I miss those lifechanging lyrics!

These were the words of the maestro A.R.Rahman in a recent interview when asked about today’s music.

How true! We’ve been listening to the same old kind of lyrics since ages. The combination of words like soniye, mahiya, chunari, kasme,vaade,deewana dil,rabba, judaai,dupatta, marjava and many more words like these are top choices for lyricists even today!

When you see the older movies say around the 70s, we had lyrics and stories which used to show the frustration of the common man. The common problems he was facing like poverty, unemployment or frustrated with corruption! This can be seen as the period of Amitabh Bachchan’s peak( the angry young man type!). Then we had these romantic melodies of Rishi Kapoor and the Yash Chopra ones which continued with use of words like soni, mahi, rab and those pind songs which by then had become cliché. Some of those songs are still heard with the same enthusiasm today. Most of the songs that came in the next 10-15 years were just over the top and melodramatically funny especially the Govinda and Sunny Deol ones!!

When you see the lyrics of some recent songs, say the last 2-3 years..we have seen some wonderful lyrics..from jashn e bahara of jodhaa akbar to maa of taare zameen par..and then songs of jaane tu ya jaane na were youthful, soulful and highly entertaining! The songs of vishal shekhar surely can’t be called as conventional! The major change which we see today is the use of English and sometimes Punjabi words and phrases in a song which initially make the song attractive and make the audience listen to it at least once..then the audience is bored of it! I find most of the raps in the midst of a song cheesy and irritating to be frank! (courtesy Pritam’s music!)

Apart from Javed Akhtar there are lyricists like Prasoon Joshi, Syed Quadri(bhatt camp fame!), Anvita Dutt Guptan(a regular at yashraj camp these days!) have done commendable work. How can we forget Gulzar sahab! I still wonder what is the meaning of chaiyya chaiyya..chappa chappa charkha chale..auni pauni rasme or even the Oscar nominated song o saya and many other fillers used by him. Those songs were hugely popular then..but who remembers them now?

The main problem what I see is these lyrics and the music is temporary. No one remembers them after a period of say 3-4 months or 9 months maximum. Once there used to be a craze for Himesh Reshammiya(his songs ruled for almost 8 months in 2005!!)..who remembers that music now?(those songs were again full of jaaniya ve, soniya ve, mahiya ve and his recent songs still have the same!!).Coming to songs of the last 2-3 years..who remembers songs like mitwa..wherez the party tonight..piyu bole..no entry..dus bahane..kajra re..songs from metro..heyy babyy..chand sifarish..tumse hi..ajab si and many more which were supposed to be the chartbusters and commercial hits of that time!!

Nowadays the taste of the audience has also changed. That is why we find the something like emosanal atyachar gain popularity and something like dil gira dafatan and songs of luck by chance go unnoticed!. No matter how meaningless and weird the songs are people will make them superhit, chartbusters and what not just by calling them “different” or “out of the box”! And then forget and move ahead!