The Curious Case of Khatiya & Khatmal
Sometime in early nineties, a raunchy song hit the headlines. Choli ke peeche kya hai created an unnerving, albeit a totally unwanted, furore. How dare they! screamed the feminists. How daring! chuckled the men. Battle-lines were drawn – morality v/s creative license drew arms to herald a musical Mahabharat, with our poor ever-pale and ever-threatened Bhartiya Sanskriti undraped and feeling molested.
Of course, it was a much ado about nothing for the song’s second line exonarates any idea of vulgarity. After all, the heart does reside beneath the blouse! If any thing, the lyricist (ever dependable late Anand Bakshi) has slyly worked at your own pervert mind, and not laid bare his own. I found the song pretty cool, with a wonderful beat, and some commendable singing by Ila Arun & Alka Yagnik. But best of all was its picturisation – Madhuri’s vigorous dance in a riotous red-and-creme dress, against a hugely colorful backdrop!
The song became a huge hit, despite its controversies. And spawned its own clones, some even worse in their double entendres. Alka & Ila Arun went on to sing another such number – Mujhko Ranaji maaf karna galti mhaare se ho gayi. But times changed, music tastes evolved, and such songs went out of oblivion, till…
… till SlumDog Millionaire and Ring ring ringa!
The day I bought the CD, the film had yet to win an Oscar for its music. It had just swept off a few Golden Globes. As I heard the lyrics, I quite missed a beat. Here we are – Alka Yagnik & Ila Arun together, in a number that has beats similar to Choli ke peechhe, and the lyrics? Sample this:
Khatiye pe mai padi thi
Aur gahri neend badi thi
Aage na poocho sakhi re…
Ek khatmal tha sayana
Mujhpe tha usska nishana
Chunri mein ghuss gaya dheere dheere…
I could understand the song almost sank beneath the avalanche of Jai Ho! (and Danny Boyle is no Subhash Ghai to give it a grand picturisation) But surely people have bought Slumdog Millionaire CD’s – and no one can really miss it, since T-series have placed it as opening number (rather than Jai Ho). So how come, no one is talking about it, or its exceptionally ‘laden’ lyrics? How come no furore this time? No strong words, no screwing up nose against ‘such filthy double-meaning’ number?
Is it the Oscar/Academy Award effect, that makes everyone so damn hypocritical! Seriously, I fail to understand how a firang award can make a song look good enough for no one to comment on it.
- As for me, I enjoyed Ring ring ringa, with the same enthusiasm as I did Choli ke peeche, and tell you what … I sorely missed Madhuri for this one’s dance!
Tuesday, 10. March 2009 7:25
Haha I LOVED the song especially bcoz it was so much like choli me peeche!!!! Times have changed I guess but I still don’t think pol would dance to it at weddings even tho they are not complaining .
Tuesday, 10. March 2009 7:26
Okay lots to typos the iPhone grammar thing messed me up.
Tuesday, 10. March 2009 7:26
Btw have you seen the curious case of bwnjamin button?
Wednesday, 11. March 2009 1:07
i like the template…newspaper look is good.!!!!!
Wednesday, 11. March 2009 8:42
Hey Kaushi, kaise ho?
Just experimenting with the look
Wednesday, 11. March 2009 12:33
It reminded me of my good old school days….
Thursday, 12. March 2009 15:14
love the new look DJ.
Thursday, 12. March 2009 19:29
Kislay – so u were naughty from school days ;-p
Ekta – oh good. I am quite apprehensive about it. Keeping it on for sometime to gauge reactions
Saturday, 14. March 2009 17:06
arrey doubts kyun?? waiting for some more movie/music reviews!
Wednesday, 29. April 2009 17:37
Ha ha, waqt waqt ki baat hai bhai, a lot has changed in the Indian psyche, the choli’s got a deeper neckline so much so that you can almost see what’s peeche and the chunri has disappered altogether so why would one object to a poor khatmal and its wanderings under the kambal?
Sunday, 3. May 2009 20:26
Ekta – one solitary new post up today
Priyangini – ROFL… only you could have come up with such a marvellous comment…..
Wednesday, 29. July 2009 17:37
Hey guys! Hey Kaush and Pri! Deejay..I like this look..and yep, I heard the song for Slumdog and wondered about it too. Hypocritical, eh?