WHEN A REAL LIFE INTERACTION TURNED INTO A HIT SONG - PART 1

There's no doubt that inspiration is key to the business of making films. In script writing, that inspiration can take the form of a real person's life, it could be the fierce desire to tell the world a wonderful story. Or inspiration could even take the form of an unknown, foreign film DVD. Yes, inspiration is the engine that drives Bollywood.

So can you imagine stories where that great idea, that spark of creativity comes from the mundane transcripts of everyday life. There are at least two examples of hit songs that were inspired by a simple conversation between the protagonists. In this part, you’ll read about the story of the first song.

It was from the film “Aan Milo Sajna” starring Rajesh Khanna and Asha Parekh. Almost all its songs were completed, except one – a song that was based on a typical romantic situation. The hero and the heroine have finished their rendezvous, and now that it was time to part – were wondering when they could meet next. It was this longing to meet again that had to be expressed as a duet between the lead pair with words of evocative passion and desire.

However, the lyricist of the film, Anand Bakshi seemed to have a date with writer's block that day. The many balls of paper, crumpled in rejection seemed to come up to his ankles, and he wondered when those magical lines would descend into his mind, and from there onto paper. The music directors, the hugely successful duo of Laxmikant Pyarelal had waited all morning patiently for the verses of the song. They were playing around with some of their musical instruments, hoping a riff on the harmonium or the beats on the dholak would serve as the seed that would spark off an idea in Anand Bakshi’s mind.

But all to no avail. They had now spent the entire morning in a largely wasteful session where nothing of note had emerged, let alone being recorded. Finally, they all put up their hands, putting it down to one of those rare days when nothing gets done.

Anand Bakshi got up to leave and said, “Accha, toh hum chalte hain.”

Laxmikant asked him, “Phir kab miloge?”

So Anand Bakshi replied, “Jab tum kahoge.”

It was now Pyarelal’s turn to suggest, “Kal milo ya parso.”

Anand Bakshi’s mind perked up with this entire dialogue exchange. There was a nice rhythm and rhyme about it. He muttered all the words to himself and looked at Laxmikant Pyarelal with excited eyes that said, “I've had got it.”

He sat down immediately and wrote out the first four lines of the couplet they had just recited impromptu. Turning to Laxmikant Pyarelal, he said, “This is the mukhda of your song, I think it fits the situation perfectly.”

The two music directors looked at each other, then at the paper with four lines on it, and then back at each other.  As they settled down at their respective harmonium and dholak, they gave the first four lines a shot. Within minutes, a tune emerged that had all of them beaming. Anand Bakshi immediately sat back at his place, tuning to a new page on his pad. He had to write out the antras that followed the mukhda, and the best time to do it was now…after all, he was on song.

The song Accha Toh Hum Chalte Hain is available at the link:

ACCHA TOH HUM CHALTE HAIN