Shailendra

20 Pages·1991·4.9 MB·English

by  Moholkar, Madhav

Shailendra
~lADHAVMOHOlKAR
T he first meeting between myself and Shailendra is stillfresh in my
memory.The school where I wasstudying 20years ago,at Solapur,
washoused in a building of which the ground 1100r wasa theatre,
thesecond1100rwasalso a theatre, and there waseven atheatre nextdoor.
Theschool,on the first 1100r, was thus in the midst of theatres. In those
days, loudspeakers were placed not only Insidebut outside the theatres, so
that the songs could be heard and enjoyed by all and sundry. The
preliminary examinations for matriculation were on, silence reigned
Supreme in the class and outside, when suddenly around 4 or 4.30 in the
afternoon the lilting note of a Western musical instrument rose high and
clearandthen dropped. My hand, poisedon the answersheet, autornatical
lystopped. Following the note came Mukesh's irrepressible voice, like
splashing water:
'«r.ll q;JR t ftml\ 'r.R i
~~-m-au ~,
~~.~q;mi!
Mukesh, who usually sang in a sober, sad voice, was singing with
ab?~don. The words too were intoxicating, heady. I was about to start
WrtllDg again When, after a momentary pause, Lata's soul-stirring call
echoed,'piercing the atmosphere, rending the heavens, tugging at the
heart-stnngs...
31T 31T 'lI -.rt lR ~ 'ITWI
31T 'lI ilu ~ iI 'R L .
Ii I stopped writing. The exclamation of a man craving a free, ~nfetlered
feonthe one hand and the soulful anguishofa womanthwartedInJoveon
the other: .
: ~*re~'fiRt
~ ~ ~ iIiOit 'lit "l'i'
SangeetNatal< No. 100 : April-June 1991
91 MADHAV MOHOLKAR
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This was the first song of Shailendra's 1ever heard. This wasour-his
and mine- indirect introduction to eachother. The charm of thatsonghas
never ebbed for me. (I had then felt that because the song had such
spontaneity, the lyricist would have written the song first, and themusic
..
Shanker. Sbeitcndre, Raj Khosla. and Mukesh at a 'sitting', Courtesy: Raju Bharatan.
~~
~HAILENDRA 93
director would then have composed music which could do justice to the
contraryfeelingsexpressed inthe song.Itwasabout14or 15yearslater that
IleamtfromShailendrathatthemusic had alreadybeen composedwhenhe
wasasked to write the song.) 'Barsat mein hum se mile tum' and 'Patli
kamarhei'were the first two songs Shailendrawrote after enteringthe film
world.
IsawShailendraforthe first timeat Ahmedabad,some timeduring '57or
'58. A programme had been arranged at the Town Hall for Talat and
Shailendra. Talat, with his melodious voice, enchanted everyone. Shailen
dra presented an innovative programme equally successfully. First, he
narratedthe situation against which one of his songs had been filmed, then
recited the lyricin his inimitable style, and then played the tape-recording.
All thesongswere new then;they had neither been heard before, nor were
theyavailable in the market. The programme was loudly applauded. 'Sab
kuchh sikha humne, na sikhi hoshiari' and 'Kisiko kisipe bharosa
nahin'-he recited these songs from the films Anadi and Ujsle. I must
con~ess here that after having heard his songs and before having met
Shallendra, I had imagined to myself what he would look like-and Imust
say that he turned out exactly as I had pictured him. (This kind of thing
happensbut rarely.) A darkish,lean youthwith determinedeyesand avery
attractivesmile. Later, whenever I saw him smiling, I remembered Renu's
words: .~ ~ "'" ~ ~ <it _ oil -.fuI "" ~ ~ 1j:;l <lOill ~!"
.Wemet,Shailendra and I, for the first time inJanuary'64,whenIvisited
him at Rimjhim, his bungalow at Khar (Barsathad proved verysuccessful,
hence Rimjhim. His production concern then was Image Makers). To an
Outs.ide~ inBombay like me he explained with affection and ingr:at.detail
theIOtTlcacies of making a kavisammelan successful'. What a relief Itwas
forme when he arrived punctually in his car at Ismail ,:usuf ~olle~e. He
was to be the president of the kavi sammelan. He came In whiteshirt and
trousers,wearing a sweaterand chappals, carrying a tin of555cigarettesin
~IS ~So p~ckets.
hand. many of his hit songs had been scribbled on cigarette
hhen.the Inspiration came.) 'Dost dost no raha,pyarpyarn~ raha,zmdagl
~em tera aitbar na raha'- the students were mesmerized when he
reCIte? this lyric. Sangam was yet to be released. .
