Chhaayaageet #275 - “Hum ek purana superhit gaana istemal karenge.”
We will use an old superhit song.
It is dark inside the cinema hall, but still enough light to follow the body language. The filmmaker sits near the back row, his eyes moving anxiously between the silver screen and the crowd of film distributors.
On the screen, a party scene begins. This is towards the end of the film. So far, the response has been quite great from the audience. In this scene, a young girl steps up to sing for her guests at a party. The music starts, and the playback singer’s voice starts to resonate. Not a typical voice.
A few distributors ahead of the filmmaker start whispering. The whispering turns into giggles, and soon, laughter spreads across the hall. One distributor leans over to another and shouts, “Yeh kya chal raha hai? Party main bhajan kyun gaa rahi hai?” What is going on here? Why is she singing a bhajan at a party?
The filmmaker’s face turns red with embarrassment. He stands up immediately, signals to his composer and lyricist who are sitting nearby, and walks quickly out into the quiet lobby. The filmmaker tries to go back to the memory lane to see what happened here.
The girl is at the party and waiting for her beloved to show up. The song choice was one of Meera’s bhajans. Yes, this is exactly how he had described the situation to the composer and lyricist.
As soon as the composer and lyricist catch up to him, he turns around and gestures toward the closed cinema doors. “Bahut gadbad ho gayi. Yeh nahin chalega. Log hans rahe hain.” This is really messy. This won’t work. People are laughing.
Composer: “Lekin is awaaz main kitni sacchai hai. Situation ke liye ekdum sahi hai.” But there is so much sincerity in this voice. It is really apt for this situation.
Filmmaker: “Humari film bilkul dry lag rahi hai. Distributors ko lagta hai ki isme koi bada gaana ya koi bada singer nahi hai.” Our film feels completely dry. The distributors feel that there is no big song or singer to pull the film.
Lyricist: “Ab hum kya kar sakte hain? Film toh kuch din main release ho rahi hai.” What can we do now? The film is releasing in a few days.
Filmmaker: “Mujhe is party wale scene main ek aisi awaaz chahiye jo sabko pasand aaye.” I want a voice in this party scene that everyone likes.
Composer: “Lekin naya gaana likhne aur record karne main toh bahut time lagega. Studio book karna padega. Dates arrange karni padegi. Dobara shoot karna padega.” But writing and recording a new song will take a lot of time. We will have to book the studio. Book new dates. Shoot the scene again.
The filmmaker stands in silence for a moment. His brain is working overtime. Several what-ifs are going on inside him. He suddenly brings out a slight smile. He remembers an iconic, older superhit song sung from a classic film that his own mentor directed.
“Kyun na hum ek kaam kare. Naya gaana nahi banate hain.” Let’s do this. We will not make a new song. The filmmaker says. “Hum ek purana superhit gaana istemal karenge.” We will use an old superhit song.
The composer and lyricist are completely confused. “Kya yeh mumkin hai?” Is that even possible?
The filmmaker smiles back and shakes his head. “Haan, kyun nahin. Main kuch karta hoon.” Yes, of course. I will do something.
The next day, he calls the shoot unit back to the studio.
“Kaam ho gaya. Chalo shooting shuru karte hain ek alag gaane ke saath.” It is done. Let’s shoot with a different song. The party scene begins, and the young girl now lip-syncs to a completely different song.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee was able to reach out to Bimal Roy to get the rights for the song Aaja Re Pardesi and use it in his film, Guddi. The film was produced/directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, the story and lyrics were written by Gulzar, and the music was composed by Vasant Desai. The playback for the original song was provided by Lata Mangeshkar. Jaya Bhaduri played the role of a young girl in this song. This song was originally part of the film Madhumati, whose music was composed by Salil Chowdhury and lyrics were written by Shailendra.
Growing up, Gulzar noticed that his sister was infatuated with the legendary actor Dilip Kumar. Like many young girls of that era, she lived in a world where her favorite star was a flawless superman who could do no wrong. She would carefully cut out his photographs from film magazines and paste them into her personal notebooks. Gulzar was fascinated by this and shared this observation with his close friend, Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Hrishi-da instantly recognized the potential around it and decided to build a full-length script and film around it.
When Guddi was initially completed, it only had three songs. They were all composed by Vasant Desai, written by Gulzar, and sung by the legendary classical vocalist Vani Jairam. One of the songs was picturized towards the end, where Jaya Bhaduri as the young girl was waiting for her beloved at a party. The song was based on one of Meera’s bhajans, Hari Bin Kaise Jiyun Ri, which was slow-paced and in the voice of Vani Jairam.
Before the wide theatrical release, the producers held trade screenings for distributors to get their reaction. The feedback was overwhelmingly negative regarding the music. The distributors felt the film lacked a big, commercially viable song by an established singer like Lata Mangeshkar to pull in audiences.
Hrishikesh Mukherjee had a deep connection to the great director Bimal Roy since he had worked as Roy’s editor for years. Bimal Roy had directed Madhumati in 1958, which featured Lata Mangeshkar’s hit Aaja Re Pardesi composed by Salil Chowdhury. Hrishi-da and his team came up with a clever shortcut to reuse the track in Guddi given the time constraints. He reached out to Bimal Roy and Salil Chowdhury to secure the rights to reuse the audio track exactly as it was.
At the 6th Filmfare Awards in 1959, Salil Chowdhury won the Best Music Director for Madhumati, and Lata Mangeshkar won the Best Playback Singer - Female award for the song Aaja Re Pardesi.
This is the original song, Hari Bin Kaise Jiyun Ri, which was never featured in the film.
Original Composer: Salil Chowdhury
Original Lyricist: Shailendra
Original Singer: Lata Mangeshkar
*ing: Jaya Bhaduri
Producer/Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Film: Guddi (1971)