No Urdu lyrics in Bollywood songs anymore...

Ae khuda har phaisla tera mujhe manzoor hai/Saame tera tera banda bahot majboor hai (Kishore Kumar in Sanjay Khan’s Abdullah), Dard se mera daaman bharde ya Allah/Phir chahe deewana karde ya Allah (Lata Mangeshkar in her album with Jagjit Singh Sajda), Khuda bhi aasman se jab zameen par dekhta hoga/Mere mehboob ko kissne banaya sochta hoga (Mohammed Rafi in the film Dharti), Hum intezaar karenge tera qayamat tak/Khuda kare  ke qayamat ho aur tu aaye (Asha Bhosle in Bahu Begum)…

These are some superhit songs in the past where the name of the Almighty is mentioned in a romantic/emotional context. No more of these. The mention of God in any exclamatory form, emotional or spiritual, is unofficially banned in Bollywood film songs.

“One never knows how reference to God in a song will be taken. For all you know, you may end up fighting a hundred litigations and FIRs for blasphemy for mentioning God when you mean no disrespect all. Take a song like  KK’s Khuda jaane in the film Bachna Ae Haseeno. It seemed  perfectly okay ten years ago. Today, the same lyrics—Khuda Jaane Ke Mein Fida Hoon/Khuda Jaane Mein Mitt Gaya/Khuda Jaane Yeh Kyun Hua Hai/Ke Ban Gaye Ho Tum Mere Khuda—would be perceived by the public, a leading senior poet-lyricist sounds pessimistic of the  future.

 So are we to eschew songs that do not compare love to God?

“It works both ways. Even  an immortal divine songs like Tumhi mere mandir tumhi mere pooja tumhi devta ho (written by Rajender Krishan for the film Khandaan in the 1960s) would be seen to deify a human being, so not permissible,” says the lyricist.

Shabana Azmi, who has a very strong empowered feminist image, recalls, “In the film Fakira (1976), I sang one of my biggest hit songs Dil mein tujhe bithake kar loongi main bandd aankhen pooja karungi teri… If I were to sing this song today, I would be lynched. Times have changed. Religious sensitivity has grown drastically. One has to be very cautious in using religious references in art.”

Even the songs that sang of a secularism would today be seen as pandering to the minorities by anti-liberals. Tu hindu banega na mussalmann banega insaan ki aulad hai insaal banega from the 1959 film Dharamputra would be contextualized cynically in contemporary times.

“These are troubled difficult times,” admits filmmaker Javed Akhtar. “One has to be very careful in expressing oneself in cinema, be it a song or the onscreen narrative. Agar koi political party thodi bhi sachhi secularism dikhati hai  toh usski izzat karni chahiye. I was approached to write a song for the Congress for the elections. I agreed and wrote the song Main hi to Hindustan hoon.”

The immortal Lata Mangeshkar sang India’s most secular song, Allah tero naam Ishwar tero naam for the  film Hum Dono. She was rightly proud of its unfaltering appeal over caste and creed. But I wonder if Sahir Ludhianvi were alive today, would be able to write a song mentioning ‘Allah’and ‘Ishwar’ in the same breath?

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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