Dum Laga
[Update : Sept 27/2007. Stills of songs added]
Do songs hurt the narrative flow (and form) of our films? I believe they usually do. When we were working on about the fifth draft of the screenplay (it went on till ninth by the time it was ready to be called ‘bound’), I realized that there are some ‘natural’ places where songs can have a place in the film, mostly as background thematic scores not sung out by the protagonists. To not hurt the narration, I knew the key would be the wording of lyrics befitting the narrative situation and the feel… (how they are bound together with music would be secondary – composers usually work the other way round, they have the music in place to which lyricists write the words).
Once Prakash Jha commissioned the film, the core team working on preproduction of Dil Dosti Etc (Alankrita, Pawan and I) moved around in the town looking for composers and realized that we’ll need two very different composers to capture what we had in mind – one, capture the campus masti and the other, the old world charm of Delhi…
Dum Laga song was the first to be written. This song would both introduce the five main protagonists in the film and capture the hostel’s ‘male-bonding’ experience. Anyone familiar with Delhi University hostel-life will recall that psychedelic ‘anthem’ that freshers are made to rehearse, ‘c**** ki chandni main…’. We knew this will not slip by at the censors… (thankfully, Raam Gautam came up with an equally elementary albeit vegan version on human creation, ‘Panchtatvon se bana shareer hamaara’ and saved the scene for us). However, we needed a bigger sequence, when post-ragging, the hostellers go for a porn flick in a rented bus. In my days, the favourite bus song was Satte-pe-Satta’s ‘Pyaar hamein kis mod par le aaya…’ My aim was/ is to replace the post-ragging/ campus song for ever by ours…
Lyrics for Dum Laga were the toughest to write. One of the music composers-duo that we had approached, Siddharrth and Suhas sent us with a scratch music and a punchline, Dum Laga… To this Ram Goutam added his mukhda, ‘chaska par taala lagta nahin, bheja ye saala sunta nahin…’ With this we had gotten the feel of the post-ragging masti. Now, we needed someone to sum up the college experience. Stepped in Prashant Pandey (who’s been to DU) and wrote the body of the song, including, ‘Is sheher ke naye collector papa paincho hum hain..’, which also reflected the civil services obsession of Bihari students. (Dum Laga became a fertile ground for all of us: Alankrita suggested changing the ‘Blue filmein dekhnen kyon jaate hain’, to ‘Neeli filmein…’; Pawan had us repeatedly hear the Pakistani-band’ ‘Sutta’ song as music reference and I stepped in with fillers for the pervert Sonu character, ‘Apna kuchch nahin hoga’ and ‘Abe Sex-peare ki aulaad, pauau piyaa kar’.)
Next we were looking for a background theme song. Mohan of Agnee gave us a musical piece that we really liked. I remember sitting in Prakash’s office discussing costumes with our designer, Priayanka Munduda, while both Raam Goutam and Prashant Pandey listened to Mohan’s piece on a dictaphone and kept scribbling in two corners of the room. At the end of it, Prashant got up, left a draft with Pawan, saying, ‘check this out with Manish and Mohan; I think, I’ve just written the song of the year’. The next day, as Mohan played his guitar and Prashant hummed out his lyrics, ‘Lahmha ye jaayega kahaan…’ we knew, we had a special song!
Next we had to have a song that captured both Vaishali’s emotions and the old world charm of Delhi. And so we went for a thumri – that Raam Goutam researched and wrote, Agnee gave the music for, and it was beautifully sung by Aarti Ankalikar.
We had prepared a song called Sambhalo Dil Ko (with Sidharrth Suhas/ Sunidhi Chauhan). This was no item number to me; the song was wedded to the narrative and the singer had to interact with the protagonists who were present in the party, engaged in their own pursuits (its ending lines, ‘Pyar kar lo tum, magar bacha lo dil ko…’ is a literal translation of what I requested of our lyricist Kumar, ‘Make love but do not fall in love’). However, I had no idea until late on who would appear for this song in the film. Now, before the shoot, I had gone to India Fashion Week in Delhi and had picked up a brochure that carried a photograph of a strikingly attractive woman in a Malini Ramani suit. Of the dozens of models that one must have seen in those two days, this one picture picked up at the venue stood out for me, and slowly I was convinced that the lady in that picture must do Sambhalo in the film. The lady was Feroze Gujral. It was only late in the shoot that we were able to contact Feroze, who graciously agreed to do the song at a very short notice.
(Most filmmaking comes with happy accidents. We too have had several such gifts during the shoot of Dil Dosti, including inspired uses of locations, props and casting. However, for me, Feroze’s agreeing to do the film remains the happiest accident of them all.)
Finally, I wanted to end the film with a ‘blast’ – at an elite party, where after his adventures, the rich protagonist Apurv comes back into his world. And thus, a Punjabi number evolved, showcasing the punju-spirit of Delhi. Man Moniye was sung by the spirited Labh Janjua.
One must add that that our young choreographer Jayesh Pradhan had to work with few resources. Dum Laga, Sambhalo Dil Ko and Man Moniye were filmed in a moving bus, a Mehrauli farmhouse and a south Delhi pub respectively, and all three songs filmed in just four days. My directive to Jayesh was this – that I’ll work out 75% of Dum Laga, 50% of Sambhalo and 25% of Man Moniye, the rest is his; these depending on my understanding of the meaning of the songs, their place in the narrative and room for contributions.
The last bit, the background music given by Sidharrth and Suhas have come out hugely satisfactory… and so has the month-long session of layering the sound track with ambient sound, effects and leaked in tv/ radio songs - all these done with the FTII alumni, the great Alok De!
