Chhaayaageet #204 - "Ye tumhari pehli film hai. Jao jaakar maafi maango unse."
“Tum acting wacting chhodo. Direction par dhyan do. Itni acchi storytelling karte ho. Bahut acche director ban sakte ho.” You should leave acting and focus on direction. You are a great storyteller and will become a great director.
She has known him quite closely since they started dating each other. There is an unusual kind of passion in him to do great things but he needs guidance. Having recently moved back from England leaving a cushy accounting job, he is now struggling with thousands of others in the Hindi film industry. He grudgingly responds, “Theek hai. Tum kehti ho to koshish karta hoon. Ek kahani hai mere paas. Kissi producer se mulakat karva do.” That's fine. If you think then I will try. I have one story. Can you arrange an appointment with a producer?
She is well-known in the art film cinema and has connections. She gets a producer and his financier to agree to meet with the filmmaker.
He reaches their office at the agreed time. They want to get to business right away. The filmmaker loves to tell a good story. He starts in his usual style, building the right context and bringing the characters into it individually. A few minutes into it, he notices the producer is yawning. Nothing is more contagious. The financier starts yawning too. The filmmaker ignores and continues with his monologue.
The producer interrupts, “Ye story mein koi dum nahin hai. Kuch aur hai to sunao.” This story does not pack a punch. Let's hear something else. In the film industry world, this is a nice way of saying “We are done, goodbye.”
The filmmaker thinks hard. It was so hard to get this appointment. Time to pivot and narrate something different. He thinks of a novel he has read recently. It made him cry once he was done reading. He had a wild thought of making a movie adapted from that story someday. Well, today is that day.
The filmmaker changes gears and starts narrating a completely different story. There is a palpable change in the producer’s engagement. The story is just too powerful. It has an emotional turmoil and complexities of love, betrayal, and acceptance. The producer can't hold himself as the filmmaker wraps the narration. “Ye story bahut acchi hai. Issi par film banayenge.” This story is very nice. We'll make a film on this story.
The filmmaker gets cracking on the next steps. Music has to be the cornerstone to highlight the varying degrees of emotions across everyone including the child artists. He signs up with a leading composer and lyricist. A meeting is set up with them.
The plan is for the filmmaker to describe every song situation in detail to both, the composer and the lyricist. There is an amazing chemistry between the composer and lyricist. As the filmmaker describes the situation, the lyricist starts playing with different words forming verses and the composer starts coming up with tunes for those verses. As the filmmaker finishes describing the situation, the tunes and lyrics are ready to go. They go through several of these. The filmmaker is astonished by the speed at which they work.
Now they are on to the children's song. The song's charm lies in its ability to capture the essence of childhood imagination and its playfulness. As usual, the lyricist throws out a few words which don’t make much sense. Very childish. Almost like a nursery rhyme. The composer throws out a tune quickly for that. The filmmaker is in disbelief at what he is hearing. “Ye koi bol hai? Aisa gaana mujhe nahin chhaiye. Kuch aur tayyar kijiye.” Are these actual words? I don't want such a song. Please prepare another set of lyrics. He leaves them and heads back home.
It is late evening. The filmmaker and his actor girlfriend are having a quiet evening by themselves. They tell each other how their day has gone.
The filmmaker shares, “Takriban saare gaanon ki composition ho gayi hai. Sirf ek bacchon wala gaana baaki hai.” We have pretty much finished the composition of all the songs. There is only one song with the kids left.
The girlfriend shares back, “Accha. Bacchon wala gaan to asaan hona chhaiye. Tumhare geetkar to bahut maane hue kavi hai.” Ok. The song with the kids should be easy. Your lyricist is a well-known poet.
The filmmaker continues, “Unhon ne kuch bol likhe the. Par mujhe pasand nahi aaye. Bilkul bachkaane se bol thhey. Meine saaf mana kar diya.” Yes, he wrote a few lines. But I didn't like it. They were very childish. I refused to accept it.
The girlfriend is surprised and a bit angry on hearing this. “Tumne unhe mana kar diya!!! Tumhara dimaag to kharaab nahin hai. Tumhari aukaat hi kya hai. Ye tumhari pehli film hai. Jao jaakar maafi maango unse.” You refused it? Are you in your right mind? Who are you to refuse it? This is your first film. Go and apologize to him.
The filmmaker realizes his mistake and heads quickly back to the composer’s place where he finds the lyricist still there. He turns towards the lyricist in an apologetic manner, “Mein bahut sharminda hoon aur aapka pehla likha hua gaana hi film mein rakhoonga.” I feel embarrassed and would like to keep the first version of your lyrics in the film.
Gulzar wrote the lyrics Lakdi ki kathi for the film Masoom (1983) directed by Shekhar Kapur. The music is composed by RD Burman and the playback is provided by Vanita Mishra, Gauri Bapat, and Gurpreet Kaur. The song is filmed on Jugal Hansraj, Urmila Matondkar, and Aradhana Srivastav.
Masoom is Shekhar Kapur’s debut film. He is Dev Anand’s nephew from his mom’s side. He was working in London as an accountant for several years but couldn’t stay away from the film industry for long. Initially, he arrived in Mumbai to become an actor. This is when he became friends with Shabana Azmi and they both dated each other for a while. Shabana saw his capabilities up close and advised him to be a director based on his storytelling skills.
Shekhar Kapur was very much impressed with the book "Man, Woman and Child" by Erich Segal and had mentally decided to make a movie based on it. During one of his script narration sessions with a producer, his original story did not pan out and he decided to walk them through a loose outline of the book. The producer loved it and that's how Masoom came into being.
Shekhar Kapur hated working with big stars and decided to have a low-key cast in Masoom. He went to the extent that even the singers were all no-name singers such as Anup Ghoshal and Arti Mukherjee. This created a huge issue with the recording company HMV who insisted that they have a star singer such as Lata Mangeshkar to drive music sales. To meet this request, the Masoom team decided to record one of the existing songs Tujhse naraaz nahin zindagi in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice. You can find more details about this in Chhaayaageet #104 at: https://chhaayaageet.com/2023/01/26/chhaayaageet-104/.
For one of the songs that involved all the children cast, Kapur sat with Gulzar and Pancham da to finalize the lyrics and tune. Gulzar, to his credit, threw out the mukhda very quickly after listening to the request. At first Shekhar Kapur was disappointed and thought that the lyrics were too childish and would not go well in the song. Shabana, on hearing that, pushed Shekhar to accept what Gulzar had created due to his reputation and ability to create legendary songs. Shekhar Kapur decided to bend his ego and accepted Gulzar’s initial version.
The music of Masoom is widely regarded as exceptional and timeless. All soundtracks are a perfect blend of melody, emotion, and storytelling. Tujhse naraz nahin zindagi won Gulzar the Filmfare Award for Best Lyricist. Lakdi ki kaathi remains a beloved children's song and is still popular to this day. Do naina aur ek kahani, a soothing lullaby with heart-wrenching lyrics, won Aarti Mukherji the Filmfare award for Best Female Playback Singer. RD Burman won the Filmfare Award for Best Music for Masoom.
Lyrics: Gulzar
Music: RD Burman
Singer: Vanita Mishra, Gauri Bapat, and Gurpreet Kaur
*ing: Jugal Hansraj, Urmila Matondkar, and Aradhana Srivastav
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Film: Masoom (1983)