Bolly Lyrics Workshop

Bollywood Lyrics - a Workshop

Bollywood songs have been loved and are considered melodious by many. We often quote a Bollywood line to make our point, like:

•  “Main aaj bhi phenke huwe paise nahi uthata”, 
• “Tere mere sapne ab ek rang hain” and 
• “Ishaq ke naam pe karte sab raasleela hain”. 

We quote them to argue, to convince and to justify. But a question comes to my mind time and again : are those all the emotions we have? Answer is a big NO! 

After quoting hundreds of such lines I realized that Bollywood lyrics (and others) worked on a formula. It relies on a few emotions and formats to try to simulate your current feelings. Since we WANT to hear such comments to sooth/justify our situations and decisions, we cherish them like truth. Before I dive and demonstrate Bollywood’s fixed pattern, listen to this song:

Seene mein sulagte hain armaan, aankhon mein udaasi chhaayi hai
Lo aaj teri duniyaa se hamein taqdeer kahaan le aayi hai

Here the underlined parts denote the rhyming ends of the lines. You see, Bollywood first writes ONE line, and by the ending of this line, it formulates the rhyming end of next line - just like many other poetry traditions.

Here, as soon as the poet sees the line “chhayi hai” they think of the next line that ends similarly. The options they get are: “Laayi hai”, “Aayi hai”, “khaayi hai” “dikh-laai hai”, “Rus-waai hai” etc. The poet is tempted to write a line that ends with one of these possibilities. One could think of something like:

Tu kitni harjai hai.

Let’s start with “harjaai hai” as it rhymes!

We just have to write a line before it and complete this line! So Simple! Here is what comes to my mind:

Do char dinon ka rishta tera, do char dinon ki teri wafa.
Hum hi bharam kar baithe, na samajha ke tu harjaai hai.

See! This rhymes well and makes (some) sense! Similarly you could have added two more lines like these:

Dil lagaana ek baazi, haar chuke hum toh sari
koi rabt kisi se nahi ab, ye maine kasam khaayi hai

So, you can go ahead and create lines of this sort, as much as you like. If you listen to the actual song it goes like this: (Lyricist - Prem Dhawan, 1951, Tarana).

Seene mein sulagte hain armaan, Aankho mein udaasi chhaayi hai
Ye aaj teri duniya se hamein, Taqdeer kaha le aayi hai
Seene mein sulagte hain armaan

Kuchh aankh mein aansoo baaki hain, Jo mere gham ke saathi hain - 2
Ab dil hain na dil ke armaan hain -2, Bas main hu meri tanhaai hai
Seene mein sulagte hain armaan

Na tujhse gila koyi hamko, Na koyi shikaayat duniya se
Do chaar qadam jab manzil thi-2, Qismat ne thhokar khaayi hai
Seene mein sulagte hain armaan

Kuchh aisi aag lagi man mein, Jeene bhi na de marne bhi na de ...
Chup hu to kaleja jalta hai -2, Bolu to teri ruswaayi hai
Seene mein sulagte hain armaan

Not quite different, right? You can become an accomplished Bollywood writer by following this, right? Well there are a few more things to take care:

1. The last rhyming part should have a rhyme and then a repeat overhang. Here in above song the rhyming part is “dikhlaai/ruswaai/khaayi” and repeat is “hai”. Sometimes the repeat is quite longer. Like: “pyaar baaki hai sanam”, next line could rhyme like “iqraar baaki hai sanam” In these lines, the pyaar/iqraar are the rhymes but baaki hai sanam is repeat. In (Arabic) poetic tradition, this rhyming is called a radeef and repeat is a qafiya. You may take this link for more info.
2. Both the lines should be of same length - syllable wise, not just word wise (approx). Also, their weight-age should also be same. And most importantly:
3. The whole line should make some sense and be new to the audience. (well not actually in a Bollywood song, but if you wanted to become a good one). So, search google and get started.

Talking of radeef (rhymes), here is a list of very common rhymes used in Bollywood throughout the years:

• Pyaar, iqraar, ijhaar, takraar, sou baar, ekbaar, hazaar, khumaar
• Sharaab, jawaab, hisaab, kitaab, janaab, gulaab, khwaab, aftaab, maahtab
• Dil-Manzil-Mehfil-Sahil-Qatil-Mushkil
• Sanam-Janam-Kasam
• Gaal-baal-chaal-haal (Gore gore gaal tere main kya karun, kaale kaale baal tere main kya karun)


Managing/meddling with public’s emotions

How Bollywood makes it special for you? It uses hi-fi/less-used words to make you feel special - it is that you always fall for! Yep, it’s THAT simple. Say, for describing a bad time/phase, someone uses a term- “Gardish mein taare rahenge sada”. Since for an average listener, this is not a term frequently used, you get enticed. Here is the clue: Words related to gardish is:

Gardish - Ird-gird , Girdaan etc.

The Persian word gardaneedan means ‘to revolve'. So ‘ird-gird’ means - around. Gardish means to sway, not being stable, not composed. Hence gardish mein taare means “not fixed, disturbed”.

In continuation of the rules to groom your lines, you must be equipped with the words that sound exotic.For that, as a first step, do you see any link between these lists of words?

• Safar-Musafir
• Ehsaas-Mehsoos
• Sajda-Masjid-Saajid
• Taqdees-Muqaddas

If you can figure these out, then you can understand the meaning of words like:

• Momin - Imaan
• Mohsin - Ehsaan
• Motbar - Eitbaar, Etc.

That will be enough for a bursting Bollywood starter! Once you are done with these, you may start your own shop of poetry. 

Let's write a song now!

Let us start with a striking line like:

Nigahen teri samandar hain, adayen kisi nadi ki tarah

Rhyming the underline part compels us for: Jabeen ki tarahh, khushi ki tarah, sadi ki tarah, wali ki tarah ..etc. I write to complete the 2 lines, it comes to shape like this:

Nigahen teri samandar hain, adayen kisi nadi ki tarah

Milan mein guzare waqt fatafat, judaai mein ek lamha lage sadi ki tarah

There are 2 things to correct in last line: 2nd line is so longer than the first one, and words are too ordinary. We work on the 2nd part first. Milan -Vasl. Judaai - Firaaq. Fatafat - Daf’atan

Nigahen teri samandar hain, adayen kisi nadi ki tarah

Vasl mein guzare waqt Daf’atan, Firaaq mein ek lamha lage sadi ki tarah

This makes the 2nd line even longer. So we elongate the first line:

Nigahen teri hain jaise samandar, aur adayen kisi nadi ki tarah

Vasl ka waqt nikale Daf’atan, Firaaq ka ek lamha bhi sadi ki tarah

That’s a good couplet! Add more lines and make your own bollywood song. Send it to Navjot Sidhu ! :)

Let me know. (Disclaimer: This is just to give a picture of the age old formula).