Parody songs: Part 2

(I thank Ashok M Vaishnav for very generously sharing his compilation of parody songs with me – AK)

In Part 1 of this post I covered the parody songs based on a single song. This seems to have later led to the practice of parodying the mukhada or a short portion of a number of songs and blending them into a single medley of varied tunes. There is more creativity involved in this because the music director has to ensure that the output does not become a hotchpotch of unconnected tunes. But if it is done well, it is obviously more fun. The more the merrier.

Within the medley parody songs, one can discern two trends. One, parodying the lyrics which is the more prevalent form; and the other, screen characters singing famous original old tracks as they are. It may be debatable if the latter type can be called parody, but since the intent and picturization is meant to produce humour, to my mind, such medley songs, too, should be described as parody.

While the films and the creative world are quite open to humour, our society, at least some segment of it, is becoming surprisingly oversensitive even to very innocuous fun. Indians seem to be the most offended people today. We are always on a short fuse taking offence to a film not yet released and not seen, to a book we have never read nor are we ever going to read, to young couples sitting in a park. In Part 1 of parody songs we saw how even serious and venerated songs like KC Dey’s Jaao jaao ae mere sadhu and KL Saigal’s Baalam aye baso mere man mein were parodied. The same irreverence continues in medley parody songs as we shall see. I remember when a funny advertisement parodied Jab dil hi toot gaya, there was uproar from some KL Saigal lovers, forcing the agency to pull out the ad.

As bloggers we run the hazard of coming across oversensitive visitors. Even when I scrupulously avoid contentious political and social issues, I do have opinions on music, singers and film personalities, which, at times, I express in a humorous style. This can lead to nasty situations which we try to deal online and offline in our own ways. The one response that does not work is trying to reason with the person that irreverence is not insult, or telling the person, you don’t get it.

Fortunately, parody songs have survived without violence and without burning the theatres (I hope I am not giving someone ideas 🙂 ). Let us enjoy the second and final part of the parody songs.

Medley parody

1. Bhojan ke nazare hain by Baby Madhuri from Vishwas (1943), lyrics Munshi Sham Jilani, music Firoz Nizami

This seems to be the earliest available medley parody. The interesting clip seems to depict a children’s home being inspected by the benefactor, when the noisy children break into this medley of songs creating an embarrassing situation for the warden. In vintage parodies it is an interesting challenge to identify the originals. I have identified: 1. Saawan ke nazaarein hain, 2. Laut gayi papan andhiyari (both Shamshad Begum, Khazanchi, 1941, Ghulam Haider); 3. Zindagi hai pyar se (Khan Mastana, Rafique Ghaznavi, Sheela, Meena Shorey, Menaka, Sikandar 1941, Rafiq Ghazanavi & Mir Saheb) 4. Mere liye jahan mein, 5. Tu kaun si badli mein (both Noor Jehan, Khandan, 1942, Ghulam Haider). A similar situation was also the setting for medley parody in Mr. India (1987).

2. Prem ke taange pe ud jaun from Tigress (1948), lyrics MC Hunnar, music Chitragupta

This nice medley composed by Chitragupta clearly shows which songs were the big hits those days. You can identify Yahan badla wafa ka bewafai ke siwa kya hai (1947, Jugnu, Firoz Nizami), Ana meri jaan meri jaan Sunday ke Sunday (Shehnai, 1947, C Ramchandra), Ankhiyan mila ke jiya bharma ke (Ratan, 1944, Naushad) and Jawani ka rail chali jaye re (Shehnai, 1947, C Ramchandra).

3. Duniya paglon ka bazaar from Chacha Choudhary (1953), music Madan Mohan

It is a challenge and delight to identify the original songs. I can clearly identify Duniya ye duniya Toofan Mail (Jawab, 1942, Kamal Dasgupta) and Dunia ka maza le lo duniya tumhari hai (Bahar, 1951, SD Burman). I am leaving the rest for the readers.

4. Kabhi to pura tol prani by Mubarak Begum and Suman Kalyanpur from Hamari Yaad Ayegi (1961), lyrics Kidar Sharma, music Snehal Bhatkar

This superb medley parody was added by N Venkataraman on my post on Mubarak Begum. The mukhada seems to be based on the traditional bhajan, Radhe Krishna bol mukh se, made famous by Pt. Narayan Rao Vyas (I could not locate its link on YT); the other songs parodied are KL Saigal’s non-film song Panchhi kaahe hot udas, Surdas’s Maiya mori main nahi makhan khayo (also sung by Saigal in Bhakt Surdas) and Pradeep’s famous Mukhada dekh le praani zara darpan mein. Snehal Bhatkar does full justice to the originals.

