One of the fallouts of staying away from India is that you don't really get all those song snippets or movie trailers which show you what a song is about. Not neccessarily a bad thing but since you can't believe what you can't see, you just tend to believe what you hear.
Have you heard the song " Masakali"? We listened to it quite regularly on our drives in NZ and loved Mr. smooth-voice Chauhan's vocals. The song's lyrics were somewhat of a mystery to me and it bugged me that I could not find a satisfactory reply to M's persistent " what does masakali" mean. I feebly suggested 'type of a flower (bud)' but I think he knows enough Hindi to know I was bluffing. But that wasn't the only mysterious part of the lyrics. I deciphered the rest of the lyrics as:
" Aye masakali masakali. Thoda matakali matakali.
Zara BUM ko jhatak. Gayi dhool atak..."
(I did ask myself how in the world someone could catch dust on their behind-but then in the bold new world of Mehra/Kashyap cinema and the Joshi lyrics factory, the possibilities seemed immense. Maybe this was their way of saying 'don't sit on your arse- get moving'.) Also, I knew the song was good enough to be filmed on the lead, Sonam Kapoor- so I imagined a fair bit of jhatkas associated with the visualization and suspended any further analysis.
Imagine my shock when I learnt that the song was about a pigeon called Masakali- I found it quite difficult to wrap my liberal poetic-license bestowing mind around the concept of a song that asked a pigeon to first shake and then dust its poor butt. What cheek. (pun unintended)
And then at Bangalore airport, while browsing through books and music cd's, I chance upon the very attractively packaged cd of Delhi-6, which features notes from the lyricst and the lyrics too. Needless to say, I hurriedly flip to the Masakali page only to see the following as the actual lyrics:
" Aye masakali masakali. Thoda matakali matakali.
Zara PANKH jhatak. Gayi dhool atak..."
Zara PANKH jhatak. Gayi dhool atak..."
...........(laughter)...........(very loud laughter).......(stares from fellow passengers)....(sheepish exit)
M, on learning of my discovery was quite amused. Admittedly, I feel this slight dent on my hitherto undisputed authority on Hindi songs and lyrics in our household. Well, whaddya know-Hindi lyrics sites just got a new reader.
7 comments:
Hey! Cute one. Hear teh songs more carefully now! Keep posting!
I can imagine the embarassment...I had made the same mistake on hearing the song, and was dying wondering if it made any sense, until Aparna pointed out it was actually "Pankh" :-)
Hehehe :))
Have you heard the old song, "Nazar mein bijli, ada mein shole"? An old family joke says it was heard as, "Nazar mein bijli, aaloo mein chole" and how the lyrics never made sense!
actually your interpretation makes sense if one assumes sonam kapoor was called 'masakali'. her jhatkas seem like she is surely trying to dust something off :P
GM-work's been a bitch. so i've been too busy growling at it. am afraid i will forget all those wonderful thoughts that beg to become posts! sigh.
Abhishek- bugger. this is your first comment. i'm glad we have something in common :P
Anu- i havent heard that song dude.And i dont like aloo in my chhole.
Sheen-Yeah. See. it makes sense.
Well..i know the feeling! You remember the song "Aap Jaisa Koi"? Now imagine thinking that the song says "baap" instead of "baat"! I honestly thought it was a bit much for those times, even if it featured Zeenie baby and the Feroz!
Haha. birds of a feather. all of us.
Post a Comment