Hindi cinema's most eminent and Guinness World Record holder lyricist Sameer Anjaan has strongly attacked the film industry by taking a strong stand against the indiscriminate remake of classic songs in Bollywood and their inappropriate use in films. Amid the huge box office buzz of film director Aditya Dhar's famous spy-action film 'Dhurandhar' and its sequel 'Dhurandhar: The Revenge', Sameer Anjaan has expressed serious objection to the creative tampering done with the old evergreen tracks in these films. The veteran lyricist said in no uncertain terms that the way old popular songs are being lifted without any relevance or context and converted into mere superficial background scores has completely 'annihilated' the rich musical tradition of Indian cinema.
#1 Anger erupted in conversation with Komal Nahta: 'By making songs background, we killed the soul of music'
Sameer Anjaan's pain and anger came out openly during an exclusive conversation with senior trade analyst and film critic Komal Nahta. He expressed disappointment over the current state of the music industry, saying that instead of working hard on creating new original songs, filmmakers today are taking shortcuts to the popularity of historically successful songs. Sameer clearly said that big budget films like 'Dhurandhar' have made the situation worse by promoting this wrong trend. He said that old beautiful songs have been arbitrarily lifted and buried in the background of violent scenes, due to which the original beauty of the songs and their emotional depth have been completely destroyed. According to the lyricist, when the lyrics of a song, its tune and its rhythm have no logical connection with the scene, then it should not be called music but merely the noise of sound.
#1 'Jumma Chumma playing amidst firing': Sameer asked – 'After all, where is the new song in this?'
To prove his point, Sameer Anjaan gave the example of a very popular cult song written by him. Expressing his displeasure, he told how in the trailer and scenes of a film, the tune of Amitabh Bachchan's historical song 'Jumma Chumma De De' was being played amidst heavy firing, bloodshed and action stunts. He raised tough questions and asked that when bullets are being fired and you are recreating such a fun-filled romantic track in the background, then what is the justification for that composition. Sameer sarcastically said that this industry does not belong to his father and he cannot legally or personally stop every producer, but this suicidal destruction will not stop until these people reach zero by destroying everything in the name of creativity.
#1 Disappointment with big banners like Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra: 'Ruining originals is not art'
Questioning the working style of big production houses of Bollywood, Sameer Anjaan said that he has been most disappointed by veteran filmmakers like Aditya Chopra and Karan Johar. He reminded that in the 90s and early 2000s, these same banners were known for promoting melodious, original and timeless music. Today, when the big banners are involved in the race of mindlessly remixing and recreating old tracks instead of creating good new music, the creativity of young and talented musicians is getting blunted. Sameer made it clear that he has no objection to respectful recreation of songs, but distorting the dignity of the original composition, its lyrics and tune cannot be considered artistic freedom in any sense.
#1 Evergreen songs recreated in 'Dhurandhar': Debate on the musical choice of Ranveer Singh's film
It is noteworthy that modern versions of many historical and classical importance songs have been used in Aditya Dhar's mega-action films 'Dhurandhar' and 'Dhurandhar: The Revenge' starring Ranveer Singh in the lead. These include legendary songs like Qawwali's historical heritage 'Na To Caravan Ki Talash Hai', Usha Uthup's famous pop track 'Ramba Ho', Qawwali 'Yeh Ishq Ishq Hai' and RD Burman's evergreen dance number 'Monica O My Darling'. While a section of film analysts consider it a stylish background treatment of new age cinema, the older generation of lyricists and music lovers believe that these timeless compositions have been tarnished by their true dignity by turning them into spectacles of action scenes.