5. Aaye na baalam ka karun sajani by Mohammad Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar from Main Chup Rahungi (1962), lyrics Majrooh Sultanpuri, music Chitragupta

This medley is a stage performance song by children. The original songs are: the traditional thumri Ka karun sajani aaye na baalam (Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan’s rendering has an iconic place), Chaahe koi mujhe junglee kahe (Junglee, 1961, Shankar-Jaikishan), Ma pyari ma (Aaina, 1944, Singer Kaushalya, MD Fateh Ali Khan), Itna na mujhse tu pyar badha (Chhaya, 1961, Salil Chaudhary), Ehsaan tera hoga mujhpar (Junglee, SJ), Bikhara ke zulfein chaman mein na jana (Nazrana, 1959, Ravi).

6. Suno..suno by Mohammad Rafi and Mahesh Kumar (in female voice) from Haseena Maan Jayegi (1968), music Kalyanji-Anandji

This medley parody is remarkable for the uninhibited act by Shashi Kapoor among his college friends in which he changes into a woman’s dress several times as he has to sing a romantic song or a mujra. The originals are: Mere desh ki dharti (Upkar, 1967, KA), Pardesiyon se na ankhiyan milana (Jab jab phhol khile, 1965, KA), Jogan ban jaungi sainya tore kaaran (Shabab, 1954, Naushad) and Ab aage teri marzi (Devdas, 1955, SD Burman).

7. Chal chal re naujawan by Mohammad Rafi and Asha Bhosle from Ek Phool Do Maali (1969), lyrics Prem Dhavan, music Ravi

The title of the song itself indicates it has to be a parody song. Starting from Ashok-Kumar-Leela Chitnis’s song from Bandhan (1940), the medley includes the parodies of several songs of SJ, Roshan, RD Burman and Ravi himself.

8. De de didi football wapas de de by Shabbir Kumar and Anuradha Padwal from Mr. India (1987), lyrics Javed Akhtar, music Laxmikant-Pyarelal

This medley is too well-known, but I am including it here for one very special reason which would be obvious from the originals it parodies: 1.Na maangun sona chaandi, 2.Chahunga mein tujhe sanjh savere, 3. Saawan ka mahina, 4. Ek pyar ka naghma hai, 5. Tere mere beech mein, 6. Dafliwale dafli baja, 7. Mera naam hai chameli, 8. Khilona jaankar, 9. Jhootha hai tera wada and 10. Om shanti om. By this time LP had become too full of themselves? The picturisation is superb.

Medley parody songs with the original lyrics

9. Film Lamhe (1991) medley song

This medley uses the original tracks to which the actors on the screen lip-synch and act for a comic effect. Anil Kapoor has difficulty in accepting what he considers to be an improper relationship. Sridevi, Anupam Kher and Waheeda Rehman have no problems with it and they are trying to humour him with their funny act. In an interesting turn near the end, exasperated by the comic acts of Anupam Kher and Sridevi, he turns towards the elder Waheeda Rehman for bringing some order in the chaos, but she also joins in the madness with Kaanton se kheench ke ye anchal. Finally, he relents and joins in the chorus Ramaiya vastavaiya. Other original tracks included are: 1. Pyar hua ekraar hua, 2. Taqdeer se bigadi huyi tadbeer bana de, 3. Jai jai Shiv Shankar, 4. Hum tum ek kamre mein band hon, 5. Maar diya jaay ya chhod diya jaay, 6. Babuji dheere chalana, 7. O re manjhi, 8. Bindiya chamkegi, 9. Chaahe koi mujhe junglee kahe, 10. Babul mora naihar chhutal jaay, 11. Ghar aaya mera pardesi, 12. Sar jo tera chakraye and 13. Jaane wo kaise log the jinke. By any yardstick this medley has to be treated as a parody song.

10. Film Mujhse Shadi Karoge (2002) medley song

These days no wedding worthy of its name is without a rehearsed and choreographed ‘Sangeet’. There is nothing exceptional about this medley; in fact, Lata Mangehskar singing her original tunes sounds cracked. But the song is interesting for a trivia with which you can trick anyone: Did Lata Mangeshkar ever sing a composition by OP Nayyar? The answer is, yes; she sings Ude jab jab zulfein teri in this medley.

