How to write lyrics for Hindi movies ...

This pair of articles was posted to rec.music.indian.misc newsgroup around 1995

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Sameer's Guide to
How to become a Lyrics Tycoon

by
Abhay Avachat

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Once upon a time in a village in England, a poet called William Wordsworth William Shakespere said - poetry is "spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings". How true it was then, how false it is now ! Time changes, and with it almost everything. Sometime the change is slow evolution, but sometime it is a revolution. We are in the age of witnessing one such revolution in Poetry and for this we must thank the main crusader of it -- Sameer !

Sameer a well-known lyricist of today's Hindi films, is the son of another lyricist Anjaan. At a time he is usually working on 30-40 films simultaneously, and charges 1 to 2 Lakhs per film. But we are not going to discuss his such secondary achievements, but his main gift to the art of poem writing. Also we are not discussing the vulgarity of lyrics, but rather the METHOD by which he writes lyrics.

No longer you need to have "powerful emotions", but you need to know a set of words that rhyme mutually. Then you group such pat- terns according to the theme you want, and you have a NEW song ready. This is what I call "Lyrics Factory", and Sameer is sure a multi-millionaire in it. Follow his footsteps, and you will be sure successful !

Consider eg. - you have to write a "rainy" song. What is rain ? Yes, it's "saawan". What does it do ? Yes, "barasataa hai". Now what does rhyme with this ? One word is "tarasataa". Kyaa tarasa- taa hai ? Of course "dil". So we can start with the "mukhada"

jab jab saawan barasataa hai

tujhse milne ko dil tarasataa hai

Simple ? Yes, it is. That's why we should thank Sameer. His new and original method creates songs, which are not arbitrarily worded, and most imp. - are easy to give tune to, even by Nadeem-Shravan.

Here are some more examples.

Do you want a romantic song ? Here is one of the many possible

main waadaa karataa huN, ke tumse pyar karataa huN

tere liye jeeta huN, tere liye marataa huN

With this "mukhada", many stanzas can be created which end in "darataa", "harataa", "phirataa" etc. This is left as an exercise to the nettor.

Do you want a village song ? OK. Think of some rural Hindi word. Yes, one is "saiNyaa". Great. Now it is a matter of few seconds to come up with

O saiNyaa, mere saiNyaa, pakdo na meri baiNyaa, padu main paiNyaa

Want a Urdu-like song ? Best options are "gulaab", "sharaab", "jawaab" etc. Here is one example

chaman me tujhasa gulaab nahiN, tera dildar koi jawaab nahiN

Note the usage of "dildar". You should have a reservoir of such _fillers_ like "jaanam", "jaanu", "yaaraa" etc.

So friend, all you need to know is what you want. Everything is straight forward afterwards. And Nadeem-Shravan and Kumar Shanu with Alka Yadnik are always there for you to sing these songs. No longer you should have new ideas, new style of presentation but you should have ready made components on the shelf.

In short you should have a "Lyrics Factory" to become a "Lyrics Tycoon" like Sameer.

- Abhay.

A tribute to "Lyrics Tycoon" - Sameer !

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An application of above technique
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Hi RMIM,

How much effort is needed to construct lyrics of a Hindi Film song ? Hardly any. Forget for a moment Sahir/Gulzar/Majrooh. Just suppose, that all we want to do is come up with a song, which will fit into any movie. Also we don't want to write something like, "Romeo mera naam, chori mera kaam". We don't want to be THAT stupid.

I claim that, even for writing a song, with a rhythm, flow etc. not much effort is needed. I came up with following song in 10 minutes. And I am very proud (!) of the fact, that NOT a single, I repeat, NOT a single line has any original idea ! :-). All this "jaan luta dena", "duniya ke rasmon ko thokar maarna" etc. have been used ad infinitum in songs. But still one can combine them, and come up with a new song, which deceptively looks like a not- too-bad song. This trick is not as well known as what our directors do to come up with new movies.

But here is the proof ! Note how words like "jaaneman", "sanam" etc. have been used as fillers.

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kya kahe kitana pyar tumse hai karate

bahut jaaneman hum, tum pe hai marate

dil lutaya hai tum pe hamane, jaan bhi lutaa denge

beeNch me jo aayengi wo saari, deewaare hataa denge

waadaa ye tumse aaj, sanam hum hai karate ...

muhabbat me ek duje ke, nayaa jahan basa lete hain

duniyaa ki rasamon ko, chalo thokar maar dete hain

zammane se dilwaale nahin hain darate ...

-: = :-

Not a single line is new, but the song is new !!

This can fit in any movie ! Oh, why, I can hear Kumar Sanu singing it, the MD is of course Nadim-Shravan :-)

Friends, if any one of you is going to make a movie, or has any connections at right places, please don't forget your fellow RMIM-er Abhay. I can write dialogues too :-)

- Abhay.

Shayari ki duniya ka ubharata sitara !