Today on a happy day, my phone was getting a reboot and I
switched on the radio. I have a love hate relationship with the radio. The dumb
RJs with dumb programming and irritating advertising that doesn’t connect with
anything. Luckily for the new retro channels which play some good (my age) music
and thanks to the lack of advertising, have some interesting programming. They are
getting some good guys to come in and chat with on the radio channels who are
talking about the music they created or the movies they were in with some real
life insights and anecdotes. This makes the programming so rich. Like today
some lady (I did not catch the name) was talking about RD Burman (always) and
Asha Bhosle (again almost always) and the song Jaan – e – jaaa… oh meri jaane
jaaa…. Nisha aaa aaa aa
It was a song that I was listened to as a kid. It was a fun
song in which I think as kids we used to cream aloud and dance. It was released
in 1982 – when I was about 7, which is an impressionable age. It was an awesome
song then and is an awesome sing now, but what a singer who has worked with the
music director RD Burman said, made me hear the song in a new light. She said
that RD tried to get Asha to sing like a musical instrument in the song. She
was talking of some musical instrument (she was also not sure) in which there
is pedal or something and the noise oscillates in waves. I did not understand
what she said till she sang the song on radio. I came to office and I played it
and now that I understand it a little better, I have come to appreciate it a
lot more. In the song Asha sings – Jaan e jaaaaaaaaaaaa, oh meri jaan e
jaaaaaaaaa. As kids we would scream out this aaaaaaaaaaa in a single tone. Its
only today I understood that this aaaaaaaaaa sounds awesome because it is here
that RD made Asha sing the aaaaaaaaaa part in a wave like oscillation. That is
the genius of this song which is so easy to miss the nuance while so easy to
love the whole. Which is so impossible to bring out for an untrained singer. At
least while I was singing to myself, I could clearly hear myself make a
complete hash out of it.
Here listen to the song and pay attention. Of course,
forgive the poor Kamal Hasan dancing like a twerp in the song and the stupid
bike entry, largely forgiven purely by Reena Roy’s awesome smile and oh so
lovely long hair with the stylish fringe. It’s like a complete reconciliation
of the traditional beauty and a touch of modernity. And of course do not miss
the scene in which she dreams about kissing him all over with him being left
with lipstick marks all over his face, but no marks on the oh so sensitive
lips! The confusion of 1982 India is to be seen to be believed in this movie
song.
Over a period of time I have learnt to respect the Bollywood
film industry as the best marketing brains in the country. It is not possible
to deliver a hit without really identifying with the core audience and having a
pulse on their attitudes and dreams and desires. Movies that become hits are
the ones that connect with the audience, without which the audience is very
clear – he is not going to part with his money and time.
In fact, while I teach marketing, my favorite lecture is in
which I explain how movies and heroes have gotten their marketing right to
become super stars. They connect with the screen personas with carefully
nurtured off screen personas. This is the example I use to explain how super
stars like brands have to mean one and only one thing to the people and the
closer they are to one thing the closer they are to real meaning.
Another song that played on the radio was from Arjun. A
movie released in 1985. This was when I was ten years old and I remember that
era of India when there was NO hope. None what so ever. You could only get rich
if you were corrupt or tyrannical or a goon or all of the above. You could get
educated but there was nowhere to go once you got educated. There weren’t enough
jobs and whatever jobs were there were gone to people with some influence or
some friend to recommend them. It was a complete wasted generation in many ways.
This movie reflected the anger of the youth. These young guys were obviously
educated and were looking for jobs. The main hero leads a gang of young men,
all in formal dressing, as they are all looking for jobs and want to be
employed. What I remember of the movie is that they don’t get any employment
and are just hanging around the neighborhood. It captures multiple emotions.
The movie touches a raw nerve – that your youth is good and powerful. They
study and they are unemployed because of society and not because they want to
remain so. They have an energy that must be harnessed. The youth in the movie
at first are seen as a nuisance as they roam around unemployed and then as the villains
strike, the same youth use the only the only thing that god has given them
(their youth) and fight back. Now the transformation from young, lost and
unemployed to young, hailed and purposeful is complete.
At the end even the father comes and tells his child that he
was right. It sent a signal to the young and unemployed that they were not
wasted but were a being wasted thanks to the system. The feeling was universal
and as I saw up on Wikipedia the movie was then translated into multiple
languages showing how the issues were widespread across India.
Here is the song – mamaiyo kero kero kero mama
The entire song is set in
public spaces with the gang bordering on lawlessness and at the end you
also see the hero riding a Pitch roller which is being pulled by his team, in
the middle of the Mumbai roads – How’s that for complete cock a snook at the system.
Its funny why this clip is on daily motion and not on
youtube. Must be some royalty quirk. A movie like this, no matter how well made
would just have no relevance today. Kids find their love soon enough and get
drafted into the system that is giving them some jobs, mobile phones and T
shirts to order and wear. They don’t need to use violence to save the society. They
probably just need a cell phone camera, or a tweet then and then some social
shares.
Check this
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