Tonight I came to an earth-shattering realization...
I can trace my personal timeline back with Hindi movie songs! You know, the way we often look back at important milestones in life, the first day of college, the graduation ceremony.. I can name the popular movie songs playing at all those milestones, the soundtrack of my life, if you will.
Bear with me, my friends, as I take a nostalgia soaked trip down memory lane.
प्यार हुआ, इक्रार हुआ है ... growing up, my parents were always playing golden oldies - from the time they were young. Ah, for romance, you can't beat black and white movies!
The eighties, while I was in school, were bad years for music. The movies were the kind spawned by Amitabh-mania. Movies that gave us such gems as मर्द तांगेवाला हूँ मैं।
पापा कहते हैं ... like a breath of fresh air across this desolate action packed landscape, came a charming college love story. A love story! It took the teenage crowd by storm, and us pre-teens too. We were still nostalgically singing that college graduation song when we graduated from college almost a decade later. Finally, melody was back in Hindi cinema.
And rhythm wasn't far behind.
एक दो तीन ... Madhuri swinging her hips to one of the most popular songs of that decade. A star was born, And we had great fun learning the lyrics, remembering what each day stood for, arguing about whether a particular line was from "his" song or "hers".
कबूतर जा जा जा ... Where QSQT led, MPK followed. I have to admit, I never was a fan of this movie. It was silly, the songs were marginal, the actors simpered along. But boy, you could not get away from that कबूतर for a long time.
But movie songs were finally coming into their own. Or maybe, I was coming into my own.
A Hindi movie generation encompasses the ages 13-21. That is when Indians watch the most movies, watch them with a hunger - for entertainment, fantasy and dreams. When we get older, we may still watch a lot of movies, but they are no longer magical. The teenage years, that's when movies grip us. Those are the times we forever remember as the "golden" years.. the days when movies were romantic, songs were melodious and actresses were beautiful. Ask any man my age, and he'll tell you - Aishwarya Rai is gorgeous, but she doesn't have the classiness or the earthy, sensuous appeal of Madhuri. And as for these girls nowadays, stick figures with no personality. Who can even tell them apart!
But this was my generation's music...
We sang खंबे जैसी खडी है on our last day in 10th standard. We listened to देखा है पहली बार from Saajan and thought it was so romantic (heck, we even thought Madhuri looked sophisticated in those hideous clothes).
When Aamir danced in slow motion to पहला नशा, I declared it the most beautiful song ever composed. The choreography was sheer magic - was it this movie that made Farah Khan a household name? How incredibly romantic it seemed, the hostel set in idyllic Dehradun. I was just a year away from going to college myself, and I indulged in some healthy fantasizing about how my college would be like the ones in this movie.
Ofcourse when I eventually got to that college... lets just say Pune is not Dehradun! But not to worry, fresh songs awaited, to take their place in my memories. The year I got to Pune, two very different songs blared from every music playing device in sight.
One was a truly unique song - unique in its lyrics, its melody, its choreography, in the fresh blooming beauty of its Nepali actress. एक लडकी को देखा skyrocketed to the top of the charts and refused to shift for anybody.
At about the same time, my neighbour began every single day with बाज़िगर, ए बाज़िगर blaring from his radio... And I never got sick of hearing it, as I dressed for college - in that temporary apartment with no furniture and so many memories.
Shah Rukh (aka the Khan, aka Boss) had come into our world. And throughout my college years, he was the sweetheart of all my friends. He was on a roll, he left an indelible mark with "kk..Kiran" and then got back to good guy mode with Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa - कब से करें हैं तेरा इंतज़ार...
Right from my first year in college, Shah Rukh had established himself as "King of the Indian teenager's heart". The "Queen's" position was occupied by Madhuri, but then along came a plump, dark skinned, ordinary looking girl with an unshapely nose - and deep, intense eyes. And they paired up in the defining movie of our generation..
Kajol standing in a field of flowers, a strumming guitar starts up, accompanied by her lover's voice... and then Lata's broken tuneless voice trembles - तुझे देखा तो ये जाना सनम ...
Kajol and Shah Rukh's undeniable chemistry, the lavish splendour of filthy rich NRI-dom, and gorgeous Punjabi weddings. Yes, DDLJ was the defining movie of my generation.
Not that there weren't other popular movies.. we were now entering the era of gross overexposure - every cable channel (of which there were now maybe 500) had their own song countdown shows, which provided endless advertisement for upcoming movies. These would usually contain just a single shot, a couple of lines from the song - teasers if you will. We were treated to countless repeats of the peanut hitting Madhuri's blue butt, before we saw the full version of दीदी तेरा देवर दीवाना ... Madhuri had put up a fight for her crown, HAHK was the highest grossing movie of all time.
