Charm
of nonsense rhymes
AAT News Service
How
are comic songs created? It is only when a music composer
and a lyricist are perfectly in perfect sync with each other
that a truly comic song is created. The lyricist writes
the funny lyrics, but it is the music director who is supposed
to give it a catchy tune. Sometimes, a creative music composer
gives a new dimension to the lyricist’s words by adding
his own inputs.
Just as R D Burman did when he composed the song, Duniyan
mein, logon ko, dhokha kabhi ho jata hai.... What makes
this Asha Bhosle-R D Burman-rendered duet a thrilling melody
are the grunts and growls made by R D Burman, apart from
singing his solo line, Monika, oh my darling!.
R D Burman created another unforgettable comic song, Mere
samne wali khidki mein ik chaand ka tukda rehta hai... for
the film Padosan. It was rendered by Kishore Kumar and Manna
Dey. It is so hilarious that even today it is considered
one of the best comic songs from films.
There are many strangely-worded comic songs in which the
singers giggle, guffaw or utter other human articulations,
all intended to enhance their fun quotient. However, most
of the comic songs that one gets to hear in Bollywood films
are not original compositions. Many of them are straight
lifts from popular English tunes which are adapted to Hindi
lyrics by composers.
Take, for instance, the song with the nonsense refrain,
Zoobi doobi, zoobi doobi pum para... from the film 3 Idiots.
It is a catchy tune and it has taken the fancy of the young
all over the country, and hence its popularity. Of course,
it is an adaptation of an English tune.
Come to think of it, comic songs have always been a part
of Hindi films. It would be interesting to go back in time
to recall those comic songs which, like the Zoobi doobi
song of 3 Idiots, were very popular in their time, but which
are now very rarely heard on the radio and perhaps never
seen on any TV channel.
The first most popular comic song, Aana meri jaan, meri
jaan, Sunday ke Sunday... that had the cine-going masses
of those days in splits, was from the film Shehnai (1947).
It was written by P L Santoshi, father of the present-day
film-maker Rajkumar Santoshi, and set to music by C Ramchandra.
It was sung by C Ramchandra, Meena Kapoor and Shamshad Begum.
What gave this song an exotic charm of its own was the anglicised
way in which Chitalkar (C Ramchandra) intoned the Hindi
words, meri jaan, meri jaan.
In 1948, P L Santoshi directed another Filmistan movie titled
Khidkee, for which he also wrote the lyrics. And, once again,
the music director was C Ramchandra who had a gift for creating
rib-tickling songs. A song from this film, Kismet hamare
saath hai, jalne wale jala karen, dud-daan dud-daan dud-daan.
It was of course the use of the non-sensical words dud-daan,
dud-daan that made this song so hilarious.
In 1950, Filmistan made Sargam, a veritable laugh-riot that
starred Raj Kapoor, Rehana, Om Prakash and some other actors.
This was directed by P L Santoshi, and its songs too were
written by him. The music composer was of course C Ramchandra.
There was a song in the climax scenes of this film with
the refrain, Raat Milan ki aur dil hai pyasa, mombasa, mombasa.
Now, the word Mombasa in this song has nothing to do with
the famous Kenian port. It has been used just to make it
rhyme with the word pyasa in the refrain of this song. This
song was picturised on nearly all the characters in the
film and it was sung by Chitalkar, Lata Mangeshkar.
It is one of the funniest film songs ever heard in a Bollywood
film. It is packed with non-sensical words, Lata’s
sparkling giggles, Chitalkar’s powerful guffaws, and
a lot more.
Another popular comic song of the 50s figured in Ranjit’s
Humlog (1951) which was directed by Zia Sarhady and for
which the music was composed by Roshan. The song went like
this, Bogey Bogey Bogey, Yo Yo Yo, sung by G M Durrani and
Shamshad Begum. It was a fast-paced, toe-tapping melody
which became very popular. The song is noteworthy for Shamshad
Begum’s saucy and racy intonation of some piquant words
in it.
Sometimes a song may not be comic in its overall content,
but has a somewhat strangely-worded refrain. For instance,
Rammayya vasta vayya... in Shri 420 (1955), composed by
Shankar-Jaikishen, was a serious song, but it was its refrain,
Rammayaa vasta vayya, that set it apart from other songs
of this film.
When it came to creating outright comic songs or songs with
some non-sensical words in the refrain, composer-singer
C Ramchandra was simply unbeatable. He composed a song with
a fast-paced refrain for the Dilip Kumar-Meena Kumari starrer
Azad (1955). It had these unusual words, Aplum chhaplum,
chhup laee re, duniya ko chod teri gali ayee re ayee re.
But C Ramchandra’s supreme achievement in this
genre was the song that he composed for Asha (1957). For
years, the Eena meena dheeka, Dai dama nika... song from
Asha remained the quint-essential humorous song of Bollywood.
It was sung separately by two singers – Kishore Kumar
and Asha Bhosle. But it is the Kishore Kumar version of
this song that has gained maximum popularity.
When asked what inspired him to create this hilarious roller-coaster
melody for Asha, C Ramchandra’s reply was that he had
once heard kids in his street sing a song in which the words
eena meena dheeka occurred frequently, and that set his
mind to work, to create a complete rip-roaring comic song
for the Kishore Kumar-Vayjyanthimala starrer Asha .
Among the playback singers, it is of course Kishore Kumar
who has sung the maximum number of comic songs for films.
Kishore Kumar had a rare talent for yodelling, which made
his comic songs acquire a distinct charm of their own.
Kishore Kumar has yodelled in many film songs, but the one
that he sang with Asha Bhonsle under O P Nayyar’s music
direction is evergreen. The song is, Piya piya mera jiya
pukare. Kishore Kumar’s yodelling is at its best in
this duet.
Who, by the way, was the first music composer who used Kishore
Kumar’s gift for yodelling for a film song? Most of
Kishore Kumar’s fans think that it was S D Burman who
made him yodel first.
But the truth is that it was not S D Burman, but music composer
under whose direction Kishore Kumar yodelled for the first
time in a film song. And the song was a duet that Kishore
Kumar sang with Meena Kapoor in Muqaddar (1950), starring
Nalini Jaywant, Sajjan and Gogia Pasha.
