Chhaayaageet #96 - “Yaar ab ye tera gaana hai. Tu apne hisaab se kar de bas.”
Buddy, this is now your song. You just do it your way.
The music composer is in a panic. A soundtrack is needed urgently. The lyrics are ready. The track is ready. But the singer is not answering his phone. Where the hell is he? Panic is setting in.
It is an important piece of the soundtrack, a few lines that are meant to play repeatedly in the film. It is supposed to bind the whole film together.
With the filmmaker breathing down his neck, the composer dials the singer’s number for the umpteenth time, looking up to the skies with closed eyes for divine intervention as the bell rings on the other end. Pick up. Please pick up. Why aren’t you picking up? Please. Pick. Up. The. Damn. Phone.
“Hello?”, the singer’s voice on the other side.
“Arre tu kidhar hai yaar?”, the composer asks. Where are you man?
“Yaar, mein to bahar hoon”, comes the reply from the singer. I am out of town.
“Haan lekin bahar kidhar hai?”, composer. Yes, but out where?
“Mein Sydney mein hoon yaar”, singer. I am in Sydney my friend.
“Oh fuck”, composer.
“Kyon kya hua?”, singer. Why? What happened?
“Yaar ek gaana hai mereko karna hai”, composer. There is this song that I need to do.
“Yaar mein to abhi nahin hoon ek mahine ke liye”, singer. I won’t be back for a month.
“Mere ko pata hai tu ek mahine ke liye jaata hai, par gaana abhi karna hai”, composer. I know you go for a month, but I need to do the song now.
“Urgent hai yaar. Tu ruk mein do minute mein phone karta hoon”, the composer doesn’t wait for a response. He is on a breakaway horse. It is urgent, man. Wait, I will call you back in two minutes.
The singer is perplexed. His phone rings again in two minutes.
“Aisa kar sakte hain kya? Tu na wahin kar le record”, composer. Can we do this? You record it there itself.
“Kya keh rahaay?”, singer, incredulous at the composer’s brainwave. What are you saying?
“Nahin tu wahin record kar le. Abhi kar sakta hai kya?”, composer’s horse has picked up speed. You record there itself. Can you record now right away?
“Yaar mein Blue Mountain mein hoon. Mereko Sydney pahonchne mein time lagega do dhai ghante”, singer in disbelief. Man, I am in Blue Mountain. It will take me two to two and a half hours to reach Sydney from here.
“Nahin nahin. Tu ek kaam kar. Mein tereko bhej deta hoon abhi. Tu bas sun le aur kar lena”, composer. No no. You do one thing. I will send you everything now. You just listen and record it there itself.
“Woh to mein kar loonga par gaana…”, singer. I could do it but the song…
“Sun mein tereko bhejta hoon sab computer pe. Tu email pe jaa. Mein tereko gaana aur lyrics byrics sab bhej deta hoon. Theek hai mein karta hoon thodi der mein”, composer. Listen I will send you everything on the computer. You check your email. I will send you the song and the lyrics and everything. Ok? I will send in a little bit.
The singer hears the phone disconnect. The composer doesn’t want to let the singer get a word in.
The singer looks up from his phone. In the hotel room, his wife and kids are looking at him, the expression on their faces seems to be wondering why did he even take the call while we are in the middle of a holiday?
“Man I need to do this”, singer pleads his case to the family.
“What the hell man? What’s this? Can’t you do it later?”, pushback from the family.
“Dood this is an important song. Mereko karna hai”, the singer trying to make his case again, realizing that this intense negotiation needs to finish before the composer calls again. It is an important song. I need to do this.
The phone rings. Composer’s horse on the other line, steam from the nostrils coming across on the phone.
“Picture kaunsa hai?”, singer gets his line in first. Which film is it?
The composer responds with the name of the filmmaker. The singer and filmmaker are old pals, having studied together in the same college.