Istittremember an episode from that sammeJan.Prof. Shankar Vaidya
had bl' d h .
pu tshed a review of an anthologyof poems in AJochana,an t erem
had '" 1 Whil
. CTltIclzed poets who recited and wrote only for app ause. I e
Introducing Vaidya to Shailendra, I purposely repeated this comment. His
, ,
Thueauthor was Visiting ShaiJendra to invite him for a iavi sammelan. a poets' meet, at his
coege-:-Tr.
94 MADHAV MOHOLKAR
reaction was: "Betterwe, the lyricists, who write for pre-composedmusic,
than those so-called poets who sing their poems. Our songs at least afford
pleasure when heard on records, whereas these so-called poets elicitsome
applause when they are heard-but later one realizes one has beentaken
for a ride."
Thereafter, inthe next three years, we met often. We spoke freely, with
candour. He wasa goodtalker-soft-spoken, modest, sweet, confidentand
candid. Whenever I tried (purposely, of course) to irritate him, hequietly
and patiently heard me out and then presented his argument boldly,
backing it up with strong reason, nullifying my criticism. He was never
evasiveordeviousor brusque. He knew he had asparkofgeniusinhimand
was justly proud of it. But there was no arrogance in him. And this inan
industry where the prevailing belief among the leaders is that thesanityof
the world collectively resides in them! Outsiders are just fools! This s
perhaps the reason whythe luminaries inthe world offilmstalk incessantly.
Iwasverykeen towrite on Shailendraand had repeatedly urgedhimtoget
all his lyrics together for me. It is a painstaking, time-consuming jobto
collectfilm-songbooks (which are usually fullof mistakes) and rewritethe
songs. But he alwaysavoided this and till the end never did givemeallhis
songs. When I would pester him, he would say: "Forget it yar! You
professors have so many great poets to write about". He had slidfrom'ap'
to 'yar' so naturally. Once he told me why he got along so wellwith m~.
During one of our telephone conversations I had told him that inhis lyne
'Ramayya vastavayya' the lines
m, m
~ 3lI1it Ii::<'f ~
m
31'f.t 1fl 'lit lflRT " 31I'IT
'l." am< <it qqr, 'WI 0!11( <it qqr
"lR ~ 'FfRJ " 31I'IT m...
wouldcome to mymindtime and again. He had referredto thisandtoldme
later: "After you spoke to me I had the feeling that I could get alongWIth
you, for, you see, I myself have loved these lines dearly". ,
Shailendra's memory of how the tiny seed of this song took rootinhis
mind isalsoverypoetic. He wasborn inRawalpindion30August1923.lfu
ur·
father was a military man. Shailendra remembered the nights inKohm
ree, now in Pakistan, as a child. He would hear funny noises inthemght,
but he could neverbe certainwhethertheywere made byanimalsorgho~:d
He would be unable to sleep for fear and would never know whenhe
slippedinto slumber. Inthe morning the front doorwouldnotopenbecause
of the snow. His father would sweep the snow away. In the winter.
Shailendra would sit on the bedensconced in a rug. His father, whohadto
att.end the morning parade, would go to his bathsinging:Thisimage ofthe
child Krishna, impressed on his mind then, was never completely erased.
Andthe song his mother would sing while grindinggrain: 'Hanspoochbe
Janakpur ki nar...' This was his first introduction to song, music, poetry.
Hecouldalsorememberthe first night hedirectlyparticipated inmusicand
song. On the night of Basant Panchami the followers of the Shivnarayan
sect wouldsing during arati-'Din daya:a-a-/krips-s-e-l mahaprabho, din
daya-a-a_/ kripa-a-a-Jmahaprabho...'-'-and Shailendra would join them
!ustdy. He would play the drum (Duff). He felt one must be born withan
innate senseofrhythm, because there were peoplewhocouldlearn nothing
about.rhythm though they spent a lifetime trying to learn it.
