Reinventing the Wheels

Back in 2006, still in California and with Parents visiting here, we went to watch movie Vivah. You can not go wrong with Sooraj Badjatya when it comes to watching movies with Parents. He graduated himself from bringing Semi-Sweet movie Maine Pyar Kiya to complete Sugary Vivah. Maine Pyar Kiya had some fight sequences which got limited to a Slap on Bindu’s face by Ajit Vachhani in HAHK, but by Vivah, Sooraj completely forgot about physical touch ;).  Vivah tells the story of two individuals and relates their journey from engagement to marriage and aftermath.

It all starts with Groom side going to Bride’s place for initial “seeing of Bride”, a very typical Indian culture before marriages. Ravindra Jain created a beautiful song for that whole event, this was like Ravindra Jain’s Homecoming to Rajshri Production. He was their property till the phenomenon of Ram Laxman hit the silver screen through Maine Pyar Kiya, well Ram Laxman is, even though they look like two people in fact in present days (or the music which we heard of), it is one person who is Laxman of the duo and he continued the name Raam Laxman even after the death of Raam way back in 1977. True Laxman I guess. Although Raam Laxman were not huge name (I am going to go with the flow and consider them duo rather than just Vijay Patil) in Hindi Movie scene before Maine Pyar Kiya, But they have collaborated with Rajshri to give music of Taraana (Gunche Lage Hai Kahne) and also famous Ganeshotsav song (Deva O Deva Ganpati Deva) from movie Hum Se Badkar Kaun. In Marathi movie Industry, they were a huge name predominantly because of their collaborations with Dada Kondke, who introduced the concept of Double entendre dialogues and Sex Comedies to mainframe Hindi Cinema and was an inspiration to movies like Kya Kool Hai Hum and Masti  series as he has made movies like Aage Ki Soch, Ram Ram Gangaram, Andheri Raat Mein Diya Tere Haath Mein 😊

Oh Boy, where was I. Back to Vivah, Ravindra Jain composed song for every event; and the event which we are talking about is when Shahid Kapoor visits Amrita Rao for the first time to take the first step towards the eternal alliance. The Song was Do Anjaane Ajanabee, It was a really good song without the use of any loud instruments but here comes twist in the tale, Rajesh Roshan composed music for Devanand’s Des Pardes and out of all the songs he had there, it was Nazar Lage Na Saathiyo, One of the favorite songs of my childhood friend and Cousin Rahul, who is an excellent singer, will be really glad to sing it for you, if you are in Chicago Area or happen to meet him elsewhere. 

So, Do Anjaane Ajanabee derives its inspiration from Nazar Lage Na Saathiyo and when finding that I started realizing that there have to be more Hindi songs which derive their inspiration from a previously created Bollywood song.

The first song and very obvious one come is Badri Ki Dulhania’s title track, when singing this you can actually mix words from its original inspiration Chalat Musafir. It can very well become Tujhko Bana Kar Ke le Jayenge Pinjre Waali Muniya 😊 while singing, happened to me more than it should. Tanish Bagchi who is credited for creating the music of the song has actually created more remakes than the originals. He also created Humma, Tamma Tamma, Gulabi Aankhen, Hawa Hawai,  Chatur Naar, Tu Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast etc.

I have to confess, my brain cells would not register Tanish Bagchi, had there been no Vidya Bagchi who was searching for her missing husband Arnab Bagchi in Kolkata. Even though Mrs. Bagchi and Tanish are not related, and they cannot be but I guess mind finds funny ways to register things.