“Dekh maine tere ko gaana bhej diya”, composer. Look, I have sent you the song.
The singer downloads the rough track and lyrics on his laptop. He listens to it a few times. He falls in love with it. It is a unique opportunity for him. He has never recorded anything outside India, let alone a film song. But he is by himself. No music composer. No filmmaker. No lyricist. None of the leading cast. He thinks to himself, “I have to be very anal to some extent with myself”.
He diligently rehearses it for some time. When he is ready to sing, he starts the recording on his laptop. He records four lines and emails the recording back to the composer, followed by a phone call.
“Yaar sun”, singer. Listen to it.
“Achha lag raha hai. Bahot achha lag raha hai”, composer. Sounds good. It is sounding very good.
The singer records four more lines, and emails the next clip to the composer.
“Aur sun”, singer. Listen to some more.
”Bahot achha lag raha hai bhai. Lekin tu ye aise mat kar. Aise nahin ho sakta. You just feel it.”, the composer has no time for these piecemeal recordings. It is sounding very good. But you don’t do this. It won’t work like this. You just feel it. The composer reminds the singer of some of his popular songs.
“Remember how you did that song and that other song. These are all your songs. I know I am not there. I want you to feel it. This is your song now. Yaar ab ye tera gaana hai. Tu apne hisaab se kar de bas. Don’t be stressed about me not being there”, composer’s words of advice. It is your song. You just do it your way.
“I just want to know if I am on the right track”, singer. The singer is accustomed to understanding the music composer’s vision, and his job is to follow that vision first. They need to be on the same page. “Tu mereko bataa is mein kya karna hai, is mein kya hona chahiye”, the singer requests the composer. You tell me what I need to do here, what needs to happen.
The composer provides the requisite context of the soundtrack. The singer disconnects.
He goes into his zone and records the whole song. It takes a couple of hours, and there are different portions to the soundtrack. The singer emails the final recording clip to the composer.
Invisible phone lines connect again.
“I am very happy with the way it’s gone. I am damn happy, bro. Ek kaam karte hain. I am going to take this song back here. If there are any corrections at all, we’ll do it here”, the composer is ecstatic.
“Of course, man. I am back in twenty-five days. Tab kar lenge”, the singer naturally expects there will be some corrections. We can do it when I get back.
The filmmaker, lead actor, and composer listen to the recording again and again.
“Yaar poore film mein mujhko ye gaana use karna hai. But it is so haunting and mellifluous. Mujhe sirf itna nahin chahiye. Aur do teen antara chahiye”, the filmmaker says. I wanted to use this soundtrack throughout the film. But it is so haunting and mellifluous. I don’t want just this much. I want a few more stanzas.
After the singer returns from his holiday, a couple of additional stanzas are recorded.
KK (Krishnakumar Kunnath) sang just this one song in Kabir Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015), music by Pritam, and lyrics by Kausar Munir. True to Kabir Khan’s vision, the song binds the entire film together. Initially, it was only a few lines, but Kabir Khan and Salman Khan found the song so haunting that they decided to extend it. Salman Khan said that whenever he closed his eyes this song played in his head.
Bajrangi Bhaijaan received an overwhelming response at the domestic box office and overseas, becoming the fastest film to reach INR 1 Billion and INR 2 Billion.
Lyricist Kausar Munir started her career in television. She has penned songs in Dhoom3, Dear Zindagi, and other films. The anthem song of 2021 ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, “Live the Game! Love the Game!”, is written by Munir.
Tu jo mila became extremely popular, bringing KK and Pritam together again. Unfortunately, KK left us on May 31, 2022, due to cardiac arrest following a concert in Kolkata. Deccan Herald called him the “voice of love”. He lives on through his many soulful and memorable songs.
Singer: KK
Music: Pritam
Lyrics: Kausar Munir
*ing: Salman Khan, Harshaali Malhotra
Director: Kabir Khan
Film: Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015)