S?adendra had to leave college for family reasons and take up an
englOeering apprenticeship. His pursuit of literature suffered. His Hindi
SPrhoaf.essor lamented: "So now you will write poems on m~ch.mes, eh?."
dendra was not aware then that machines could also smg, but soon
fOundout thatonecouldsingalongwithmachines.InplaceoftheTanpura.
thed 'hh
ronecould come from the hum ofa machine. Ifonegot thesang t, e
Would . h t
say, one could sing the cool songs of moonlight even on 0
afternoons.
% MADHAV MOHOLKAR
And so he spent seven or eight yearsin Bombay in the Railways,singing
to the drone of machines. He was staying in the Railway colonyatParel.
Whileworkinginthe factoryShailendra watched life closely.Hesawpeople
from variouscornersof India,he found Indian unity amid socialinequality.
He worked for the trade unions. Duringthis time the horrible povertyand
social inequality he witnessed made a lasting impression on him. On
pay-day there would be shops selling sweetmeats and clothes beforethe
gates. And there would be Pathans and moneylenders to collect their
interest from the workers. One had just to step out of the gatestobe
stopped by them. Poverty, like a leech, had stuck to the country andcrores
ofpeoplewere indebted,eatingtheircrust of bread with tears intheireyes.
All this made him feel concerned. In a metropolitan city like Bombaythe
homeless, living on pavements, roaming aimlessly day and night, doing
whatever work came their way, eating if they could, going hungry
otherwise, committing petty thefts whenever the opportunity arose...be
sawscores ofsuch people. Togetherwith this, he saw the richlollinginthe
lap of luxury in high-rise buildings. He was revolted. His songswritten
during those days were sung before thousands of people in meetings and
marches. They were published in Naya Sebitye and Hense. ThereWa!
anguish in those songs and there was vigour too.
But, as he always said, this period gave him an opportunity to study
people at close quarters and understand their lives, their likes and
dislikes-all of which paid rich dividends when he became a lyricist.
He felt it was better to be aware of oneself as a common humanbelDg
rather than a poet. An artist does not fall from the heavens, he isjusta
.human being-for, if he is not, how is he to know and understand the
happinessandsorrows ofmankind and howis he to voice them?Shailendra
w?uld say: "This I in Me (the human being in me) has sometimesthro~~
aside the poet's mantle and has forcibly brought the lyricist in meto01)
senses. The poet in me still carries the wounds inflicted by the nailsofthe
human being in me. But the poet in me has ironed and kept ready.the
me~cerized
dhoti and the silk kutts for the right opportunity. (A parrof
delicate spectacles is also lying unused because the eyesight of thehuntall
. . , th'
III me IS sharp yet!) But there has been no opportunity to use these- •
paraphernalia of a poet- so far!"
Shailendra felt that artists who consider common men to be fools and
thei ' whal
err preterencesbase eitherhaven'tbeenable to recognize peopletor
they are, or haven't the capacity to write anything beautiful andgood·
Shailcndrawas not a poet to caterto the tastes ofthe chosen few.Hewasa
people's poet. Hundreds of his songs were so written that they could:e
hummed by anybody-songs that pertained to man and man alone,
SHAILENDRA 97
feelings portrayed being the feelings of any human being. This was the
secret of his success.
InthosedaysShailendra wasa memberofthe culturalorganization lITA
(Indian People's Theatre Association). This was in 1946. Raj Kapoor was
thenworkingwith Papaji (Prithviraj Kapoor) in Prithvi Theatres and had
juststartedwork on hisfirst film. Once, while attendingan IITA function,
heheard Shailendra sing a song on the stage: 'Mori bagiya mein ag laga
gayoregora psrdesi...' The feelings expressed in the song touched Raj
Kapoor deeply. (Shailendra's sister, while playing in the streets of
Kohmurree, was once hurt by a stone spitefully flung by some convent
students.There was blood. Shailendra never forgot thisfirst experience of
theinjusticeofslavery. He expressed hisbitternesstowards foreignruleina
number of patriotic songs.) Raj Kapoor wanted a song portraying the
horrible holocaust of partition for his film Aag. He went up to Shailendra
andintroduced himself: "I am Prithviraj Kapoor'sson and am producinga
film called Aag. Will you write songs for this film?"
"No!" Shailendra cut short this opening gambit with a single"word.
Raj Kapoor of course had not expected this answer. He tried to talk of
money, but there was no reaction from Shailendra. Later, in a short but
tenderarticleon Shailendra, Raj Kapoorwrote: "Inthosedaystheindustry
wasdancingto the tune of tum-tuma-tum-tum*anditwasbut naturalthat a
creativepoet likeShailendrashouldhave no loveforfilms".Shailendrahad
c1e.a~ly told him: "I do not write for money and I see no other reason for
wntmg for your film. So why should I write your songs?"