Embedded parody

I end with what I consider the most intelligent type of parody songs. Remember Kishore Kumar’s Paanch rupaiya barah ana. This is a comic song all right, but having its own independent tune. Then out of the blue, in the interlude he parodies KC Dey’s Teri gathari mein laga chor musaafir jaag zara. In the same song in the second interlude, he parodies SD Burman’s Dheere se jana bagiyan mein re bhanwra. In another song he embeds Kaga sab tan khaiyo chun chun khaiyo maans/ Do naina mat khaiyo mohe piya milan ki aas (attributed to Sufi poet Baba Sheikh Fareed?). Kishore Kumar is master of such embedded parodies. I believe that more than the music director, it was his own improvisation. I wrote a post on Kishore Kumar’s best mad, carzy comic songs in which I gave some examples of his embedded parodies. In Des chhudaye bhes chhudaye (Chacha Zindabad, 1959), he embeds the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill; in Ek roz hamari bhi daal galegi (Bandi, 1957), he embeds Saigal’s Panchhi kaahe hot udas. There are many more by him. I was especially interested in finding if he had done the complete New Theatres trinity of KL Saigal, KC Dey and Pankaj Mullick.

11. O Madam O madam..main paagal hun by Kishore Kumar from Girl Friend (1960), lyrics Sahir Ludhiyanavi, music Hemant Kumar

This is a typical mad song by Kishore Kumar. And when you least expect, he springs upon you a parody of Pujari more mandir mein aao (Jagirdar, 1937; Surendra and Bibbo; Anil Biswas) and, after about a minute he brings in Prem nagar mein banaaungi gar main (Chandidas, 1934; KL Saigal and Uma Shashi; RC Boral).

12. Gana na aaya bajana na aaya by Kishore Kumar from Miss Mary (1957), music Hemant Kumar

This is a Kishore Kumar-type wild song. But how does Three blind mice (3.1) fit in? Nothing is impossible for him.

13. Gunijano re bhaktjano re by Kishore Kumar from Aansoo Aur Muskan (1970), lyrics Qamar Jalalabadi, music Kalyanji-Anandji

Kishore Kumar, as always, is absolutely charming. This song also leads me to Pankaj Mullick’s Sundar nari preetam pyari (2.43). Thus, Kishore Kumar completes the great trinity of New Theatres, SD Burman’s Dheere se jana bagiyan mein, and Surendra’s Pujari mere mandir mein aao. None can match him in this field. In the end of the song he also mentions several stars’ names (including his own in a cutely narcissistic manner), and says Income Tax is after all of them. Nice way to have gentle fun on them.

14. Ek dil tera ek dil mera by Rajkumari, Zohrabai & GM Durrani from Hip Hip Hurray (1948), lyrics Moti BA, music Hanuman Prasad

I end this post with a great discovery made by Ashokji. The main tune is of a standard romantic song. But, you find embedded parodies of at least twenty everlasting songs. The list below looks like the Roll of Honour of the top music directors of the time. Unsurprisingly, it is Naushad all the way, leaving others far behind.

1. Afsana likh rahi hun – Naushad (Dard)
2. Gaya zamana loot ka (?)
3. Udankhatole par ud jaaun – Naushad (Anmol Ghadi)
4. Angdaai teri hai bahana – Naushad (Ratan)
5. Dil le ke bhaga daga de ke bhaga – C Ramchandra (Nadiya Ke Paar)
6. Main to Dilli se dulhan laya re ae babuji – Saraswati Devi (Jhoola)
7. Ankhiyan mila ke jiya bharma ke – Naushad (Ratan)
8. Jab tum hi chale pardes – Naushad (Ratan)
9. Kabhi yaad kar ke gali paar kar ke – C Ramchandra (Safar)
10. Chhup na sakoge O salone saajna chhup na sakoge (?)
11. Aawaz de kahan hain – Naushad (Anmol Ghadi)
12. Da daa da da daa jalnewale jala karein – C Ramchandra (Khidki)
13. Maar katari mar jana – C Ramchandra (Shehnai)
14. Aahein na bharin – Hafiz Khan, Mir Sahib (Zeenat)
15. Door hato ae dunayawalo – Anil Biswas (Kismet)
16. Ek dil ke tukade hazar huye – Husnlal-Bhagatram (Pyar Ki Jeet)
17. Hum dard  ka afsana duniya ko suna denge – Naushad (Dard)
18. Dheere dheere aa re baadal – Anil Biswas (Kismet)
19. Jaao jaao ae mere sadhu – RC Boral (Puran Bhagat)
20. Chale dil ki duniya jo barbaad kar ke – Naushad (Dard)
21. Jab usne zulfein lahraayi baadal aya jhoom ke – Naushad (Shahjahan)