Trying to make everything Palatable...

Nonika Singh 

Chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification, advertising guru, lyricist poet or writer of films… look at Prasoon Joshi, a brand in himself with as many lens as possible. Yet wonder of all wonders, here at the 49th edition of International Film Festival of India, Goa, the multifaceted Joshi shows us yet another colour. By self-admission, he is a singer-writer and needs little prompting to sing his songs, most of which he remembers by heart. In the film industry where he has made a mark for himself with songs like Rehna Tu, Rubaru, Meri Ma, Maula Mere and many others, the departments might be compartmentalised. 

Poetic note

However, he has been singing his songs ever since ever. The poetic bug bit him early in life and at age 15, he had penned his first poem, a dead serious one at that, dwelling on issues like death, with words like mritu se aalingan. Today as he writes on a host of concerns, he shares, how he never yearned to write for films. 

“Besides my vocabulary with no tinkering of words like jaaneman, ishq et al was not quite the stuff film songs were made of.” Surprisingly, the same became his strength. Indians, he asserts, are music lovers and yet they aren’t. He rues, “Instead of developing a taste for nuances of music we are diluting it and making everything palatable. We easily fall into the trap of defined genres.” 

Lyrical melody

Indeed, reactions can often be a trigger. So when he was censured by some indignant fathers for his incredibly touching song on mothers, he came up with yet another, kya pita ka dosh pita hona hai that spoke of patriarchy. When writing songs for films, often the composition comes first and invariably lyrics, like he penned Mohe Rang De Basanti first, which AR Rahman composed in a jiffy. But whichever way, whatever may be the order, he asserts, “It should gel in a manner that even the discerning audience should experience it as a whole and not be able to differentiate.” 

Though he always wanted to be a poet, he did go on to do his MBA and is today ranked as one of the most influential advertising professionals. But then few have a finger on the pulse of people as he has! Not surprising, as CBFC chief, he would take into account people’s sensibilities as much as creative liberty.

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Day 2 at IFFI

The day two of the International Film Festival of India, Goa was marked by frenzied activity. Shaji Karun-directed Malayalam movie Olu and Kharvas, a non-feature film directed by Aditya Suhas Jambhale, lifted the curtains off The Indian Panorama section that features 26 films and 21 non-feature films. The high point of the day was screening of Israeli film The Other Story directed by Avi Nesher.