Chhaayaageet #200 - "Bhaanje, lagta hai apna gaana chori ho gaya."
"Nephew, looks like our song has been stolen."
It's past midnight. The singer is fast asleep in his home. It had been a long day at the studio today. One rehearsal after another, and then finally recording the song very late in the evening. It had not taken long for him to fall asleep. The song was also quite long and he had been tired.
Suddenly he is woken up by loud music. Someone is playing music at full volume. What the what? Is this any time to play loud music? But, wait a minute. What is this song? Once he comes to his senses, he realizes it is the same song he just recorded in the studio a few hours ago. How can this be? Did someone leak the song? Did someone steal it from the studio? He immediately calls his nephew, who also happens to be the music composer.
"Bhaanje, lagta hai apna gaana chori ho gaya," he shouts into the phone with concern. Nephew, looks like our song has been stolen.
"Chori ho gaya? Kya matlab?", the composer asks back. Got stolen? What do you mean? He is confused.
"Abhi humne jo gaana record kiya, lagta hai kisine chura liya, aur uski himmat dekho ke woh mere hi ghar ke paas mein zor zor se baja raha hai," the singer explains. The song we just recorded, it seems someone has stolen it, and look at his guts, he is playing this loudly near my house. How incredulous?
The composer tells him that he would call the filmmaker right away, which he does. He narrates the conversation to the filmmaker. The filmmaker bursts out into a laughter.
"Jab hum sab studio se nikle thay, to yaad hai mein aap logon ko chhodkar phir se andar gaya tha? Mein kuch bhool gaya tha. Maine apne assistant ko bola ki woh gaana tape par record kare aur ghar le jaaye aur ek mamuli player par baja kar sune aur dekhe kaisa lagta hai, aur gaane ko shoot karne ke baare mein soche," the filmmaker clarifies. When we left from the studio, do you recall that I left all of you and went back inside? I had forgotten something. I told my assistant to take a tape of the song and listen to it on an ordinary player and see how it sounds, and also told him to start thinking about how to shoot the song.
The composer narrates this back to the singer to dispel his concerns of theft. It so happened, that the assistant lived next door to the singer and hadn't been able to resist the temptation of listening to the song right then and that too at the highest volume.
Hearing this the singer chuckles to himself at how he, who always pranks everyone, had gotten pranked himself. Now to try and fall back into the lap of sleep again. It's not easy. He drifts into his thoughts.
It had been a long night of recording. The singer had been at the peak of his tomfoolery all evening between rehearsals in the studio. He was not letting anyone concentrate on their job. Everyone had just assumed, given the singer's mood, that there was no way the song would be completed today. He seemed to be having too much fun to get serious. But then once the composer had called everyone to attention, and the singer had stepped in front of the mic, the song had gotten okayed in one take! That was the singer, at his best fooling around, and at his very best once it was time to focus on the job.
The tune of the song also was something of an oddity. The filmmaker had seen a Hollywood film in which Peter Sellers, playing an East Indian character, was causing a riot in a party. Instantly the filmmaker had decided that he would include this sequence in his own film. He had asked the lyricist to write a song for the foolishness that would ensue in this situation.
The filmmaker had a different composer in mind than his usual team. He wanted the music to be different. He wanted it to be groovy. He visited a young composer and narrated to him the song situation and the lyrics. That day the composer's mother, an accomplished Hindustani classical singer herself, was also present. The filmmaker had requested her, "Maa ji, aap classical andaz mein gaane ka mukhda gaayengi?" O Mother, would you please sing the opening of the song in the classical style?
Mother had obliged. She sang the first few lines in pure classical style. No sooner had she finished, the composer had immediately voiced Western music beats. Hearing this, the filmmaker was elated. "Gaana mil gaya," he had exclaimed. We got the song.
It was a fusion of Hindustani classical and Western music.
Next the filmmaker and the composer had had a sitting with the singer. The singer immediately frowned. "Itna lamba gaana kyun hai?" he had asked. Why is the song so long? It was a rhetorical question. "Mama ye gaana aap hi gaa sakte hain," the composer had said. Uncle, only you can sing this song.
It was a time in the industry when the singer was the default choice of playback for the reigning superstar. But the singer had another concern. "Bhaanje, tujhe kya mein classical singer lagta hoon? Ismein to bahot classical hai. Tum kisi aur se gaana gawa lo," he said. There were many classical interludes in the song. Nephew, do I look like a classical singer to you? This song is much too classical. You get this sung from another singer.
The composer had assured the singer. But when the singer had refused to budge, the composer had suggested that he would get another singer to sing the classical pieces. That had put the singer at ease.
That day in the studio, after many a rehearsal, and many a prank, he had recorded the song in one take. And now he had been rudely awakened in the middle of the night by his own song.
After reminiscing his memories of the song, the singer shuts his eyes, turns to one side, and slips back into sleep.
Kishore Kumar sang Pag ghungroo baandh in Namak Halaal (1982), directed by Prakash Mehra, music by Bappi Lahiri, lyrics by Anjaan. The classical interlude in the song is sung by Pandit Satyanarayan Mishra. Amitabh Bachchan and Smita Patil helmed the film as the lead hero and heroine, supported by Shashi Kapoor and Parveen Babi. Namak Halaal was Smita Patil's first mainstream commercial film, after many stellar roles in independent and arthouse films.
This was the first time for Bappi Lahiri to compose music for a Prakash Mehra film. Bappi Lahiri's mother, Bansuri Lahiri, a classical singer, was present when Prakash Mehra visited Bappi da to talk about the film's music and the song.
All the songs of Namak Halaal besides Pag ghungroo - Jawani jaaneman (Asha Bhosle), Aaj rapat jaayen (Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle), Raat baki (Asha Bhosle, Bappi Lahiri), Thodisi jo pi li hai (Kishore Kumar) - were massively popular.
The film was a big blockbuster hit in 1982. Kishore Kumar won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Singer for Pag ghungroo. Amitabh Bachchan was nominated for Best Actor, Shashi Kapoor for Best Supporting Actor, Bappi Lahiri for Best Music Director, and Anjaan and Prakash Mehra were jointly nominated for Best Lyrics for Pag ghungroo.
1982 was also a big year for Amitabh Bachchan, in which his films with all his major film directors were released - Satte Pe Satta with Raj Sippy, Bemisaal with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Desh Premee with Manmohan Desai, Namak Halaal with Prakash Mehra, Khuddar with Ravi Tandon, and Shakti with Ramesh Sippy.
Listen to the audio of Kishore Kumar singing Pag ghungroo live in Kolkata in 1986, as only Kishore da can.
The scene from Peter Sellers' The Party (1968) that inspired Prakash Mehra to incorporate the shoe sequence in Namak Halaal.
Singers: Kishore Kumar, Pandit Satyanarayan Mishra
Lyrics: Anjaan
Music: Bappi Lahiri
*ing: Amitabh Bachchan, Smita Patil
Director: Prakash Mehra
Film: Namak Halaal (1982)