Throwing English in the mix
These days, it is not unusual for Bollywood films to have English titles. A few that come to mind are Bluffmaster, Black, Jungle, Lucky – No time for love, Corporate, No Entry and Out of Control….to name but a few! But have you realized how many songs have English titles? This realization came to me when I became addicted to “Where’s the party tonight?” from the Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna soundtrack
For something different and light-hearted, I challenged myself to think of as many Hindi film songs with English titles. This is what I came up with – and these were only from the top of my head! They’re silly, but fun…so enjoy!
Let’s start off with the song that started this thought conjuring up in my mind. With the success of Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna soaring, the disco track, “Where’s the party tonight” goes something like this: “Where’s the party tonight? Somewhere down the road…Where’s the party tonight? ….on the dance floor”. From the same film, there’s “Rock and Roll Soniye”. Interestingly enough, it sounds remarkably like “Pretty Woman” from Kal Ho Na Ho which also has Preity Zinta, Shah Rukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan dancing to “It’s the time to disco”.
Another Preity-Saif film was Salaam Namaste with the tunes, “What’s going on” and “My dil goes mmmm”. Somehow this makes me think of two songs from Maine Pyar Kyun Kiya with Salman Khan and Katrina Kaif. I remember getting hooked onto “Just chill” for its upbeat tune, but thought that “Wanna spend the rest of my life with you” was just silly.
When I think of Hrithik Roshan, two songs come to mind. The first, “It’s magic” from Koi Mil Gaya and “Oh my darling…I love you” where he was paired opposite Kareena Kapoor in Mujhse Dosti Karoge. Kareena also recently starred across real life boyfriend, Shahid Kapoor in 36 China Town where they had two items together, “Rock your body” and “24 x 7 I think of you”
Some of my favourites lately have been “Let’s boogie woogie dance dance” by Lara Dutta and Bobby Deol in Dosti as well as the two songs from Bluffmaster, “Say na say na how you said it to me” and “Right here right now” (including the remix version on the soundtrack). Another recent film with catchy tunes is Humko Deewana Kar Gaye with Akshay Kumar and Bipasha Basu in “She’s a rock star”
Two other songs which come to mind are fun, but a bit old. The first is Karisma Kapoor’s “What is mobile number?” from Haseena Maan Jayegi, while the other was for Aishwariya Rai in Bride and Prejudice, “No life without wife”.
So, readers …there you have it. I met my challenge. And to think, these are just a few that I thought of off the top of my head! No doubt, there are so many more I havn’t listed. It’s an interesting phenomenon that Bollywood has been going through over the past few years. What is your take on the whole westernization of Bollywood – having English titles and lyrics in Hindi films?
October 7th, 2006 at 10:18 am
nameste sheetal.
interesting post,but i am not sure about your point…’westernization of bollywood today’ by such uses of english language.english is almost ‘the working language’in society across india today and ‘bollywood’[much before it was called ‘bollywood’] reflected the impact of the language in day to day life through cinema,so nothing is new.films title like’foot path’by zia sarhadi starring dilip kumar and nutan in 1953,taxi driver’in 1954 by chetan anand,[before martin scorsese,1976], ‘mr. and mrs. 55′by guru datt and ‘kedar kapoor’s ‘miss coca-cola’ in 1955,raj khosla’s CID in 1956,mehboob khan’s ‘mother india’and subodh mukherjee’s ‘paying guest’in 1957,vijay anand’s’guide’ in 1965 and ‘jewel thief’ in 1967,are few examples and there are many other english title and songs not only in hindi films but in other regional language films too.in ‘dilli ka thug’majrooh saheb wrote in 1958 ** C.A.T. Cat, Cat maane billi, R.A.T. Rat, Rat maane choohaa
arrey dil hai tere panje mein to kyaa huaa…
** M.A.D. Mad, Mad maane paagal, B.O.Y. Boy, Boy maane laDkaa
arrey matlab iskaa tum kaho to kyaa huaa…*** ‘julie’[1975]had a song ‘my heart is beating…’full song in english sung by preeti sagar and got very popular,’disco dancer’ in 1983 had a super hit number by bappi da ‘i am a disco dancer…’and popular song’disco 82…’in khuddar[1982],so i agree with you its interesting process and anthropological example.happy blogging.
cheers,
jhaji.
PS-*JUNGLE* is hindi word…lol.
