Not So 'Hit Hit'.

I've been missing for a long time, and just like any other adolescent of my age, I can shelter behind the flimsy excuse of 'studies'. Yeah, well, I've been studying alright- studying movies everyday on telly! : D
And while I was doing so (with great concentration and dedication), I also happened to surf across some Hindi music channels, those which showcase the latest Bollywood hits. It was those channels that shook me out of my usual stupor and 'inspired' me to write this particular article.

What's common between the songs 'Hello' and 'Love Mera Hit Hit', apart from the fact that they both belong to not-so-successful Hindi movies, and feature a lot of cheesy, dumb dance steps?

I'll tell you what. Cheesier, dumber lyrics. And sadly, these songs are such hits. The song 'Bhootni Ke' from 'Singh is Kinng'? (That's how you spell it, right?) has got the most repulsive lyrics in the world, and yet, just like the movie, it has a huge following. *cringes*

I think it's sad that our taste for quality lyrics is going down, movie after movie, literally. Well, not all, but MOST of the crowd likes this stuff. The trend is everywhere. Write a Hindi song with the words declaring undying love, and add senseless, irrelevant phrases like 'Let's party tonight', or 'I want you, baby' or worse, 'I am craving for your body now', changing the entire perspective of the song. I mean, if they were going to be horny, couldn't they have just written something like that beautiful number 'Your Body is a Wonderland'? And people don't really seem to mind the sorry lyrics if the tune is 'catchy', or they start getting up and dancing to it. Great, now substitute poetic beauty with making people sweat.

I have seriously noticed that the older songs had better lyrics. MUCH, MUCH better. At least they didn't compromise with quality by adding stupid English rap. But it's the nation's taste has degraded so much, and one cannot blame the producers for wanting to make their movies successful. And if not the movie, at least their songs do it for them, as seen in the case of many flicks nowadays.

Some songs of today are still better, with deep-as-at-least-a-river-if-not-an-ocean lyrics, such as those by Javed Akhtar or Vishal. Guess these are the only flag bearers of a dying society of good lyricists. I could have said Gulzar, but he is too good for me to understand any of what he writes. *sigh*

Some songs with good lyrics go unnoticed, sadly. I have an example, and obviously, because it's Bollywood we're talking about, I'll restrict myself to Hindi songs. There's a track called 'Ishq Hua', from Madhuri Dixit's comeback flick, 'Aaja Nachle'. It's one helluva sweet song, and has that rare ability of making you feel like you want to keep falling in love, over and over again. The movie bombed, because I strongly feel it was publicised ONLY as Dixit's comeback, and people ended up expecting another 'Ek Do Teen' or 'Dhak Dhak' from her. The movie's distributors didn't focus too well on the theme, and hence, the song went pretty unnoticed too.

I am not here to preach about how people should stop listening to 'Bhootni Ke'. To each his own. And I'm also NOT saying that those who happen to like that song are degraded, or whatever. But I'm sure they'll agree with me, the song cannot make them remnicise about the magic of first love, or touch their hearts or make them cry. All it has is sheer entertainment value, and of what kind, I honestly don't know. Well, at least the lyricists should stop aiming ONLY for commercial success, and work for the upliftment of the society, because we all know how big an impact these movies can have. Remember 'Rang De Basanti'? :)

P.S. 'Love Mera Hit Hit' is on my phone's music player's 'Favourites' playlist *grins sheepishly*

Let's Talk Politics.

Recently, I came across a rather close friend's profile on a social networking site. In the 'Political Views' field, she had happened to write something which triggered off a series of questions in my mind, along with the following words- 'Immature. Irresponsible. Ill-informed'.
She had written 'I hate politicians' as an answer.

She's, as I've already mentioned, close to me. Therefore, I'd very much like to tell her that her, um, 'candid' statement doesn't answer the question anybody visiting her profile would want to know about. In fact, sadly, it doesn't make any sense at all. WHAT KIND OF POLITICIANS IS SHE REFERRING TO? But what's even sadder is- this is how most people think today. And they cannot be labelled with something like 'lack of political knowledge' like my unfortunate friend here. Maybe it's just a result of something that's actually existed once, if not still. Corrupted ministers. Bribing. Red-tapism. Yes, we've all seen too many Hindi movies and too many news bulletins on that. But frankly, I would not like to believe that Sonia Gandhi is somebody to be hated. Or for that matter, her children, Omar Abdullah, or the likes of them. They are more sophisticated and respectable than probably most of us could ever be. At least that's what I feel.

Politics is not just politicians. It can never be. It refers to the complete system of managing the state of affairs of a state/country. Yes, definitely, India has produced some, ahem, 'great' leaders, those working their hands under the table, but are all of them like that? Maybe 90%, but some part of me, foolish, if you may call it, likes to believe the rest ARE working for the people. It's the remaining 10% that can make all the difference in the world, but only if WE want them to. Maybe we're all just so used to the idea of calling ministers 'wolves' that nobody really sees the sheep in between them.

It's really convenient for somebody with a Honda Civic to sit in their 4-BHK, completely air-conditioned home with a bowl of chips in their hands to say - 'Politics sucks. Politicians suck. I would rather watch Rakhi Sawant talking about her smooch than Sonia Gandhi making a speech'. And I hate such kind of people. Why do they call themselves Indians in the first place? Why would he/she want to give up all of that and get his/her hands dirty when he/she can easily get a job in an MNC? And BECAUSE of his/her inability to understand how somebody CAN, such comments follow.

What I said above DOES NOT imply in any way that politicians do not earn/they give up their lives only for the sake of people. Some of them have assets worth over 500 Crores. But the fact remains- those who actually work for people's good CANNOT make that kind of money. Now THOSE are the kind of polticians my dear friend should be talking about.

I've always believed that nobody is born bad. Circumstances change people. It's the struggle to survive in this world that corrupts people. And it's not like changing them is impossible. Just because somebody doesn't have much of political know-how doesn't give them the right to complain about those who happen to.

I would only like to advise my friend, and anyone who thinks the same way- start reading up on your basics. And do not put up escapist answers just beause it's convenient. You're just running away from reality.