Of What Was Poetry....

I had just posted the poetries of ZNMD and Udaan in my previous posts. Thought about it for quite a long last night. And this is what I concluded.

Except for ZNMD, Udaan and the few other Gulzar saahab's written materials, the days of elegant poetry in Hindi film music is gone. Dead. Past. Forgotten. Buried. Lost.

In those golden days, the well-fed hero would romance the bun-headed fatso beauty with perfect child-bearing hips using lines like “teri aankhon ke siwa duniya mein rakha kya hai!”. The scenery would be described using words like “jheelon ke hothon par meghon ka raag hai”, quickly followed by the romantic reference, “phoolon ke seene mein thandi-thandi aag hai”. Naaraazgi would be expressed demurely – “main chali ab khub chhedo pyaar ke afsaane”. Sarcasm is equally subtly explained – “Jo khatm ho kisi jagah yeh aisa silsila nahin”. Lovely, won’t you agree?? :) :)


To reiterate, those days are gone... These days are different. Lyrics sans poetic subtlety (look at example 1 below). Beauty sacrificed at the altar of misplaced attitude (look at example 4 below). Utter abuse of a language so pretty (look at example 5 below). Lines written based on rhyming ending words (same example. #5). Nonsensical terms newly coined (look at example 3 below)...

And if that isn’t enough, there’s also so forth.

Here are a few examples. These songs utterly displease me. Take a look at the list, my character notwithstanding... (I like that word. Notwithstanding. Notwithstanding. Notwithstanding) :P :P

1. Haaye hukku hai hukku hai hai (my all-time favourite in this list!)
2. Karle baby dance wance (hahahahah! Yup, there IZZ a song like that!)
3. Dil mein mere hai dard-e-disco, dard-e-disco, dard-e-disco (subtle use of Urdu, nahin?)
4. Meri choli chhoti ho gayi main kya karoon (romance ki to vaat laga di!)
5. Dhakka laga bukka, khayega re mukka (why not “peeyo Arabi hukka”?)
6. Main cheez badi hoon mast mast (being the antithesis of “Shaam dhale, khidki tale tum seenti bajaana chhod do”)

… and so on.

You see why I am frustrated? You see why the past is where I prefer living?
As a wise man once wrote, “Koi lauta de mere beete huye din!”