JOIN USAway from the maddening ruckus of politics mingled with religion, Javed Akhtar is engrossed in the world of music. As the host of the delectable Zee Classic show The Golden Years 1950-1975 (Sundays at 8 pm), the celebrated writer is unravelling the mystical melody from the bygone era.
“Those were the best years in the Hindi film industry. I have grown up on the songs of this era and listened to them when I used to go to school and college, which made me take on this show instantly. Shooting for it was less of work and more of pleasure. They are paying me for something which I would have done anyway,” says Akhtar, in his trademark tongue-in-cheek style.
Music was certainly at its peak in Hindi films during the 1950s through to the mid-1970s. “That doesn’t mean that the years before 1950 or after 1975 didn’t have memorable music or decent lyrics. But while the music of 1940s is too slow for today’s listeners, the ones after 1975 became too fast for some of us. This particular period had the right balance of finesse, modernity and rich orchestration,” he says, enumerating the greats — singers Kishore Kumar, Lata Mangeshkar, Rafi, Talat Mahmood, lyricists Shailendra, Sahir, composers S D Burman, O P Nayyar and many more who emerged as stalwarts of this era.
“Any department of music during that time had the best of talent who cannot be compared even today. Now, we have exceptions where songs have nice lyrics and depth. But at that time, it was not an exception; it was a rule. Even B-grade films then had some standard of music, because it was immensely important in order to entertain the audiences,” reminisces Akhtar.
Musical memories
Speaking about his personal favourites from the era, Akthar lets us in on a childhood secret. At age 5, when the pre-schooler was asked to choose between watching a movie and going to the zoo, he chose the former! “It was my first day at school and I was shown Aan,” he says. That was the first time he saw Dilip Kumar on screen singing all the beautiful songs from the film and they instantly became his favourites.
A few years later, he saw Dev Anand in Munimji and that caught his fancy. That was followed by Raj Kapoor singing ‘Dil ka haal sune dilwala’ and so on. “When we watch films as kids, we don’t understand musicians or artistes, but we just see the actors who lip-synced the songs on screen. Among lyricists, Sahir wrote some wonderful songs, which are amongst my favourites. I would say the 1960s was the best era for music within these 25 years.”
The inevitable change that came about post 1975 has not particularly impressed Akhtar though he finds some gems. “Post 1975, music started losing focus in films. Earlier, in Rajesh Khanna’s times, songs were integral to the plot. But eventually with Amitabh Bachchan’s era, other factors of filmmaking took precedence, and Hindi film music lost its sheen. It did return in a few years, but not in a way as desired,” he rues.
With Yo Yo Honey Singh’s controversial lyrics being all the rage now and the general nosedive in the lyrics of today’s songs, Akhtar feels it isn’t only the writer’s fault. “What we must understand is that a film and its songs are not beyond society. Today, the vocabulary of the society has shrunk. Since the last 30-40 years, we are not exposing our generation to literature or poetry, proverbs are vague; no one uses them.”
Lamenting this loss of texture in language, he says, “With the advent of industrialisation, the sense of language has died down. People don’t read poetry today and neither have they been told about the importance of literature. Hence, their knowledge of words falter and that is visible in the lyrics. English has become too important for us. I don’t mean to demean the relevance of English, but we are learning it at the cost of our mother tongues. The crux of the vocabulary we thrive on today is hard, bitter and ruthless. That’s why we don’t savour Hindi film music the way we used to.”
Changing times
However he feels that not all is lost. With advancement in musical instruments, there have been positive changes too, he reasons. “You might argue some traditional instruments have stopped being used, but that’s the rule of creativity. At one time, the tabla and the sitar weren’t a part of Hindi film music but we imbibed them. Similarly, we must imbibe the newer advancements as well. Sonu Niigam, for instance, does his riyaaz regularly on a tanpura. Now he can’t carry that instrument everywhere so for ease of access, he has installed an app which lets him practice. It is a good thing as it has made execution of music better. As long as we are not detached from our roots, change is always welcome. Revolt is necessary to keep the traditions in place!” he adds.
Javed Akhtar says he likes the writing of Irshad Kamil, among present day lyricists. “His writing has a lot of variety. The light-hearted songs written by him are really nice and so are the serious songs. I believe he will go a long way.”
Asked how we could encourage the right sort of talent in the world of music to restore it to its former glory, Akhtar is quick to respond, “Do you know what encourages a writer the most to create? I will borrow the answer from psychiatry. In psychiatry, the very urge of creativity is based on a sense of inadequacy and incompletion. The absence of perfection is when you feel the need to write. To create better content, we need to impart the importance of literature and poetry and make people realise what we had and what we have lost.”