A countdown of internal inspirations

By: Chanakya Dhanda, IndiaFM
Friday, October 13, 2006
How often do we say when we hear a song that "Oh, have I not heard this tune somewhere?" Very often we are sure. But sometimes, it actually happens. Being inspired from English and other western music is a thing of past. Copying similar Hindi songs is now popular. When we listen to a song, it is a direct copy of the tune of another song and sometimes even worse because even the words are copied. Well let us take you to a journey where either the song's music is common or the words.

Let us start with Jumma Chumma De De from the film Hum starring Amitabh Bachchan. It had a similar copy in the form of Tamma Tamma Loge from the film Thanedaar starring Madhuri and Sanjay Dutt. Jumma Chumma went on to become a super hit song while Tamma Tamma also did well but could not scale the heights of the former. Hum had music by Laxmikant Pyarelal and Thanedaar had music by Bappi Lahiri. Where were they both inspired from? Our guess is as good as yours.

We had a superhit song in the form of Dil Le Le Lena from the film Auzaar which was heavily inspired by the hit English version Macarena. Anu Malik had done the music for this film. But the icing on the cake is Anu copied Macarena first and then copied his own song Dil Le Le Lena and gave Dil Maaka Dina in Dhaal. Talk about one inspiring himself. And obviously, the audience wasn't interested in listening to the same tune again and the Dhaal version did not do well.

Next up we have another copy of music. A. R. Rahman gave the superhit song Muqabla from the film Humse Hai Muqabla (Kaadalan in Tamil). But this original gem too was not spared. It had a cheap imitation in the form of Oh Jaaneman from the film Raghuveer starring Suniel Shetty. It had music by Dilip Sen-Sameer Sen. And as expected the imitation never grew in the audiences mind and Muqabla created sorts of records. Rajesh Roshan too made Akshay Kumar dance with Mamta Kulkarni on his version of the song Muh Kaala, Muqabla in Sabse Bada Khiladi. But how many remember?

Kamaal Khan and Salman Khan are friends and the whole world knows that. But many people do not know that Salman's hit song, Oh Oh Jaane Jaana from the film Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya was actually an original song which had Kamaal Khan singing to it. Salman made Kamaal himself sing in the film as he did not want to take away credit from him for his original composition.

We also have two similar songs in Raja and Baazi. Raja starred Sanjay Kapoor and Madhuri while Aamir starred in Baazi. The song in question is Nazarein Mili Dil Dhadka from Raja and Dole Dole Dil Dole from Baazi. They had similar tunes. Both released in the same year. But which song was inspired by who is a difficult question to answer. Raja had music by Nadeem-Shravan and Baazi had music by Anu Malik. Both the songs worked but were not chartbusters.

Falguni Pathak delivered a superhit song in the form of Choodi Jo Khanki Haathon Mein from her private album. But when the same song was taken in the film Pyaar Koi Khel Nahi, the song did not create any wave even though it was sung by Falguni Pathak herself. This film had music by Jatin Lalit.

There was a film called Mohabbat starring Akshaye Khanna and Madhuri. It had a popular song called Chhad Zid Karna. This particular song was a clean copy of Stereo Nation's superhit song Don't Break My Heart. What is ironical is that in the film, the song have the words Don't break my heart and is sung exactly like Stereo Nation's song.

Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam was a musical . The title song of Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam had music by Nikhil Vinay. The music and tune of this song was identical to a song from a film released the same year. The song is Dil Laga Liya Maine Tumse Pyaar Karke from Dil Hai Tumhara which had music by Nadeem Shravan. The latter was not very popular though. Where these music directors get identical inspirations from is a difficult question to answer.

The movie Tum Bin had a song called Tumhare Siva which was a very popular song. Then came Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke which was a long in delay movie whose one song - Tere Naam Lene Ke was exactly identical to Tumhare Siva. Both the films had music by Nikhil-Vinay. When asked about why similar tunes, they had an explanation. The reason was Yeh Lamhe Judai Ke got stuck during the making. The music directors did not expect the movie to release. So they gave the tune in Tum Bin. Well, this case is justified. The latest entrant is none other than Don. This being a remake of the earlier Don, has acquired all the rights from the makers of the old Don including music rights. They have kept two songs from the old Don and added modern beats to it. The two songs are Khaike Paan Banaraswala and Yeh Mera Dil. The music directors of new Don are Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy but the original composers Kalyanji-Anandji will be given due credits in the movie.

The list continues as there many Pakistani singers these days whose songs are popular in Pakistan and their songs are now re arranged in India and are being released. An example for the same is Atif whose Woh Lamhe was a huge hit in Pakistan. He sang the song for the film Zeher in India and the song here too became a rage. Another of his hit song Aadat has been adapted in India in the film Kalyug.

Well these songs are just a few. There are many which we have not covered. But this is a wrong example set by Indian music directors. Well guys there is a lot of creative work you can do rather than just copying each other's song. And that doesn't mean copying international compositions.

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