- MT*
[Update : Sept 27/2007. Stills of songs added]
Do songs hurt the narrative flow (and form) of our films? I believe they usually do. When we were working on about the fifth draft of the screenplay (it went on till ninth by the time it was ready to be called ‘bound’), I realized that there are some ‘natural’ places where songs can have a place in the film, mostly as background thematic scores not sung out by the protagonists. To not hurt the narration, I knew the key would be the wording of lyrics befitting the narrative situation and the feel… (how they are bound together with music would be secondary – composers usually work the other way round, they have the music in place to which lyricists write the words).
Once Prakash Jha commissioned the film, the core team working on preproduction of Dil Dosti Etc (Alankrita, Pawan and I) moved around in the town looking for composers and realized that we’ll need two very different composers to capture what we had in mind – one, capture the campus masti and the other, the old world charm of Delhi…
Dum Laga song was the first to be written. This song would both introduce the five main protagonists in the film and capture the hostel’s ‘male-bonding’ experience. Anyone familiar with Delhi University hostel-life will recall that psychedelic ‘anthem’ that freshers are made to rehearse, ‘c**** ki chandni main…’. We knew this will not slip by at the censors… (thankfully, Raam Gautam came up with an equally elementary albeit vegan version on human creation, ‘Panchtatvon se bana shareer hamaara’ and saved the scene for us). However, we needed a bigger sequence, when post-ragging, the hostellers go for a porn flick in a rented bus. In my days, the favourite bus song was Satte-pe-Satta’s ‘Pyaar hamein kis mod par le aaya…’ My aim was/ is to replace the post-ragging/ campus song for ever by ours…
Lyrics for Dum Laga were the toughest to write. One of the music composers-duo that we had approached, Siddharrth and Suhas sent us with a scratch music and a punchline, Dum Laga… To this Ram Goutam added his mukhda, ‘chaska par taala lagta nahin, bheja ye saala sunta nahin…’ With this we had gotten the feel of the post-ragging masti. Now, we needed someone to sum up the college experience. Stepped in Prashant Pandey (who’s been to DU) and wrote the body of the song, including, ‘Is sheher ke naye collector papa paincho hum hain..’, which also reflected the civil services obsession of Bihari students. (Dum Laga became a fertile ground for all of us: Alankrita suggested changing the ‘Blue filmein dekhnen kyon jaate hain’, to ‘Neeli filmein…’; Pawan had us repeatedly hear the Pakistani-band’ ‘Sutta’ song as music reference and I stepped in with fillers for the pervert Sonu character, ‘Apna kuchch nahin hoga’ and ‘Abe Sex-peare ki aulaad, pauau piyaa kar’.)
Next we were looking for a background theme song. Mohan of Agnee gave us a musical piece that we really liked. I remember sitting in Prakash’s office discussing costumes with our designer, Priayanka Munduda, while both Raam Goutam and Prashant Pandey listened to Mohan’s piece on a dictaphone and kept scribbling in two corners of the room. At the end of it, Prashant got up, left a draft with Pawan, saying, ‘check this out with Manish and Mohan; I think, I’ve just written the song of the year’. The next day, as Mohan played his guitar and Prashant hummed out his lyrics, ‘Lahmha ye jaayega kahaan…’ we knew, we had a special song!
Next we had to have a song that captured both Vaishali’s emotions and the old world charm of Delhi. And so we went for a thumri – that Raam Goutam researched and wrote, Agnee gave the music for, and it was beautifully sung by Aarti Ankalikar.
We had prepared a song called Sambhalo Dil Ko (with Sidharrth Suhas/ Sunidhi Chauhan). This was no item number to me; the song was wedded to the narrative and the singer had to interact with the protagonists who were present in the party, engaged in their own pursuits (its ending lines, ‘Pyar kar lo tum, magar bacha lo dil ko…’ is a literal translation of what I requested of our lyricist Kumar, ‘Make love but do not fall in love’). However, I had no idea until late on who would appear for this song in the film. Now, before the shoot, I had gone to India Fashion Week in Delhi and had picked up a brochure that carried a photograph of a strikingly attractive woman in a Malini Ramani suit. Of the dozens of models that one must have seen in those two days, this one picture picked up at the venue stood out for me, and slowly I was convinced that the lady in that picture must do Sambhalo in the film. The lady was Feroze Gujral. It was only late in the shoot that we were able to contact Feroze, who graciously agreed to do the song at a very short notice.
(Most filmmaking comes with happy accidents. We too have had several such gifts during the shoot of Dil Dosti, including inspired uses of locations, props and casting. However, for me, Feroze’s agreeing to do the film remains the happiest accident of them all.)
Finally, I wanted to end the film with a ‘blast’ – at an elite party, where after his adventures, the rich protagonist Apurv comes back into his world. And thus, a Punjabi number evolved, showcasing the punju-spirit of Delhi. Man Moniye was sung by the spirited Labh Janjua.
One must add that that our young choreographer Jayesh Pradhan had to work with few resources. Dum Laga, Sambhalo Dil Ko and Man Moniye were filmed in a moving bus, a Mehrauli farmhouse and a south Delhi pub respectively, and all three songs filmed in just four days. My directive to Jayesh was this – that I’ll work out 75% of Dum Laga, 50% of Sambhalo and 25% of Man Moniye, the rest is his; these depending on my understanding of the meaning of the songs, their place in the narrative and room for contributions.
The last bit, the background music given by Sidharrth and Suhas have come out hugely satisfactory… and so has the month-long session of layering the sound track with ambient sound, effects and leaked in tv/ radio songs - all these done with the FTII alumni, the great Alok De!
- MT*
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