He calls him self an atheist and a rationalist, his close friend Chanda calls him a “closet spiritualist” because she says, no atheist could have written a deeply spiritual song like “O paalan hare” (from Lagaan) to which he retorts, that he also wrote the dialogues for Gabbar in Sholay.
When I tell the incomparable, screenplay writer, lyricist and Poet par excellence Javed Akhtar that he may have been Valmiki in his previous birth, he buys into it by laughingly saying “Okay you covered both the angles!”
But even Javed Akhtar says, there is a mystery that he has not been able to solve for 14 years and it relates to a song he wrote for the film Swades. It is only appropriate that I share that story, which was part of our conversation yesterday, today on Dussehra.
Here it is in Javed Akhtar sahib’s own words:
“Ashutosh Gowarikar was making the film ‘Swades’ and he was shooting the picture in a small, very very old village town Wai. Suddenly I got a call in Bombay, an SOS of sorts that “Please come immediately as we have a serious problem. A production guy came and handed me a ticket to fly to Pune and a car was waiting to take me to the village. We drove down 3 to 4 hours and reached the location where then I spent time there with Shahrukh and others as shooting was going on.
In the evening, after packup we went back to the hotel and Ashutosh casually tells me, “Javed Sahib, AR Rahman is the music director and he is leaving for London for 3 months for a musical. Because I have to record a song in this village for a situation, AR Rahman has kindly agreed to come down here, he is bringing his equipment and has called the singers. He will record the song in this hotel in a room tomorrow evening because he heads to London the next day. Rahman has already sent the tune. Here it is.” And he hands me a cassette of the tune and a cassette player. That is what we had in those days.
I said okay, because song writing is not such a difficult thing for me thankfully. Generally I take only a few hours. Then I asked, “So what is the situation on which the song is to be written?”
Ashutosh replies casually and these guys just live in their own world, “So you see, we are showing that there is a Ram Leela going on in this village and there is a scene in the Ram Leela, where Sita ji is in Ashok Vatika and Raavan comes and talks to her about Ram (disdainfully) and says, “What is so exceptional about Ram? Why do you love him so much? And an arguments starts between Raavan and Sita about Ram.”
When he said that I thought I was going to have an early cardiac arrest! I said to Ashutosh, ” Are you totally crazy and mad? You want me to write a song by tomorrow evening on something this sensitive and record it by tomorrow evening? And you are telling me this here in Wai? Had you told me this when I was in Bombay, I would have picked up a copy of Ramcharitmanas and brought it with me and done some more research. And here I am in the middle of nowhere and you are telling me, here – write this historic song in a FEW hours?
To which he laughed and said, “Come on Javed sahib, don’t say that! Javed sahib I know you can do it!” and left.
And so there I was, alone, staring at this cassette tape, this tape recorder and these blank sheet of papers I had bought with me. Generally I sleep at about 1 or 1.30 am, but that evening I was so tense and so intimidated that I fell asleep out of fear at 9 pm.
I woke up at 6 am, and again my eyes fell on the cassette and the cassette player on the table. I then said to myself, “Well let me do one thing, let me write a few lines, and that way I will let them know that at least I tried.” In my mind it was just not possible that I could write that song. It was a very sensitive topic and one wrong line and there will be public outcry and chaos.
So I sat down to write just to show them that it was not because I did not try. But lo and behold, by 7.30 am I realized I had the complete song!
I recited it to them, everybody liked it and the song (“Pal Pal Hai Bhaari”) was recorded that night.
A song that almost caused me cardiac arrest, how I was able to write that in an hour and a half is still a mystery to me. But the real twist was yet to come. I met a very learned man after the song had been recorded, a Sanskrit scholar and an authority on Tulsi Das and he said to me that the line of argument in my lyrics was exactly the same as it was in Tulsi Das’s Ramcharitmanas.
I am a rationalist, I don’t believe in miracles, I don’t believe in any supernatural powers guiding your hand, but how I wrote that song the way i did, is a mystery I have yet to solve.”
And this is just one of those stories behind a song. For those of you who are going to attend Main Koi Aisa geet Gaaon shows in various cities this month and in November, Javed Akhtar is not just bringing his songs, his persona and his personal stories on stage, there’s more.
It takes a village to create a song and you will get a glimpse into the quirks, and character of many other legends – legendary film directors, music directors,singers and actors who are part of that village.
And because I am headed to Atlanta for his show, he was sweet enough to give a special message for the Atlanta audience:
“I often told many of these stories in my living room or at a friend’s living room amongst a close group of 10 or 15 people – the back stories of how a song was created, the emotions, the humor behind it and when I saw the interest and curiosity, and how touched they were by these stories. I thought why not make it into a bigger program for a larger audience?
So I look forward to meeting you all in Atlanta, but it is not a show. For us all, it will be a gathering of friends, in a larger living room, where I will share the stories before each song is sung, and answer questions and if you all want, I will share some of my poetry with you all as well.”
I remember a comment from the great Kaifi Azmi in a different context, “My thirst is still not quenched”. That is how I felt as I was getting off the phone with Javed Akhtar, with promise of more such conversations.
I thanked Javed Sahib for being a key part of this amazing story telling and bringing a little sliver of his incredible verses on stage. And many thanks to Ketki Parikh and Navin Gurnaney for bringing stellar, quality presentations like these which are becoming a rare phenomenon in the United States.
Looking forward to a night rich with nostalgia, melodious compositions, and a stellar story teller to quench at least some of our thirst. Hope to see you all there as well.
| Day | Date | City | Time | Venue |
| Friday | 10/26/2018 | Chicago | 8:00 PM | Northshore Center for the Performing Arts, Skokie, IL |
| Sunday | 10/28/2018 | Dallas | 7:00 PM | Grand Center, 300 Chisholm Place, Plano, TX, |
| Tuesday | 10/30/2018 | Louisville, KY | 7:00 PM | Moritz Von Bomhard Theater, Kentucky Center, 501 W. Main St. Louisville, KY |
| Friday | 11/2/2018 | Houston | 8:30 PM | Stafford Civic Center, 1415 Constitution Ave., Stafford, TX |
| Saturday | 11/3/2018 | SF | 7:00 PM | Chabot college Performing Art Center, Hayward, CA |
| Sunday | 11/4/2018 | LA | 5:00 PM | Centinela Valley center For the Arts 14901 S Inglewood Ave. Lawndale, CA |
You must be logged in to post a comment.