October 7th, 2006 at 10:54 pm
Sheetal, did you post your story over here?
http://bollywoodhub.blogspot.com/
2006/10/is-bollywood-becoming-more-like_07.html
(link cut cause it troubled the design, michael)
October 8th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
An interesting topic and one that started to bother me a little bit lately. Although you didn’t mention the key culprit: Himesh Reshammiya. I love his music as much as the next guy but he has this sometimes annoying habit to bring the most trivial English lyrics into his songs. “I Love You for What You Are” (Aap Ki Khatir), “Love You Unconditionally” (Ahista Ahista), “24×7 I Think of You” (36 China Town), “Because I Love You” & “No Way” (Anthony Kaun Hai) are just some of the examples. Who in the right mind would ever bring such a tongue twister as “unconditionally” into a song text?
In his defense: He seems to be able to make it work anyway.
The idea seems to stem from two hopes: A) trying to make the film look modern for an urban Indian audience and B) hoping for better international sales through more accessible lyrics. I believe it works for A while B is wishful thinking. Most of us Non-Indian Bollywood-fans wouldn’t want our beloved films to be filled with the same everything-sounds-the-same disco stuff we hear every day. I don’t believe we want qawwalis, ghazals and classical music only, but the songs should have their unique Indian quality – or they would lose a lot of their value for us. The challenge seems to be a combination of more modern music (which all music industries strive for, how could we deny it to Indian composers?) with the traditional and the unique.
But of course I’d also have to agree with Sanjay that English has long been an important language in India, even after Independence. So if there is a rise in English lyrics, it might be part of the rise of English on the whole planet. Even here in the German speaking world, many of our advertisements slogans are nowadays written in English – one line in English in a couple of songs hardly even matches this influx in central Europe’s everyday language. But I will definitely keep an eye on this – and will write Himmesh an angry fan letter if ever he goes overboard with his English lyrics *smile*
Cheers, Marco
October 10th, 2006 at 4:58 am
nameste marco,
i second you on’trying to make the film look modern’idea,and i see lot of thought in sheetal’s post too,especially it’s important to notice when the concern comes from a foreign land…,
in india today for ‘cinema’,- ‘youth’ is a ‘target’ to whom the ‘product’ is to be ‘marketed’ and ’sold’ in a ’strategy’ and ‘look’ and ‘lyrics’ of the film matters because it reaches to audience first in form of music and promos/trailors serving as ‘appetizer’through different channels in form of print and electronic media in the mass globally…no harm in all this.i agree to business and welcome all the efforts,but by doing all this and trying ‘hard’ to sell to international market is not a great idea,and you are right.i feel ‘bollywood’has its own uniqueness and that has brought attention globally by its own virtue.but may be we are in a process and in a natural phenomenon…,changes are inevitable and i welcome all this in hope for the best.
happy blogging,
cheers.
jhaji.
October 19th, 2006 at 12:56 am
C’mon english has become lingo of most of the urban indians, and even in rural south india.So its natural to have those words in normal hindi titles and even in the songs. As you reminded, ‘What is your mobile numbers’ and even soulful track of B&P. But it’s not just now english words were in Indian songs. I remember Kishore Da & Nutan back in late 50s, black and white movie, where there was one popular song - “C.A.T, cat manee billi, M.A.D mad, mad manee paagal”. It sometimes make sense and goes along with the rhythm of the song.
Belive it or not, there are more english speaking poeple in India than Hindi speaking. Its kinda common language for interaction within the country itself, as country holds so many different languages from eas to west and from north to south. So the invasion (am I getting too harsh on English people ?) is pretty obvious.
But you might be surprised with one incident I had in Germany, atleast I was. There was one celluar network called O2, I hope most of you all know this network. You might be aware or if you are not then, in Germany English language is like taboo. People hardly tend to speak with you in English (even they know it, NOT ALL but most of them). So, this o2 had a tagline over there - O2 CAN DO. Eventhough, Germans are not fond of English language, they still use it as MARKETING TAGLINEs, still dont know why do they do that.
And guess what?
Upon one survey done by popular TV program,Most of them even didn’t understand the meaning of that TAG LINE, it was like a sophisticated rhyme for them.
So compared to those stuff, atleast ENGLISH words within Indian songs are much more justifiable and contemprorary.
Signing Off !
T h i r d E y e
Bollywood Blogger
www.musicnmovies.info
October 21st, 2006 at 6:41 am
happy dipavali to you michael,beth , Babasko , Filmiholic , Kaddele , Marco , Maria , Mirie , oliver , and ‘’totally basmatic'’ .
cheers,
jhaji.
April 2nd, 2007 at 12:18 pm
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