"jaadon kee narma dhoop aaur aangan mein let kar" wrote Gulzar in a song for his film 'Mausam' in 1975. The poet is nostalgic about the times; he had spent relaxing at his home. Times when soft rays of sunlight would fall on him in harsh winter. If you listen carefully to this song and to many such songs, you would realize that often a relaxed state of mind is the inspiration behind.
When I came to Bombay in 2006, this was one of first things, which struck me that how can a restless, congested and filthy city has become home to so many creative people.
We hardly have anytime for ourselves in this fast paced city. Hardly that we think about our surroundings. So what if there is a stinking public toilet right outside our house, so what if there is a dustbin right outside our office and we have become habitual to seeing dogs, cats, cows and buffaloes struggling for their share of trash, our minds and eyes have become numb to all kinds of filth. And if we are actually numb, how can we think and if we cannot think, how can we be creative.
Well, one can always argue that ‘artists’ in Bollywood are not creative. But, there are exceptions after all. How can Gulzar write those soulful songs? That’s because he is from Punjab and he has seen the better part of this country. In spite of spending close to 40 years in Bombay, still those yesteryears provide the much-needed inspiration for all his songs.
Agreed that even fast paced life can be the source of inspiration. And it was the same Gulzar who wrote ‘siney mein jalan, aankhon mein toofan sa kyun hai, is shahar mein har shaks pareshan sa kyun hai”
But how much can one write on Bombay? I do not know much about the hubs of film making in the world. Hollywood is one such hub for American filmmaking. It’s in California, which is perhaps the most beautiful state of US.
With Bombay remaining as it is, or worse going further down, it is important for Bollywood that people from better and more relaxed part of India to pour in and provide succor to this talent starved industry. Ever wonder, why we are not able to produce a good lyricist after Gulzar.
5 comments:
i feel more than city, it is language limitations which has come into play. There are not those many experts of Urdu today and hindi is going same way, i.e. downhill. And isnt it also a reflection on audiences? If u listen to Jagjit singh over the years, his ghazals kept getting simpler to the point tht it lost all those charm. Hinglish really doesnt make for great lyrics. nor are the audience who will savour say even 'suraj hua madhyam, chaand jalne laga'! BTW, wht beautiful poetry!
Obviously you don't think too highly about Javed Saab or Prasoon Joshiji.... To my mind they are contemporary, light verse as opposed to pithy prose :)
Funkaar
@ prasad - i think javed akhtar has written only one album worth attention and thats 1947 Earth..and next time you meet prasun joshi..please tell him not to write qawaali in hindi.."maula maula maula mere maula'..the only word he knows in urdu is 'maula'....
@prasad karans point is valid for Javed Akhtar also... Hes also spent a lot of time in Aligarh nd lucknow for the inspiration!!!
probably it shud be Bollywood's Inspiration
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