Singing revolution

Amarjot Kaur

From the top popularity ratings of Binaca Geetmala to an era that defines music by the number of likes on YouTube, Anandji, 86, of Bollywood’s famous music composer duo Kalyanji-Anandji has a rather interesting take on the evolution of Bollywood music. At Hotel Hyatt Regency, to be a part of Three Legends By Vibrations Group at the Tagore Theatre on Sunday, the veteran music composer said that he is visiting the city for the third time. While many his age would flinch at the terribly repetitive, but a ceremonious question about their take on present Bollywood music, Anandji aced it with his witty one-liners and anecdotes which elaborated on the ‘now-and-then’ version of Bollywood. Of present-day songs in Bollywood, he says, “These days everybody is interested in gimmicks, which pretty much are a reflection of a trend that is repetitive in nature, and not much attention is paid to the content of the songs. Perhaps that is why most of the songs made these days have a shelf life of a week or so.”

The basic item

Considering that item numbers that objectify women is a continuing trend that became more direct, popular, and in-your-face with songs like Munni Badnam and Shiela ki Jawani, a mention of songs like Husan Ke Lakho Rang, Laila, and Aao Na Gale Lagao Na, finds Anandji defending his era all so fiercely, yet with a smile on his face. He says, “The words in those songs were so subtle, they imply something, but not so directly as songs these days do.”

Going global

Not many know, but America’s DJ Shadow in 1998 introduced to a young Western audience to Kalyanji Anandji’s songs through an album titled Bombay the Hard Way: Guns, Cars and Sitars and in 2005, The Black Eyed Peas’s Don’t Phunk with My Heart used music pieces from two of their songs, Ae Naujawan from the 1972 film Apradh and Yeh Mera Dil from the 1978 film Don, which won the American hip-hop group a Grammy Award. When asked about the remix culture popularised by the west in the 90s and Bollywood’s global reach, Anandji has his qualms about issues regarding copyrights and royalty. “When Black Eyed Peas won Grammy for the song, they gave me both, credit and money for it. I feel that one cannot do anything about the monopolisation of music in Bollywood and the royalty issue too, but I hope that changes. I feel bad when people use my songs and remix them without giving me any money for it. It’s like being a wife whose husband is liked by many women. It’s complimenting, and threatening at the same time,” he quips.

Of times gone by...

That Anandji composed songs for more than 150 Bollywood films, he did want to become a hero first. “Oh! But I was short. In those days a hero had to be tall, but these days bollywood’s accepting of heros like Aamir Khan and Salman Khan who are short. I guess I was born in the wrong era. However, I am glad that I chose music over acting, for we could operate from air-conditioned studios while actors cried foul shooting outdoors,” he laughs.

Nevertheless, Anandji shared an interesting rapport with all actors and would often pull pranks on them. “You know Dev Anand would have a his signature step injected in all songs, as did Shashi Kapoor, so out of fun both, Kishore and I though we’ll give them songs that won’t allow them to use their signature steps. So we gave Dev Anand a song called Nafrat Karne Wale, which was too plain and slow, and for Shashi Kapoor, we composed a song Kabhi Raat Din, where he couldn’t even lift a hand,” laughs Anandji.