Next song in the list is a more interesting one, as we have talked about the Movie, the Music Director, the actor and the director in my earlier post Inspirational Pathway, Well the movie is C. I. D. The movie is credited to bring two on-screen Bollywood stars to us, one was off course Waheeda Rahman who was given a supporting role in this movie to prepare her for Pyaasa by Guru Dutt and another one which was less noticeable in the film but became biggest comedy star of all time Mehmood.  Even though Mehmood, son of Mumtaz Ali (Mumtaz Ali, in his days, was the biggest dancing star in the movie arena but had drinking problems causing his Son Mehmood to take ownership of the family along with his sister Minoo Mumtaz who is also seen as dancing star pre-Helen Bindu days.) started his career as child artist in the movie Kismet (1943) which was the first blockbuster of Hindi Cinema, ended up making Ashok Kumar (Dada Mouni) a Superstar. It ran for 180 odd weeks in Roxy Theater in Calcutta, the record at that time which was aptly broken by non-other than the movie closest to mine and many others heart Sholay by running around 260 weeks in Minerva Theaters Mumbai. Kismet was the trendsetter movie in multiple ways, one being the protagonist of the movie had grey shades, So Shahrukh was not the first superstar to play the grey shade, and another being that Manmohan Desai was not the first one to give super hits on lost and found formula 😉. Years later Mehmood paying tribute to his father's glory days by asking him to perform in a song from his directorial movie Kunwara Baap. The song Saj Rahi Gali Meri Amma over time has gained cult status and is like the anthem for 3rd gender. One more trivial about movie Kunwara Baap, it was the first movie for Music director Rajesh Roshan.

Well coming back to the song of our interest,  it is Kahin Pe Nigahen Kahin Pe Nishana which has the voice of Shamshad Begum and was picturized on eternal beauty Waheeda Rahman.

Now come to the 1990 ’s, the glory days of Govinda, David Dhawan, and Kader Khan trio. They were giving hits after hits and provided the public with the much-needed entertainment. One of their ventures was Saajan Chale Sasural (1996) which had a singer coming from the village to make it big in the city. His singing prowess was shown by him singing Ram Narayan Baja Bajata. Listen to this song again, and you can notice it deriving its inspiration from OP Nayyar classic Kahin Pe Nighaaein. Both songs have complete different genres and when listening to them individually you just get mesmerized by the genre they are in and you don’t notice the inspiration. Ram Narayan is a comic song and who would think that this derives inspiration from a Dancing number. But when heard simultaneously you can see the same rhythms and beats. I had been lucky to identify this with courtesy of Steve Jobs when I had iTunes playlist playing in random order and had these songs played back to back. Thanks, Mr. Jobs not just for your iPods and iPhones but also to help me find one more song in my repository 😊. Another thing about Saajan Chale Sasural is that with the efforts of  French actor and writer Eric Le Roch, the movie was parody dubbed in French and got released in 2007 as New Delire. The movie got heavily edited in the French version. Just for reference Saajan Chale Sasural had Nadeem Shrawan as music composers.

Well talking about grey shade protagonist and Shahrukh, the first movie comes to mind is Baazigar. People will say Darr, but there he was an Antagonist. So Baazigar, where Ajay Sharma acts to fall in love with Seema and sings a romantic duo Aye Mere Humsafar, Aye Meri Jaane Jaan composed by Anu Malik and had voices of Vinod Rathod (Brother of Ghazal Singer Roop Kumar Rathore and Shrawan Rathore from Nadeem Shrawan) This movie actually awarded Anu Malik him Film Fare was Best Music Director. Coming to the song, during my research on Inspiration and Plagiarism, Anu Malik, Nadeem Shrawan and Preetam were coming more often than they should and there is a common belief that this song is inspired by Rajan -Nagendra composed  Leta Chaligaalulu from 1983 Telugu Movie Moodu Mullu, But sorry to disappoint them please listen to Khoobsurat Haseena from Mr X in Bombay.  I was/am in love with song Mere Mehboob Qyamat Hogi, but never got chance to listen to the full soundtrack of the movie. In one of my trips to India, I found the Audio CD of Mr. X In Bombay laying in the Study, so while doing some work, I thought of playing it. And then I got a chance to listen to Khoobsurat Haseena, and then I was humming Meri Manzil Hai Tu, Tu Hi Mera Jahan along with this song. 

Also, one more thing, Salim Javed’s last known work comes as Mr. India, much after their split. Even though Mr. India is a path-breaking movie and created the second most popular villain of Bollywood after Gabbar Singh as Mogambo is actually inspired by Mr. X in Bombay. Obviously, Mr. X did not have the powerful screenplay of Salim Javed, No Hawa Hawai and obviously No Mogambo but it did have Mr. India and Laxmi Pyare as music composers 😊 

Folks, I am intending to put contents and stories like these in a book, feel free to let me know your thoughts.

Also, I am on a spiral road trip from East coast to West coast (Started from Boston, MA and will end in San Francisco, CA).  There are some interesting stories coming along the way, I will publish it as time permits.

So Bye for now, till we meet next...