~esewordswoulddo a film heroproud! But thisishowithappenedand
Raj Kapoor was hurt. Both were young and of the same age. "A~I fight:
Cometo me when you feel like it. You are alwayswelcome".SosaymgRaj
Kapoorleft, but the negative reply had made an impact. He wasattracted
towards this man.
"Aag was produced without Shailendra's songs. Raj Kapoor started
preparations for Betset. And one day Shailendra suddenly appearedin his
office. "Doyou remember? You had onceaskedmeto writesongsforyour
film?"Shailendra's face carried the marks ofhard times,worry,andalittle
anger.
Raj.Kapoor said: "Yes, I remember." .
Shailendrasaid: "NowIneedmoney. Iwant 500rupees. Youcangiveme
any work you like."
Tospeakobliquelyorto be awed byotherswasnotShailendra'sway,and
r•eOgn~mfatopoeicsyllablesfromdrum-beatsconnotinghereamadrushforqu.ickga"msWI"thouI
ar Or scruples-Tr.
98 MADIIAV MOHOLKAR
that is whyRaj Kapoor felt that Shailendra was his true and honestfriend.
He was never overawed by Raj Kapoor when expressing his views or
criticizing him.
Thusit was that Raj Kapoor brought Shailendra to the filmindustryand
got him to writetwosongsforBarsar-e-the themesong,'Bstsstmeinhamse
mile tum', and'Petlikamarbsi',Bersst proved to be a runawaysuccessand
the script-writer Ramanand Sagar;the actor Prernnath, the actressNimmi,
Shanker-Jaikishan-the music duo-and Shailendra and Hasrat, the
lyricists-allof them became famous overnight. From Bsrsetto MeraNam
Joker,Shailendrawrote the songsfor allthe filmsproducedbyRaj Kapoor.
Every single time, Raj Kapoor got the theme song of his film writtenby
Shailendra.
The artist in Raj Kapoor and the poet in Shailendra complementedone
another.What Shailendrawantedto say, he couldexpressthrough thefilns
of Raj Kapoor. Both sincerely wanted their feelings to reach the common
man. One wasthepeople's artist, the other the people's poet.Theirwishes
and desires were one. Shailendra could touch the depths of Raj Kapoor's
mind. Raj Kapoor always admitted that the success and fame he hadwoo.
internationally were to a large extent due to 'Awara hun', 'Merajutab~
Japanf , and other songs written by Shailendra. A distinct imageofRaj
Kapoor was forged by these songs.
WhateverShailendra wrote came from his heart his innermost being.U
hewas not pleased withwhat he wrote,he would changeitagainandagain.
But once a song had been written as he wanted it, nothing and nobody
could make himchange it. Not even Raj Kapoor. Onone occasionShanker
t~ought that in the song 'Pyer hua ikrer hua', the words 'd~
drshayen'-in the line 'Rsten duson dishaon se kahengi apni kahamyatJ
-ought to bechangedbecause the laypublic would notgrasp themeaDing.
There was a tremendous quarrel and Shailendra told him: "You are to
compose the tune for the song. Writingthe song ismy job, and I knowvery
well how to do it". Eventually, Raj Kapoor sided with Shailendra.
The song in Aah, 'Raja ki eyegi beret'; beautifully sung by Lata
Mangeshkar, contains these lines:'Main bhiapniman kiashapaorikarunP
zaroor, ~ehn?i se peele honge hath, saheJion ke sath, magan m~
tuichungi', Raj Kapoor asked Shailendra: " 'Mehndise peelehongehath.
Couldn't we change that a little?" "What I have written is absOJute~
correct": saying this in a determined voice, Shailendra sat quiet. Untilhe
had absorbed the situation and awakened his emotions, Shailendra w?u1d
not sit down to write, withthe result that sometimeshe would avoidwnW!
fo~ mon~hs together. Raj Kapoor would get annoyed with him because0;
this habit, but then he would say: "IfShailendra had been writingfortb
SIIAILENDRA 99
love ofmoney, he would have been the owner of a number of buildingsin
Bombay". Raj Kapoor was tired of proddingShailendra to write the theme
song forMeraNam Joker. Eventually, when Shailendra did hand over the
mukhda (opening stanza) of the song, Raj Kapoor was ecstatic:
;;il;n 7@ 'R'lT ~, ~ fu'lJ OIRT ~
;;jj ~ "I'l .,m ~ ~. "Olf ~ <m "Olf it om
am -.m ~ om. ~ fum OIRT ~.