But while the actors battled it out, there was a quiet revolution afoot in Hindi music... thanks to a Tamil movie named Roja, and a boy genius named AR Rahman. Chinna Chinna Aasai - and Hindi music would never be the same again. And just as Shah Rukh and Kajol were the actors of our generation, AR Rahman was our composer. Urmila swaying to याई रे याई रे and Arvind Swamy singing तू ही रे ... these are what got us through the tough slogging at college.
After college, I moved to Bangalore and the first movie I saw there was Dil to Pagal Hai. A good movie, with nice songs. But for the life of me, I can't explain the power they have over me. Any song from this movie hits me like long lost personal memory. To this day, listening to दिल तो पागल है or अरे रे अरे or even भोली सी सूरत fills my heart with aching nostalgia. Nostalgia for what... my first days of freedom and independence? The Bangalore roommates with whom I shared so much more than rooms and meals? Who knows.. But one line from any of these songs sends my mind flying to the little bungalow on Ulsoor Road, makes my heart heavy with longing.
Not that I heard no other good songs in Bangalore. Yet another candidate for the "best song I have ever heard" came along the very next year.. Shah Rukh (yes, him again) dancing on the roof of a train, the music echoing the train's repetitive motion - छैया छैया ... to this day I cannot listen to it without bursting out in song myself.
I was almost past the "movie generation" now, but there was room for another Shah Rukh, Kajol starrer - no prizes for guessing which - तुम पास आये, यूँ मुस्कुराये, - a whole new "generation" was in college now, and ready to fall in love with Shah Rukh and Kajol.
But she made the mistake of getting married. And left the stage open for another heroine to step up. I watched Aishwarya pick up this mantle with हम दिल दे चुके सनम .. the last major movie I watched before I left India.
Not that I have been unmoved by Hindi movies ever since, of course.
Hrithik Roshan made me sit up and take notice when he danced to एक पल का जीना in Kaho Na Pyaar Hai.
Aamir Khan went for quality cinema when he "came of age" jumping up and down and yelling कोई कहे, कहता रहे ...
Ajay Devgan showed that he could pick good movies too, and swept me up in his patriotic fervour with सरफरोशी की तमन्ना ...
And the evergreen Shah Rukh Khan brought me full circle when he reprised one of Amitabh's most famous roles, and danced to one of his most popular songs. After all, who can resist
खैके पान बनारस वाला, खुल जाये बंद अक्ल का ताला ...
I can trace my personal timeline back with Hindi movie songs! You know, the way we often look back at important milestones in life, the first day of college, the graduation ceremony.. I can name the popular movie songs playing at all those milestones, the soundtrack of my life, if you will.
Bear with me, my friends, as I take a nostalgia soaked trip down memory lane.
प्यार हुआ, इक्रार हुआ है ... growing up, my parents were always playing golden oldies - from the time they were young. Ah, for romance, you can't beat black and white movies!
The eighties, while I was in school, were bad years for music. The movies were the kind spawned by Amitabh-mania. Movies that gave us such gems as मर्द तांगेवाला हूँ मैं।
पापा कहते हैं ... like a breath of fresh air across this desolate action packed landscape, came a charming college love story. A love story! It took the teenage crowd by storm, and us pre-teens too. We were still nostalgically singing that college graduation song when we graduated from college almost a decade later. Finally, melody was back in Hindi cinema.
And rhythm wasn't far behind.
एक दो तीन ... Madhuri swinging her hips to one of the most popular songs of that decade. A star was born, And we had great fun learning the lyrics, remembering what each day stood for, arguing about whether a particular line was from "his" song or "hers".
कबूतर जा जा जा ... Where QSQT led, MPK followed. I have to admit, I never was a fan of this movie. It was silly, the songs were marginal, the actors simpered along. But boy, you could not get away from that कबूतर for a long time.
But movie songs were finally coming into their own. Or maybe, I was coming into my own.
A Hindi movie generation encompasses the ages 13-21. That is when Indians watch the most movies, watch them with a hunger - for entertainment, fantasy and dreams. When we get older, we may still watch a lot of movies, but they are no longer magical. The teenage years, that's when movies grip us. Those are the times we forever remember as the "golden" years.. the days when movies were romantic, songs were melodious and actresses were beautiful. Ask any man my age, and he'll tell you - Aishwarya Rai is gorgeous, but she doesn't have the classiness or the earthy, sensuous appeal of Madhuri. And as for these girls nowadays, stick figures with no personality. Who can even tell them apart!
But this was my generation's music...
We sang खंबे जैसी खडी है on our last day in 10th standard. We listened to देखा है पहली बार from Saajan and thought it was so romantic (heck, we even thought Madhuri looked sophisticated in those hideous clothes).
