POPULAR CINEMA
Mindscapes of a lyricist
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`Those of us who were raised on a steady diet of Hindi film songs aired by Vividh Bharti ... will find much meat in this book.'
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THE Hindi film industry — and its brotherhood of regional language film fraternities in the sub-continent — has elevated the song-and-dance sequence to a rare art form. Inspired partly by turn-of the-century stage adaptations of popular "musicals" in the West and partly by the equally popular though entirely home-grown Parsi theatre, film songs serve a variety of purposes. Studded at judicious intervals all through the story, they can make a more telling statement than mere dialogue; they can be both entertaining and illuminating; they can, of course, leaven an otherwise flat story with humour and spice and colour. Though the average song "picturisation" does tend to require large dollops of "willing suspension of disbelief" — given the mind-boggling change of costumes, the hordes of incredibly dressed background artistes who descend every time the hero and heroine romance against sylvan backdrops (imagine something more incongruous than Rajasthani folk dancers on a Swiss mountainside) and the callisthenic exercises that pass for dance movements — the results are invariably eye-catching. In fact, many a "hit" song has contributed to a "hit" film!
Years of use and abuse
It would be fair to say, film songs have, by and large, served the Hindi film industry rather well in the last 80-odd years of constant use and abuse. Yet, oddly enough, little serious work has been done either on the craft of song writing itself or on the men who pen these lyrics. Though there are plenty of biographical studies of eminent film personalities, there has been nothing whatsoever on the film lyricist, his compulsions and inspirations. For the average film buff, there is precious little on what goes on behind the scenes, what constitutes a great song that might catch the nation's fancy for a given time till the next big one comes along and why some songs stay "evergreen", the oldies-goldies as they are lovingly called. It is, therefore, quite a rare opportunity to come across this very illuminating conversation between the reigning "superstar" among film lyricists and someone who wishes to demystify the craft of song writing.
Nasreen Munni Kabir, with her impeccable credentials as a film historian, does a commendable job of taking us on a journey into the mindscape of Javed Akhtar with many an interesting detour on the workings of the Hindi film industry. Talking Songs is a sequel to her equally fascinating Talking Films: Conversations on Hindi Cinema with Javed Akhtar (OUP). Kabir is an independent producer/ director based in London and does the annual 20-part Indian film season for Channel 4 Television, U.K. She has made over 50 documentaries on Hindi cinema, including "In Search of Guru Dutt" (1989) and her latest "The Inner and Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan" (2004/05). She has written several books on Hindi cinema including Guru Dutt: A Life in Cinema. She serves as Governor on the board of the British Film Institute and has, over the years, been the perfect ambassador for Hindi films to the West, making them at once accessible and exotic.
Lively conversation
Kabir kick-starts her conversation with Javed Akhtar with a seemingly simple question: "How would you define the perfect song?" She probes, and prods and questions, throwing a barrage of questions. Akhtar serves some and ducks others. But all the while, the conversation remains lively and engaging, laced with humour and insight. Underlying it all, giving body and shape to what would otherwise have been a flighty dialogue is Akhtar's very keen understanding of the Hindi film industry. Here is a man who has witnessed the Bombay film industry from the bottom up, knows it inside out and all the way through. As Shabana Azmi notes in her pensive Foreword, "He hardly ever talks about his work, but when he does, it is with such astounding clarity that I listen on in rapt attention and learn something new each time."
Those of us who were raised on a steady diet of Hindi film songs aired by Vividh Bharti, those of us who catch ourselves humming snatches of film songs, those of us who do not pucker our noses with disdain at this form of popular entertainment will find much meat in this book. Kabir asks questions that we have all pondered over at some time or the other: Is it melody or lyrics that give a song a long lifespan? Do certain songs have a sell-by date? Does one write songs to tunes or the other way around? What sort of people say balma or sajna while addressing their beloved? Then there are of course questions related to Javed Akhtar's own sensibilities, his highly individualistic way of working, his understanding of his own craft and the elements that define his poetic oeuvre. The one I liked especially was: "Does a lyricist have to be a great poet?" And Akhtar's answer: "No, he doesn't, but he must be versatile. That's essential to song writing."
Clubbed with the conversation is a collection of 60 of Javed Akhtar's film songs, chosen to express the range of his themes and emotions. Accompanied with some rather workaday translations, this section of the book seems to cater rather obviously to Kabir's expatriate audience, the sort of people who watch her Movie Mahal series on television.
Talking Songs and Sixty Selected Songs: Javed Akhtar in Conversation with Nasreen Munni Kabir, Oxford University Press, 2005, Rs 295.
RAKHSHANDA JALIL
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