RMIM Archive Article "272".
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian
#
# RMIM Archives..
# Subject: Lyricist Javed Akhtar
#
# Posted by: Satish Subramanian ([email protected])
# Author: Satish Subramanian ([email protected])
#
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Javed Akhtar
~~~~~~~~~~~~
"1942 A Love Story"'s songs are equally famous for its lyrics as
they are for their music. Lyrics such as, "ek laDki ko dekha toh
aisaa lagaa.." and "dil ne kaha chupke se" brought with them a
freshness that was widely lacking in the film industry. And the
lyricist who penned them all was Javed Akhtar.
Javed was never serious about being a lyricist professionally.
He already was a successful screenplay, story, and dialogue writ-
er for Hindi films. The writer team of Salim Khan and Javed
Akhtar was very popular in the 70s (Salim-Javed in "Sholay",
"Deewar" etc).
His career as a lyricist started as late as 1981. Yash Chopra
appoached Javed and asked him to write lyrics for his upcoming
film. Javed knew that Yash's favourite lyricist was Sahir, so
Javed asked "Why me, when you have Sahir". Yash Chopra said to
him that Sahir was ill and his health condition did not allow him
to work.
Also, Yashji knew that Javed used to recite some of his poetry to
his friends at private parties/mushairaa, as Yash Chopra also
used to be one of them. Javed said 'Kahan Sahir kahan main', but
Yash insisted on having Javed write the lyrics. Javed, wondering
'yeh kahaan phas gaya main?', wrote the lyrics:
"Yeh kahaan aa gaye ham, yun hi saath saath chalte"
That was the first song of his for the movie "Silsila". And with
Amitabh's verse recital in between the song, added to it (dare I
say) the required Sahir-flavour seen in the "Kabhi-Kabhi" songs.
Yash Chopra also left his other favourite, Khaiyaam and went for
the MDs Shiv-Hari for this movie.
Javed wasn't a profilic song writer for films. He used to work
with R.D.Burman and Laxmikant-Pyarelal on and off. He did, among
others, the songs of "Saagar" ("chehra hain ya chaand khila
hain") and ofcourse, "1942 A Love Story" with R.D.Burman.
R.D.B and LP have been the ones to make use of Javed the most,
even though Anand Bakshi has been their favourite in general.
Javed did give some of his contemporaries some 'real' :) competi-
tion with his "hawa hawaii"s (LP; "Mr.India") and "ek do teen"s
(LP; "Tezaab").
Talking of "Tezaab", it was mentioned (by Sami, who else? :) long
time back in a 'Prose or Poetry' thread, that the first line of
another song by Javed from Tezaab was just a line of prose and
lacked any sense of poetry:
"kah do ke tum ho meri, varna!"
[varna = "or else!"]
But see what adding a single blank to the above line does to the
meaning of it:
"kah do ke tum ho meri var na!"
[var = alliance/bride etc]
I guess, what you want is what you see. Or is it giving too much
credit to Javed? But someone who wrote the lyrics:
"tumko dekhaa toh yeh khayaal aaya,
zindagi dhoop tum ghanaa saayaa."
the nice Jagjit Sing number from "Saath Saath", does deserve
some, doesn't he?
--
bye
satish
Finally, here are two great songs, which were/are famous partly
due to their lyrics by Javed.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Song: tumko dekhaa to ye Khayaal aayaa
Credits: C. S. Sudarshana Bhat
Film: Saath Saath
Singer: Jagjit Singh
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Music: Kuldeep Singh
tumko dekhaa to ye Khayaal aayaa
zindagi dhoop tum ghanaa saayaa
tumko dekhaa to ye Khayaal aayaa
aaj phir dilne ek tamannaa kee
aaj phir dilko hamne samjhaayaa
zindagi dhoop tum ghanaa saayaa..
tum chale jaaoge to sochenge
hamane kyaa khoyaa, hamane kyaa paayaa
zindagi dhoop tum ghanaa saayaa..
ham jise gungunaa nahin sakte
vaqt ne aisaa geet kyon gaayaa
zindagi dhoop tum ghanaa saayaa..
---------
Song: rim jhim rim jhim rum jhum rum jhum
Credits: C. S. Sudarshana Bhat (Porky) ([email protected])
Film: 1942: A Love Story
Singer: Kumar Sanu, Kavita Krishnamurthy
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
Music: R.D.Burman
KS: Rim jhim rim jhim rum jhum rum jhum
bheegi bheegi rut mein tum ham ham tum
chalte hain chalte hain
Kavita: bajtaa hai jaltarang per ke chhat pe jab
motiyon jaisa jal barse
KS: boondon ki ye jhaDi laayi hai vo ghaDi
jisake liye ham taase,
ho ho ho rim jhim rim jhim..
KS: baadal ki chaadaren oDhe hain vaadiyaan
saari dishaayen soyi hain
Kavita: sapnon ke gaaon mein bheegi si chhaanv mein
do aatmaayen khoyi hain..
Rim jhim..
Kavita: aayi hain dekhne jheelon ke aayine
baalon ko khole ghaTaaen
KS: raahein dhuaaN dhuaaN jaayenge ham kahaan,
aao yahin rah jaaen!
Rim jhim..
--
bye
satish
From the RMIM Article Archive maintained by Satish Subramanian