When Aamir danced in slow motion to पहला नशा, I declared it the most beautiful song ever composed. The choreography was sheer magic - was it this movie that made Farah Khan a household name? How incredibly romantic it seemed, the hostel set in idyllic Dehradun. I was just a year away from going to college myself, and I indulged in some healthy fantasizing about how my college would be like the ones in this movie.
Ofcourse when I eventually got to that college... lets just say Pune is not Dehradun! But not to worry, fresh songs awaited, to take their place in my memories. The year I got to Pune, two very different songs blared from every music playing device in sight.
One was a truly unique song - unique in its lyrics, its melody, its choreography, in the fresh blooming beauty of its Nepali actress. एक लडकी को देखा skyrocketed to the top of the charts and refused to shift for anybody.
At about the same time, my neighbour began every single day with बाज़िगर, ए बाज़िगर blaring from his radio... And I never got sick of hearing it, as I dressed for college - in that temporary apartment with no furniture and so many memories.
Shah Rukh (aka the Khan, aka Boss) had come into our world. And throughout my college years, he was the sweetheart of all my friends. He was on a roll, he left an indelible mark with "kk..Kiran" and then got back to good guy mode with Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa - कब से करें हैं तेरा इंतज़ार...
Right from my first year in college, Shah Rukh had established himself as "King of the Indian teenager's heart". The "Queen's" position was occupied by Madhuri, but then along came a plump, dark skinned, ordinary looking girl with an unshapely nose - and deep, intense eyes. And they paired up in the defining movie of our generation..
Kajol standing in a field of flowers, a strumming guitar starts up, accompanied by her lover's voice... and then Lata's broken tuneless voice trembles - तुझे देखा तो ये जाना सनम ...
Kajol and Shah Rukh's undeniable chemistry, the lavish splendour of filthy rich NRI-dom, and gorgeous Punjabi weddings. Yes, DDLJ was the defining movie of my generation.
Not that there weren't other popular movies.. we were now entering the era of gross overexposure - every cable channel (of which there were now maybe 500) had their own song countdown shows, which provided endless advertisement for upcoming movies. These would usually contain just a single shot, a couple of lines from the song - teasers if you will. We were treated to countless repeats of the peanut hitting Madhuri's blue butt, before we saw the full version of दीदी तेरा देवर दीवाना ... Madhuri had put up a fight for her crown, HAHK was the highest grossing movie of all time.
But while the actors battled it out, there was a quiet revolution afoot in Hindi music... thanks to a Tamil movie named Roja, and a boy genius named AR Rahman. Chinna Chinna Aasai - and Hindi music would never be the same again. And just as Shah Rukh and Kajol were the actors of our generation, AR Rahman was our composer. Urmila swaying to याई रे याई रे and Arvind Swamy singing तू ही रे ... these are what got us through the tough slogging at college.
After college, I moved to Bangalore and the first movie I saw there was Dil to Pagal Hai. A good movie, with nice songs. But for the life of me, I can't explain the power they have over me. Any song from this movie hits me like long lost personal memory. To this day, listening to दिल तो पागल है or अरे रे अरे or even भोली सी सूरत fills my heart with aching nostalgia. Nostalgia for what... my first days of freedom and independence? The Bangalore roommates with whom I shared so much more than rooms and meals? Who knows.. But one line from any of these songs sends my mind flying to the little bungalow on Ulsoor Road, makes my heart heavy with longing.
Not that I heard no other good songs in Bangalore. Yet another candidate for the "best song I have ever heard" came along the very next year.. Shah Rukh (yes, him again) dancing on the roof of a train, the music echoing the train's repetitive motion - छैया छैया ... to this day I cannot listen to it without bursting out in song myself.
I was almost past the "movie generation" now, but there was room for another Shah Rukh, Kajol starrer - no prizes for guessing which - तुम पास आये, यूँ मुस्कुराये, - a whole new "generation" was in college now, and ready to fall in love with Shah Rukh and Kajol.
But she made the mistake of getting married. And left the stage open for another heroine to step up. I watched Aishwarya pick up this mantle with हम दिल दे चुके सनम .. the last major movie I watched before I left India.
Not that I have been unmoved by Hindi movies ever since, of course.
Hrithik Roshan made me sit up and take notice when he danced to एक पल का जीना in Kaho Na Pyaar Hai.
Aamir Khan went for quality cinema when he "came of age" jumping up and down and yelling कोई कहे, कहता रहे ...
Ajay Devgan showed that he could pick good movies too, and swept me up in his patriotic fervour with सरफरोशी की तमन्ना ...
And the evergreen Shah Rukh Khan brought me full circle when he reprised one of Amitabh's most famous roles, and danced to one of his most popular songs. After all, who can resist
खैके पान बनारस वाला, खुल जाये बंद अक्ल का ताला ...
