Those hidden gems…

In one of the most endearing and adorable Hindi movies of all times, the hero is seen dancing with his friends to a catchy song (which would go on to become a staple wedding song across the country). He is playfully teasing the bride(his love interest), asking her to keep her hands dyed with heena and keep the veil guarded. A few stanzas later, our recently returned NRI girl with her desi sanskaars urges the hero to bury his heartfelt words deep inside his heart. The song comes to an end when the dreadfully strict (read boring) father of the girl appears on the screen. Yeah, the same one who got bored of feeding kabootars in the Trafalgar square and came back to motherland India to feed more pigeons in the never ending mustard fields. For a moment the audience thinks that he has maa-behen-ed the entire jovial mood. But a spilt second later he breaks into an old classic melody, ae meri zohra zabeen!. The audience bursts into applause, with a few tears of joy here and there, his laajo coyly runs into his arms and the song resumes with renewed revelry. My point? There is a certain charm in hearing an fitting song in a situation when you least expected it.The element of surprise in cinema spins amazing moments like these.

The things that hit you the most are the things that takes you by surprise. We love the element of surprise in movies. And I am not talking about the usual thrillers or suspense movies. This post is about Bollywood movies (the genre I know best) and the “hidden” /“surprise” songs in them. Some of them are rehashed old classics, some were never released on the official soundtrack, and some were borrowed/notoriously “inspired” from other movies/artists. I took the example of DDLJ above, which I guess every Bollywood fan can relate to, to give you a flavor of what this post is all about. Like Yash chopra mastered the art of “medley” songs in his movies.(remember Lamhe?). The medley ususally does the trick, a la maine pyar kiya, where the hyper cute Bhagyashree and lover boy Sallu sang “Mr India’s” classic “I love you” to confess their love. One of my childhood favorites is the scene when Rani Mukherjee sings “om jai jagdish” during her college ragging in K2H2. This post however is less about these iconic songs/situations but more about recent Bollywood movies and how they used songs which were either not part of their official soundtrack, or borrowed/remixed songs of yore. So here are a few of my favorite hidden Bollywood gems in recent years, in no particular order.

1. Boodon ke motiyon main – Wake up Sid

Amit Trivedi has been delivering absolutely amazing songs for the past few years. He has been a constant favorite ever since his (now cult) Dev D catapulted him to fame. Wake up sid is a classic example of a movie where the guest composer stole the show from the main composers and how! Amit Trivedi added volumes to an otherwise tepid soundtrack by giving us the mellifluous Iktara  (and with the it the sensational find Kavita Seth). Even better is the male version of Iktara which was not included in the soundtrack. The movie is peppered with many such hidden gems. But the song that I am including here is “boodon ke motiyon main”-sweet and simple-Mumbai in monsoons-as if rains have washed away all its sins and added a newfound innocence to an intimidating city. The song does complete justice to the penultimate moments of the movie with two pinning lovers running across a city drenched in love and rain.

2. Abhi na jao chhod kar – Mausam

Mausam turned out to be an awful film, but it had so much potential(directed by Pankaj kapoor). I went to see it primarily because it was extensively shot in Edinburgh, Scotland (where I used to live at that time) and I wanted to play “spot-the-location”. Around the same time I had read an absolutely amazing book, One day, which remains one of my favorite books about ill-feted lovers. Mausam was along the same lines, but somehow it became a pain to sit through. To give the credit where it’s due, I would say it had a few very romantic scenes, like the one where the two lovers exchange glances without uttering a word, and also that magical scene where the ink from a hand written note dissolves in water. But one song that stood out was this rendition of the classic song Abhi na jao chhod kar by the ever dependable Shreya Ghosal. It was the best thing about the movie that could have been so much more but ended up a dud. Such was the impact of Shreya’s voice that next day I went to take a walk on the street where this song was shot and the haunting voice came back to me. This song will also remain special for an amazing city, Edinburgh, which I sorely miss.

3. Filmien shilme chalti thi – Desi Boyz

The absurdity of Desi boyz doesn’t lie in the fact that it shows people working as gigolos. That’s all fine. But it glorifies becoming gigolo as a legitimate career option in recession hit economies. It matched stupidity levels with another outrageous movie “Julie”-which blatantly glorified the fact that it is okay for a well-educated girl to become an escort just to avenge the guy who ditched her. Logic anyone! Julie was many moons ago, our Desi boyz were even better educated. (Akshay kumar returns to Trinity college after so many years, duh!) Looking at it just for the sake of entertainment value would still make it a time-passable film. Also, for the sake of Pritam’s peppy soundtrack. The best song that didn’t make it to the album but was used in the movie is a superb song “Filme shilme chalti thi” by a Pakistani singer Shahvaar Ali Khan. This song invokes strong nostalgia and emotions. In fact this is one the best songs about nostalgia. The lyrics are superb to say the least. The film didn’t deserve this song, but this was still used in a very apt manner.

4. Khoya khoya chaand – Shaitaan

Much has been written about the scintillating chase sequence and amazing re-mastering of this classic khoya khoya chaand. Almost same technique was used with Agent Vinod in the “Raabata” song. Shaitan remains one of my most favorite Hindi soundtracks of recent times. It almost unanimously got big thumbs up for two classis remixes – khoya khoya chand and Hawa hawai. Suman Sreedhar’s voice hits you like a bullet -One of those very few remixes which take a legendary song to another realm altogether.

5. Lagan laagi re – Trishna

Amit Trivedi is my current favorite Bollywood music director, neck to neck with Rahmaan. He has been facing some flak for being repetitive (just like Rahman), but boy, does he work magic or what! I got a chance to watch Trishna on Netflix. It was just about okay- Michael Winterbottom’s reworking of the French novel Tess of the d’Urbervilles, with otherwise incapable Frieda pinto doing a decent job. But it was this song that became an instant favorite even before I had heard of the movie. As far as I know Trishna’s soundtrack remains unreleased, which is a pity; because it’s peppered with usual Trivedi delights. Lagan lagi re is one the rare few songs which hook you from the word go. Shreya ghosal and Kavita seth( Ikatara fame) are sensational throughout.

6. Kaun hoon main – Ek main aur ek tu

I didn’t like the movie that much, definitely not what reviewers made it to be. Somehow I feel religiously following the “500 days of summer” template wouldn’t always work for me. The film has a superb soundtrack though, thanks to Mr Trivedi again( I am not surprised that he gets so many in my list). This song was shared by my friend Deepak(@angrykopite) and he said this song was by Clinton Cerejo. I will take his word. This is soothing gem of an opener which sets the mood of the film.

I couldn’t think of any other such songs as of now, but I am sure there are plenty of others out there, new and old which have made ways into special memories. The songs that I have listed above may not have had the same effect that my DDLJ example has had, but they have still been impactful and enjoyable.

PS: I guess there would be many other songs like these used in movies recently. The latest example of them being -“ajeeb dastan hai ye” in the movie “Bombay Talkies”. If you happen to know some more, please do comment and I will come up with a part 2 of this post.

PPS: this post marks the return of my filmi blogs, but I have been rather disillusioned with Bollywood movies and Indian cinema in general after a few encounters with people  outside India who knew nothing about our movies and a few who knew a little too much. That was a challenge indeed to explain Bollywood and its workings. I will probably save the details of those eye opening conversations for another blog post.