Raj Kapoor and Khwaja Ahmed Abbas together could not put forth the
truth about the Joker's fate that is expressed in these three lines. That
becomes clear after seeing the film. Thus the greatness of Shailendra was
underlined once again. But Shailendra left this world without writing
anything further-the song remained unfinished. There was no second
stanza. Later, Raj Kapoor tried to get it completed by many well known
poets, but nothing would satisfy him. Once Shailendra's son Shelley
Shailendra asked the irritated Raj Kapoor softly: "Shall I try, Uncle?"
"O.K.,let'ssee", Raj Kapoortold him.And what asurprise! Thesecond
stanz~written by Shelley wasimmenselyliked byRaj Kapoor.In a burstof
happmess he hugged the boy again and again. What he had wanted to
convey through the song had been successfully expressed,
Shailendrawrote for great musicdirectorslike Shanker·Jaikishan. Sachin
~ev Biswas-~orking abo~t
Burman, Salil Chowdhury, and Anil for .125
',Ims In 17or 18 years-and won immense populanty. He had a distinct
\1ewpoint regarding songs, and it was because of this that he bec~me
Successful. He bagged the first Filmfare award for lyricistsforthe so~g Ye
mera diwanapan hai, ya muhabbat ka sutoot' in the film Yebudi.
Whatisa Hindi film song? Pyer, muhabbat, bslem, sanam,dilke tukre,
~tc: etc.strung together,andsomerhyme patternsbecome ~Iippery.be~ause
f mcessant use. These, according to the majority, constitute Hindi film
SOngs. It isnot too far wrong either, in most cases. There are a number of
100 MADHAV MOHOLKAR
limitations to the writing of a lyric for films, and yet something new,
something that can tug at people's heart-strings, can be written inspiteof
the limitations. This has been clearly proved by Shailendra.
Just as drama isnot merely to be read, but performed, so alsofilm songs
are for depiction on the silverscreen. A film song, because itistobeheard
and seen at the same time, is written keeping this in mind. We haveaU
known that some very effective lines in a play on the stage seem lacklustre
in print. So it iswith films. A song which is good when seen in a film may
'notseem sogood when read. Sometimesa song appears very ordinary.But
thenit has tocaterto alland sundry, so a number of simple wordsfromour
daily life are used in it. Because the song is to be.sung to a tune, the
music-makers feel that itshould not containjoint consonants. Not1loJl'but
'm:n', not 'liI:I' but tfuI or filam, Again, sometimes the singers find the
language difficult if there are Sanskritic words, so the lyricist hastoguard
against that too. He has to write something which will fit in precomposed
music. And most importantof all, it is not the feelings of the poetthesong
would depict, but those of the character on the screen in a givensituation,
The freedom to say what he feels is denied to a film lyricist. To overcome
.these myriad limitations and yet maintain one's style isindeed notaneasy
job.
A film song is a specialized art-that was Shailendra's contention,
Almost all our films contain songs, which sometimes serve as dialogue.
Shailendranever forgot this. He wasawarethatwere it not so,asongwould
seem to be forcibly pushed into the story; holding up the stream 01
narration. He did not agree with the view that a song written foratune
already composedcould not be a good song. He questioned thisargumeni,
Didnot poets inourcountryin the distant past write incertain metres?Was
it not the same thing? A metre has a particular tune. Ifa poet hada~ood
ear and understanding of music he could easily write a song to a gll'en
tune-a song which could be called good. The poet also found inthisway
new metres to experiment with, he would say. In the same way, he
believed, a music director should have a knowledge of poetry. If be
possessed this, he could compose music to enhance the feelingsofapoel
already expressed ina given song. Some ofShailendra'ssongs, excellent~
t~eir poetic content. have been written to precomposed mu:ic. M~
director Shanker has not forgotten the night when, in the dim lIghtoftho
room, while he was strumming the strings of the Sitar, coaxlfig out I
melody: Shailendra, sitting right before him, had penned rhese word!
expressing sorrow and pain, evoked by the sad music:
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