I have thought over this many times. Singing is equal to acting. Composing is equal to directing. Isn’t it the same thing? Ultimately you have to express emotions, right? If this analogy is applied, dialogues in a scene are equal to lyrics in a song. Let’s go back to our main aim… expressing emotions. So if a song is composed and sung, it has to convey what its lyrics say, giving justice to each and every word in the song.
Right since when I started thinking like this, I started paying attention to every word in the song. I started looking for translations in case the song is in other regional language… Punjabi, Tamil, Telagu, Malyalam, Kannada, Bengali, Gujarati…so on. I started understanding the song more just than mere enjoying the music. This process not only helped me in building up my vocabulary of other languages, but also allowed me to see the beauty in the world of words.
Many times it happens that even if we know the meaning of every word, we don’t really tend to listen to what is being sung, we only tend to grasp the overall mood… But trust me, if you make this your habit to understand it as a poem, you will love the songs even more…!
Talking about bollywood, we are getting really class lyrics from many talented lyricist such as Sayeed Quadri, Swanand Kirikire, Prasoon Joshi, Irshad Kamil, Nilesh Misra, Javed Akhtar, Amitabh Bhattacharya. Sometimes I wonder how can these people write so meaningful lines? Do they have experienced all this in their life? Better we leave this question for lyricist themselves to answer! If anyone of you writes often, poems etc, you should answer me this too… is that all experienced by you, or part of it may be inspired? Or it’s just something you have thought of?
Speaking about the main topic “Stumbling upon the lyrics”, I can give you some examples of what I am talking about. Whenever I listen to these particular songs, I stumble upon these lyrics… these words don’t allow me to go on listening to the song, they compel me to rewind to that part of song again and again … or rather they tell me to play that song for that particular part only…!
चाहे जो तुम्हे पुरे दिल से,
मिलता है वो मुश्किल से,
ऐसा जो कोई कही है,
बस वो ही सब से हसीन है,
उस हाथ को, तुम थाम लो,
वो मेहेरबान, कल हो न हो
I heard this song when I was 14. I don’t think I quite understood this at that time. And I don’t even remember when I understood/paid attention to these words… may be when I was 17/18. But now, Kal ho na ho title track = above words. That’s the equation.
Subhan Allah – Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani
Although this particular song is way too beautifully written, I always stumble upon Shilpa’s lines…
कल नहीं थी जो आज लगती हु,
तारीफ़ मेरी है खामखाँ, तोहफा है तेरा…मेरी अदा
Wow, this tells how much one person has changed the other one. She says that I haven’t done anything to look more beautiful. It’s all due to the change that you have brought in me…
सदियों से तरसे है जैसी जिंदगी के लिए,
तेरी सोहोबत में दुवाये है उसी के लिए
तेरा मिलना है उस रब का इशारा मानो मुझको बनाया तेरे जैसे ही किसी के लिए
How many more examples should I give? I don’t understand if this change in me has made me realize this beauty/ or was it always that beautiful?
जाते जाते अमित त्रिवेदी साहाब की आवाज कानोमें गूंज रही है ….
ऐ जिंदगी, हमे सोहोबतों का नशा है, ये सोहोबते यारों की…
ऐ जिंदगी हमे होश की न दवा दे …. दुआ दे .. दुआ दे….. !
