A Lyrical Potpourri ; a New Crop of Lyricists Is Re-Writing Bollywood's Soundtrack, Mixing Conversational Hindi with Traditional Urdu Poetry and the Quick- Changing Language of the Youth. The Result: A New Idiom Is Born.

Summary

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Gone are the rippling rivers and dappled skies. It's a new landscape out there, sometimes gritty, sometimes magical. And it has its own troubadours, a marvellous mix of writers who dream in the language of their audience. What drives them is a desire to make eye contact with the audience. It may be the street poetry of Rang de Basanti, the period poignancy of Parineeta, the naughty conversational Hinglish of Salaam Namaste and even the sensuous Urdu poetry of several Bhatt movies. Bollywood's new-age lyricists have attained their own andaaz, not always particular about the rules and regulations of rhythm.

What's more they are working at a time when master wordsmiths Javed Akhtar and Gulzar are at the top of their game. Whether it is adman Prasoon Joshi's youth anthems, theatre actor Swanand Kirkire's sweet poetry, former marketing man Jaideep Sahni's hip sensibility or even Jodhpur's LIC agent Sayeed Qadri's romantic overdrive, these writers are breaking new grounds. Says Akhtar: "Today's lyricists are not trained like their predecessors Shailendra, Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri and Kaifi Azmi. The filmmakers utilising them are not too good. Even the music is not suitable for good words. It makes their work especially challenging." True. Gone are the days when S.D. Burman would create a melody that would allow every single word in Sharmili's song (Jheelon ke hothon par, meghon ka raag hai; Phoolon ke seene mein thandi thandi aag hai) to open up. Now songs have to be as expressive as Madhubala's Mohe panghat pe in Mughal-E- Azam and as rythmic as Shakira in Hips Don't Lie.

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A Lyrical Potpourri ; a New Crop of Lyricists Is Re-Writing Bollywood's Soundtrack, Mixing Conversational Hindi with Traditional Urdu Poetry and the Quick- Changing Language of the Youth. The Result: A New Idiom Is Born.

These writers draw their inspiration from everywhere: from Mirza Ghalib to Suryakant Tripathi Nirala, from Shakespeare to Octavio Paz, from Amar Chitra Katha to Superman comics. Though they are great admirers of their ...

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