about a song.......

I find it dreadfully amusing, how one has to practically wipe out every last trace of ‘gray’ in them to even bear Hindi music today. And as if that wasn’t enough, we now have Mr. Polypsic crooner, your majesty, pepping the lyrics up further with bullshit like love-you-unconditionally. I mean why would you say that to someone…even in a song….why would you. I feel so violent everytime he goes oooon and aaaaan that I feel like lynching myself off my own skin. But then just as am about to pack my bags and move to greener pastures (seriously… where do I pick up these phrases) I stumble upon to this amazing no., startling almost. Its one of the lesser-known songs from Omkara. ‘Namak ishk ka’. The song, in a characteristic thumri style, has an old-world charm to it. Penned by GULZAR, the words ooze Gulzarian elegance and grace. But the aspect that makes it most fascinating is the way he deals with the lyrics. Half way through the song and you come to a sudden realization, hey wait just a freakin second…this is porn. The man is talking sex, aint he? Of course it’s pretty darn hard to make out at first, its Gulzar for crying out loud, the man who shoved life into old ‘Ruswa’ poetry in umrao jaan. The man who wrote almost all of Naseer’s dialogues for the series on mirza ghalib. But then it slowly climbs over, the beauty of the words, the subtle ease with which he talks about the act—before, during and after. You giggle at how if explained in layman’s terms, the words are fit to make it into some c-grade upanyas, the ones hidden at the back of some cheap newspaper stand with the sleazy pictures of plump women with heaving bosoms and fake, repelling pouts. But then he doesn’t let it fall down to the average dhin-chak standards. You can almost feel him watch over the song, with his deep-set eyes studying each verse closely, etching every little word to perfection. His prehistoric horn-rimmed chashma in hand, chewing on one of its legs, almost living each couplet he writes. I guess that is how one can tell a Gulzar song from the rest of the recent bullshit. Pretty simple, the rest of the recent is bullshit.

P.S: if this post inspires you to give the song a try, then I’d prefer you download it. The video is no good. The whole weird bipasha basu hip gyrations spoil the fun.