Chhaayaageet #78 - "Ram, come quickly."

All four of them are cruising along the ghats in Maharashtra on their way to Khandala. Bombay can really get to you if you stay there long enough. You have to escape the city and venture out into the natural beauty of lush green surroundings to bring out your creativity.

The duo composers and the two lyricists are working on a new film with this high-profile but young filmmaker. All four of them have worked with him in several movies and the music has been quite popular. They are definitely good but something about this filmmaker brings the best out of them.

It has been a few hours driving and it's time for a break. There is a standard teashop where they stop each time for tea and snacks.

It seems overly crowded today. But who cares, they are regulars there and there is this one Telugu waiter who knows them really well and takes care of them well.

One of the composers grew up in Hyderabad. He always talks to the waiter in Telugu and provides their order. “Ram, where are you? Can you come and take our order?” He shouts in Telugu.

Unfortunately, Ram is super busy dealing with the rest of the crowd. He can barely hear them. They call him again. He looks at them from the corner of his eye and signals with his hand asking them to hold their horses.

If you are a composer, you are constantly humming tunes. That's their trade. That's how it works. You hear the words and out comes the tune. The composer is impatient now. “Ram, come quickly. Ram, come quickly.” He adds a few more words in Telegu and a tune behind it.

His partner composer hears the words and the tune and starts playing tabla on the table to give some background beats. This goes on for a while.

At this point, one of the lyricists is bored of the repetitive nature of the music and words. Of course, he is a lyricist and wants some variety in the words. He can’t take it anymore, “Is that it? No more lyrics?”

The other lyricist can’t hold back either. He jumps in with another line. “I gave you my heart. I gave you my heart.” Suddenly they all have an eerie smile as they look at each other while they are singing and banging on the table. The smile says it all. It’s a damn good tune and a damn good song. They finish their tea and snacks and return back to Bombay.

They all decide to meet at the filmmaker’s house. The composers go through the tune and lyrics. The filmmaker has a puzzled look. Loves the tune but the lyrics, not sure. The composer who is fluent in Telegu explains to him. “All it means is - Ram, come quickly.” Of course, that makes sense now. That reminds him. One of his previous movies which got dubbed in Telegu was appreciated a lot by the audience in Andhra Pradesh. It felt so good. Now it's payback time now. He decides to create a situation in the movie to fit the song.

Who knew this song would be an all-time favorite.

Shankar Jaikishan composed the song Ramaiya Vastavaiya for the movie Shree 420 directed and produced by Raj Kapoor. Shailendra provided the lyrics along with support from Hasrat Jaipuri at the teashop. The duo composers and the lyricists were on their way to Khandala when they accidentally hit upon this tune while summoning the waiter. Shankar who was born in Hyderabad tried calling the waiter named Ramaiya in the musical tune Ramaiya Vastavaiya which means “Ramaiya, come quickly”.

All four of them worked with Raj Kapoor on several other movies that were musical hits such as Awaara, Aah, and Boot Polish. The Telugu dubbed version of the move Aah called AaPremalekhalu was so well received that Raj Kapoor was elated and wanted to show his gratitude to Telugu audiences. He decided to do that by having the Ramaiya Vastavaiya song in Shree 420.

Singer: Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammad Rafi, Mukesh
Music: Shankar Jaikishan
Lyrics: Shailendra
*ing: Nargis, Raj Kapoor, Sheila Vaaz
Director: Raj Kapoor
Producer: Raj Kapoor
Film: Shree 420 (1955)