar Saab is not really keen to do anything after Lekin. But he agrees. What a ride this has been! You will be composing music for a major film being written and directed by none other than Gulzar Saab. You both start working on the songs. You want Suresh Wadkar to sing. But you find out he has been hospitalized for heart murmurs. Gulzar Saab and you visit him in the hospital.
"Jaldi se theek ho jaiye. Aapke liye gaane taiyar hain. Aap ki usual style se thode hatkar hain," you say to Suresh Wadkar. Get well soon. Songs are ready for you. They are a little different from your usual style.
For this one song, you need four singers. Suresh Wadkar ji is one. There's this new kid who has been looking for a break. You sign him up for his debut song. Gulzar Saab recommends two other names. One is a singer who has sung some very good ghazals but failed to make it into Hindi cinema. He has since moved back to Ambala. You find him and tell him, "Gulzaar Saab ne aap ko kahan kahan nahin talasha." Where hasn't Gulzar Saab looked for you.
The film is released to critical acclaim and commercial success. Your music is widely appreciated for its fresh and distinctive style. You are nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director, you don't win. But you win the RD Burman Award which recognizes new and upcoming talent in the Hindi film industry. You have arrived! You persevered against rejection at every step and refused to give up. Salute!
Vishal Bhardwaj, one of Hindi cinema's most talented music composers and filmmakers, composed the music for Maachis (1996) very early in his caeer. Maachis is a period political thriller film written and directed by Gulzar, and produced by RV Pandit, the head of CBS recording company. The song Chhod aaye hum woh galiyan is sung by Suresh Wadkar, KK (debut song), Hariharan, and Vinod Sehgal. It is filmed on Chandrachur Singh, Raj Zutshi, Jimmy Shergill (debut film), and Ravi Gossain. Bhardwaj's soundtrack for Maachis became the anthem for politically restive college youth at the time.
Bhardwaj turned director with Makdee (2002) and is widely appreciated for his Shakespeare trilogy - Maqbool (Macbeth), Omkara (Othello), Haider (Hamlet) - among other films. His work as a music composer and film maker has been highly decorated with multiple awards.
The title song of the children's TV serial for which Bhardwaj set the tune to Gulzar's lyrics is Jungle jungle baat chali hai from Jungle Book, which became a huge hit.
The mukhda of his father's poem that Bhardwaj composed the tune for and which Usha Khanna liked was included in the song Khuda dosti ko nazar na lage in the film Yaar Kasam (1985), starring Zeenat Aman and Raj Babbar. The song was sung by Suresh Wadkar and Manhar. Usha Khanna took the mukhda composed by Bhardwaj and developed the rest of the song around it.
Watch KK singing Chhod aaye hum in the studio with Gulzar Saab watching and appreciating him.
Lyrics: Gulzar
Music: Vishal Bhardwaj
Singers: Suresh Wadkar, Hariharan, KK, Vinod Sehgal
*ing: Chandrachur Singh, Raj Zutshi, Jimmy Shergill, Ravi Gossain
Director: Gulzar
Producer: RV Pandit
Film: Maachis (1996)