Confessions of a poet

Nonika Singh

Role of cinema in our lives is overrated.” Strangely enough, this is no cine-phobic talking, but India’s National Award winning lyricist Prasoon Joshi, who has given us some liltingly thoughtful songs in films like Rang De Basanti and Taare Zameen Par. 

His latest book Sunshine Lanes traces the genesis of his film songs, underlining its beauty, spilling memories in the making of the songs, but Prasoon, the ad guru, is no brand ambassador for Bollywood. More than anyone else, he knows how the movie business is market driven. 

Of course, the man known for infusing poetry in film songs is not just another song writer. Actually, the poet in him was born, “life made me a poet and I became a lyricist to take poetry to people,” at age 17. Come to think of it, film songs were not a part of his growing-up years. Poetry was his constant companion. Here are some of his poetic thoughts that delineate the difference between writing songs and poetry and what makes poetry infinitely bigger than songs.

For a nation, which, you say listens more 

and reads less, what is the relevance of your 

book on films songs, which have anyway been heard before?

When a song is composed, its literary quality doesn’t always come to the fore. I wanted to underline the poetic resonance of some of my songs and also wanted to share my memories of behind-the-scenes of these songs and how they came about.

Any particular reason for naming the book Sunshine Lanes?

Yes, in Hindi the book is called Dhoop Ke Sikke. When I looked at my repository of songs, I realised that I had used the word dhoop often enough in many of my songs, like Tu dhoop hai chham ke bikhr and Dhoop ke makaan. Growing up in mountains, I guess the interplay of light and shadow had a huge impact on me. Nature and its motifs too are a recurring thread in my poetry because of my childhood years. However, I didn’t grow up listening to film songs, a reason perhaps why my songs are devoid of trademark terms and words of Bollywood like jigar, mehbooba, et al. 

How difficult it is to prevail over director producers to use unusual words like paathshala and havan kund in your songs?

Quite tough, initially it was even more difficult. But slowly as my songs became hits, filmmakers began to see my point of view.

Is writing poetry and songs all the same? 

No. Poetry is much bigger than songs. Though in my songs, I do try to be poetic and transcend the limits imposed by the situation of the songs, often it’s not possible to move beyond the situational constraints.

In a nation of oral tradition used to verse form in religious scriptures too, what explains our disenchantment with poetry?

I have a huge amount of respect and many complaints with our audience. They should seek more and reject more. Sadly they do neither and consume what is offered to them. Once they begin to reject substandard stuff and seek quality, those on the margins creating good work will find an audience. Despite the emergence of social media as a big platform, qualitative content is not getting projected as it ought to.

Do you the think in today’s time for a poet to be alive, it’s important to be in films? 

Not at all. We are getting over-obsessed with cinema. Cinema is only one form of creative expression. It’s not life. Being an audio-visual medium, it has the power to hold sway over our minds. In the process, it not only gains an unfair advantage vis-a-vis other art forms like theatre and folk music, but also projects certain cultures disproportionately. Today, sitting in Mumbai, I know what kudi stands for, but do I know its equivalent in Oriya and why shouldn’t I? It’s dangerous for films to have so much of dominance over our consciousness. 

You are quite a pro-women man, as is evident in your latest poem Sharam aa rahi hai na. Comment. 

You can say that. I think poetry in India lives all thanks to women, who have patronised it with all their heart and spirit.

Your father didn’t want you to be a poet and pushed you towards an MBA and you ended up as an advertising professional. Do you think it’s easy to survive as a poet today? 

No, it can never be your profession, only a muse. Bahut pehle hi mein samajh gaya tha ki kavita mujhe nahi paal sakti, mujhe hi kavita ko paalna hoga.

So, he continues to nurture poetry not only in his film songs but also by way of poetic renditions and books. A compilation of his fourth book of poems will be out by year-end.