Chhaayaageet #148 - "Mann se Raavan jo nikale, Ram uske mann mein hai."
His domestic helper comes running to him. “Sahib, aapka phone hai.” The lyricist rushes to pick up the phone.
He recognizes the voice on the other end. “Arre director sahib, kaise yaad farmaaya. Sab khairiyat hai?” The filmmaker on the other end knows him well. “Aapse ek zaroori kaam hai. Jitni jaldi ho sake kya aap Pune pahunch sakte hain? Mera driver aapko lene aa jayega.” The lyricist knows this filmmaker is very particular about everything related to filmmaking, including music, songs, etc. He won't accept any other answer. “Theek hai, mein pahunchta hoon.”
He reaches Pune station, where someone is waiting for him. He drives him for about four hours before they arrive at a small village called Wai. Nice-looking temples and several other historic structures. Everything is made of stones. He starts to understand why the film is being shot here.
He spends the day at the shooting location where all the actors and technicians are working. He can also see the star of the movie, Shah Rukh Khan. Everybody looks super busy.
He retires back to his hotel by evening. The filmmaker hasn't had a chance to meet with him. Now that the day’s work is over, he decides to pay him a visit. He walks in with a cassette player.
Filmmaker: “Accha hua aap aa gaye. Humare composer sahib parso teen mahinon ke liye UK jaa rahe hain. Bahut zaroori hai ye gaana uske pehle record jo jaaye. Mein iss gaane ki shooting issi gaon mein karna chahta hoon. Ye raha cassette player aur ye raha cassette jisme aapko tune mil jayegi.”
Lyricist: “Haan, koi baat nahin. Kal tak ka time mere liye bahut hai. Gaane to mein ek, dedh ghante mein likh leta hoon. Kuch complicated gaanon ke liye 2 ghante bhi lag sakte hain. Situation kya hai?”
Filmmaker: “Situation to bahut hi simple hai. Gaon mein Ramleela chal rahi hai. Ashok Vatika mein Raavan aaya hai Sita ke paas. Woh Sita se poochta hai ke tune aisa kya dekha Ram mein? Sita jawab deti hai. Bas batcheet chal rahi hai Raavan aur Sita mein.”
At this point, the lyricist starts sweating. He has never had problems writing a song on a specific situation. But this is different.
Lyricist: “Pehle bata diya hota to thodi kitaben le aata. Ramcharit Maanas ya Ramayan ki koi kitaab. Ye sab ki jaankari nahin hai muhje.”
Filmmaker: “Arre, apne aapko kum na samajhiye. Aap ye gaana likh sakte hain.” The filmmaker leaves his room.
The lyricist is all tensed up. Writing a song on a religious event that has been enacted for over a thousand years is a big deal but do that without any supporting material. That's not possible. This is too sensitive. Typically, he sleeps late at night, but today, he decides to sleep early due to all that tension.
It is early morning, and the daybreak still hasn't occurred. The lyricist is up, still rattled by his discussion with the filmmaker from last night.
“This is just not going to work. Let me scribble a few lines, which I can show to the filmmaker later in the day. I can use this as a proof. Look, I told you this is not something I can write.” He says to himself.
He starts writing. The casette player is playing the tune in the background. Growing up in Lucknow, he was constantly exposed to events related to Bhagwan Ramchandra. Some he can remember, some he is struggling with. He keeps writing and enters almost a trance. The next thing he realizes - the song is complete. He has no clue how that happened.
He meets that evening with everyone and walks through the lyrics. Everybody, including the filmmaker, loves the song. They go ahead, record the song, and also complete the shoot.
The film music is released, and the music is a big hit. The lyricist is recognized. At the recognition event, there are several religious scholars. They are all in awe. There is the written text of what occurred between Sita and Raavan, which is documented well in the religious texts, but so much unwritten communication which is open to interpretation. How did the lyricist nail that? Lines like "Mann se Raavan jo nikale, Ram uske mann mein hai."
Javed Akhtar wrote the lyrics for the song Pal Pal Hai Bhari Woh Vipda in the film Swades. The film was produced/directed by Ashutosh Gowariker, the music was composed by AR Rahman, and the playback was provided by Madhushree and Vijay Prakash. The song was picturized on Gayatri Joshi and Shah Rukh Khan.
Swades was inspired by the story of Aravinda Pillalamarri and Ravi Kuchimanchi, a non-resident Indian couple who returned to India and developed a pedal power generator to light remote, off-the-grid village schools. Gowariker spent considerable time with Pillalamarri and Kuchimanchi. He visited Bilgaon, an Adivasi village in the Narmada valley, which is the backdrop of the Narmada Bachao Andolan movement, where the people are credited with doing 200 person-days of community service to make their village energy self-sufficient. The Bilgaon project is recognized as a model for replication by the Government of Maharashtra.
Gowariker wanted to shoot the Ramleela song in the same village and hence wanted Rahman to compose the song before that. The challenge was that Rahman was about to leave India for three months to compose music for another engagement. The timing was extremely tight.
That’s when he decided to call all the music crew to Wai (a village in Maharashtra) and created a makeshift recording studio in one of the hotel rooms. He asked Javed Akhtar to arrive there to write the Ramleela song but did not realize that a lyricist may need to refer to religious texts to get the lyrics right since it is a very sensitive topic. Javed Akhtar, to his credit and also because he grew up in Lucknow, was able to write the obvious lines but also wrote great interpretations of how Ram and Raavan are different forces inside us. Getting rid of one makes sure the other one can flourish.
Swades was a commercial failure at the box office but still scored several Filmfare nominations, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Music Director, Best Actor, and Best Background Score. Shah Rukh Khan won the Filmfare Best Actor award for Swades. Javed Akhtar won the Filmfare Best Lyricist award, but not for Swades. That year, all Best Lyricist nominations went to Javed Akhtar, and he won it for the film Veer Zaara. The other films included Swades and Mein Hoon Na.
Singer: Madhushree, Vijay Prakash
Music: AR Rahman
Lyrics: Javed Akhtar
*ing: Gayatri Joshi, Shah Rukh Khan
Producer/Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Film: Swades (2004)