Mumbai: Veteran lyricist Gulzar says he needs to get the tone and words of his Bollywood songs just right to mirror the changing language spoken by newer generations.
Gulzar told the weekly newspaper Screen that he carefully chooses words that reflect the characters in Bollywood movies.
One of his latest songs Kajra Re or ‘Kohl-lined Eyes’, won several awards for best lyrics in 2005.
"The success of a song lies in getting the lingo right," Gulzar says. "One has to keep abreast of the times. This generation speaks a characteristic mixture of Hindi and English," he adds.
Unlike his earlier Hindi and Urdu-language songs, Gulzar said newer songs needed a smattering of English words since movies are increasingly being set in the United States, Britain or in Indian cities where people speak a mixture of languages.
He said he couldn't restrict himself to romantic or poetic lyrics when many films dealt with violence or were mobster flicks such as blockbuster Satyaor ‘Truth’. These movies needed songs with "the lingo of the street," he said.
"The rule is simple. The lyrics must reflect the characters and the milieu," says Gulzar, 69 whose career spans five decades. He began writing lyrics in 1955 and has written songs for some 85 movies. Virtually every Indian movie is a musical, with the screenplay interspersed with songs and dances woven into the plot.
Gulzar, famed for his versatility, has also written scripts for some 37 movies and directed 24 Bollywood movies starting with his debut Mere Apne, or ‘My Own People’ in 1971 about an elderly woman caught between two street gangs.
Some of the more famous movies he has scripted for include Namak Haram or 'Disloyal’, Khamoshi or ‘Silence’. And also Anandand Guddi, which were films named after the principle characters in the films.
Comments
0 comment