I wonder how Bollywood musicians work. I vaguely remember watching an interview where the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were telling a story about how accommodation for them was booked in Goa to compose music for some film and they spent a lot of time “enjoying” but they couldn’t compose anything till the very end. I tried to find this interview but couldn’t. I discuss a few songs by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and try to unpack what’s going on in the composition.
Dil Chahta Hai
Every 90s kid listens to “Dil Chahta Hai” when they start a trip with their friends. This is not a coincidence. The movie isn’t even about the trip to Goa. The trip is just a part of a complex story of how three friends find love. Or maybe it’s the beginning of a rather complex trip they take and later end it in Goa. The song is synonymous with road trips because of its structure. It begins exactly like the morning of a trip you have planned. Things are packed, and a crisp excitement is building up. The high hat and the bass in the intro just before the lyrics “Dil Chahta Hai” sung twice, are portraying exactly these emotions. The verse portrays the start of the journey and sets it up through lyrics that talk about how the days should be.
After this, there is a part in the lyrics - “Jagmagat hai jhilmilat hai…”. This part is called the pre-chorus. The pre-chorus exists to let the listener know that the chorus is coming. In pre-chorus, they have kept the bass line the same as the intro which voices the words “Dil Chahta Hai”. When the trio was composing the music for Dil Chahta Hai, the same bass line was being thrown around earlier, intended for a different song. Shankar while brushing his teeth got the idea that the bass line voices the words, Dil Chahta Hai. Because it fits so well, the lyrics of the pre-chorus have an undertone of this “Dil Chahta Hai” voicing which almost forces the belief that the heart wants all these things.
Then comes the grand chorus of the song. Many of you may know, but for those who don’t, the chorus is the central part of the song that all the verses and everything in the song are pointing towards. It will repeat in the song again to provide the much-needed release. It is, more often than not, very catchy. It will stick in your head and keep reminding you of the song. The chorus of Dil Chahta Hai is a voicing layered multiple times, and syllables are sung in a chest voice which is such a primitive but effective tool of expressing togetherness. And as we all now know, the song is about the togetherness of three friends. The chorus quite efficiently communicates the “point” of the song.
After the first chorus, another verse is followed by a guitar solo. Guitar solos are an essential part of rock songs. In this song, the filmmakers have aptly used the solo for a montage about the trip. After the solo ends, another part begins that hasn’t been heard till now. This part divides the song into two. Such a part is called a bridge. Bridges are used to connect different parts of songs, in this case, it isn’t used to connect scale changes or different rhythms. It is merely used to connect the first and the second half of the song. The purpose probably was more lyrical than musical as the lyrics enhance the epiphany that results in a trip. After the bridge, we continue into the song with the usual structure.
The song comes in the movie as a part of the first act. It is a setup for the friendship that will take the movie forward. No conflict has yet been introduced into the film, much like our lives when we were young. All this is too apt. I’m going a step ahead and claiming that the Goa trip is not famous because of the movie but because of the song.
Kajra Re
Kajra Re is an item number and I hate the song. If an academic study is conducted on item songs, Kajra Re will emerge as having the perfect structure. It has perfect bridges for performing dances or showing comedic scenes and the perfect verses to hold the lyrics together. Add to that a catchy chorus and you have a song that will live in the memory of those who like and dislike it. What concerns me is, just how, how could they have composed this song. It fries my brains to bits. Ehsaan wrote a lot of song parts on guitar and later they converted it into another form using other instruments. Check this part out -
Ehsaan and Loy composed this bridge on guitar! I will say this again, it fries my brains to bits.
Kajra Re to me feels like a Qawwali with claps used as a rhythm tool throughout the song along with the harmonium that follows the lead vocals. Qawwalis were traditionally a devotional act developed to explore the meanings of existence and much more. The contemporary renditions though had made it seem to me that Qawwalis were a form where two groups would debate about stuff and the points were presented impromptu, in key, in rhythm, and rhyme. I believe that Qawwals were adept at singing very high notes using chest voice for two reasons. One being the absence of sound reinforcement systems that in the recent past have caused chaos and closures of a lot of pubs. The other being, reaching such a high note using chest voice requires exemplary effort and Qawwals practice that rigorously. We acknowledge the high note even without realizing it. We feel mesmerized when we hear those notes by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan saab or Rahat Fateh Ali Khan saab. Another structural aspect in Qawwalis is the change in tempo towards the end. An aspect that has been kept intact in Kajra Re. The lack of devotional content in the lyrics (the lead act of the song is a courtesan) and the lack of those high notes take it a little away from the traditional Qawwali and yet certain elements bring it closer to the form. My colleague in Mehfil, Rahul, will be able to expand more on the lyrics of the song, maybe he feels that they are devotional in some way. I recommend writing your thoughts or debates about it in the comments where I will make sure he replies.
An even better person to expand would be Gulzar saab himself! I have read that his inspiration for the lyrics was the quirky quotes written behind trucks. Apparently, the song is set in a dhaba on a highway. I have forgotten the movie. I also read that Shankar insisted on keeping the words Kajra Re in the song and thus Gulzar saab wrote everything around it. It seems to me that all this was done because an “item number” was needed at that point in time in the movie.
Item numbers in Bollywood seem to have a special purpose. I don’t get that purpose. If I ever get a chance to ask Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, I would love to ask them about it. Such versatility cannot be achieved without extensive knowledge coupled with crazy intuition.
Zehreele
While I talk about Kajra Re, let me take a huge leap in the exact opposite direction and talk about Death Metal. Qawwalis traditionally explore a lot of divine stuff. Death Metal, well, does not do that. It has heavy guitar riffs, fast drum beats, and growling vocals that fill the listener with a compulsive desire to break necks. It is apparent that on its surface Death Metal explores, well, death. I did a playlist on “Metal in India” in which we explored the current and old Indian metal bands. But none of them had contributed to Bollywood in the traditional sense. Bollywood might have been exposed to some Rock music. I think Death Metal was properly introduced in a Bollywood movie in 2011 when Bhayanak Maut’s Unleashed was used in Shaitan. But Shankar-Ehsan-Loy came close in 2008 by composing “Zehreelay” for Rock On. Zehreelay was not exactly a Death Metal song but it maybe was the closest allowable in mainstream Bollywood. It wasn’t a Death Metal song because of the way the keyboard was used in it. I am not at all saying the keys aren’t a part of Death Metal (those who know Children of Bodom will agree). You have to listen to the HQ version of the song on a great set of speakers to properly hear the keys. You will soon notice the very “pop” sounding keyboard patches used. It does come close though because of the intro riff which uses the Groove Metal type chromatic scale. It could be that they wanted to compose a song that loses the competition in the film hence they made it a notch out of shape. Ehsaan does say in an interview that this kind of music is not his thing and that he has never managed to play the guitar solo in this song ever again. The solo is a single-take recording of the reference solo they had recorded. While Ehsaan says “this kind of music is not his thing”, given how eclectic his compositions are, we can safely say that he does not have his own thing.
That's the thing about composing music for films. The compositions don’t come out of thin air. The music has to fit to the needs of the narrative written by someone else. For Bollywood music composers, it might be both a boon and a curse. They get to explore a multi-genre approach but those who can’t quickly become irrelevant unless they spend some time on serious branding. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy seems to have taken this as an opportunity to expand the boundaries of what they can do. Amongst other questions, the most pressing one for me is, how can you do this on a fast-approaching deadline?