Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaoon: The Musical Journey of the Legend Javed Akhtar Saab!

By Vanshika Vipin Varma

STAFFORD: Music has been the breath of Indians for centuries now. The contribution of some of the greatest musicians and lyricists has been a boon to India as a whole and particularly to the Hindi film industry – Bollywood. While we rejoice in the melody of our most loved songs, a lot goes behind-the-scenes in bringing these numbers on to our plate. It is certainly exciting to know the stories that led to the birth of the lyrics of our most loved songs. In view of this, a unique concept, ‘Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaoon’ was concocted by India’s most prominent scriptwriter, lyricist, poet and Padma Bhushan awardee Javed Akhtar Saab. Rajender Singh of Star Promotion in association with Swapnil Agarwal from Karya Property Management and Amiralli Dodhiya from New York Life, presented this one of its kind shows on Friday, November 2 at Stafford Civic Center.

Through this show, audiences were taken on a nostalgic musical ride as Javed Akhtar shared instances, an amalgam of emotions that were behind the creation of the masterpieces. He shared stories from some of his pleasant occurrences with renowned directors and producers. He also amused the audiences with some of his poems in his signature style. The show was a treat for fans of his TV series ‘The Golden Years’. Once a rebellious writer in the 1970s, then a romantic poet who penned some of Bollywood’s most celebrated tunes, Javed Akhtar has contributed so much more to Bollywood than song writing. Javed Saab, from the Salim-Javed fame, the most renowned script writer duo of Bollywood, won a number of Filmfare awards in all four writing categories – story, dialogue, screenplay and lyrics. Besides, he has been honored with the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan and Sahitya Akademi Awards.

Javed Akhtar was accompanied by Bollywood playback singers Parthiv Gohil and Jahnvi Shrimankar and not to forget, his team of talented musicians. The auditorium was enthralled with a beautiful blend of melody and nostalgia. The sound system by Darshan Thacker of Krishna Sounds was exemplary.

He shared anecdotes of some of the songs from the marvelous collection written by him and jokingly dished out some of the incidents. The audiences were visibly amused. He also recalled how Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar sang the maiden song that he wrote, Dekha ek khwaab from the movie Silsila. The audiences were amazed to know from the valorous writer that the famous song Tumko dekha was written in merely 9 minutes. It was a sight to watch as the audiences choired along.

Labeled as a writer for poetry type of songs, he broke the stereotype by penning down Hawa hawayee from Mr. India and it was definitely a welcome change. He also narrated how the beautiful song Ek ladki ko dekha occurred to him instantly. Not just that, even the tune was created in a flash by RD Burman, whom Javed Akhtar saluted for his candescent taste of music. As he described the instances, relevant images and videos were beautifully displayed at the backdrop.

Javed Saab narrated his experiences of working in the film industry for decades and having the opportunity to have worked with big names like Yash Johar, Karan Johar and Amitabh Bachchan back then and with their respective sons today. The audiences were visibly engrossed as he recounted memories.

Encouraging the new generation of writers, he gave an invigorating message – “First Listen and then recite poetry. Absorb it before writing.” He also persuaded them to listen to folk songs as there is a lot that can be learnt from there. One of his songs Mehendi hai rachne wali is inspired by a folk song. Known for his soul-stirring poems and stories, he glued the awe-inspired audiences with his tales.  

Before breaking into the Q&A round, the audience was mesmerized with some beautiful songs like Tauba tumhare, Tu yaar tu hi dildaar, Chale jaise hawaye, Mere mehboob mere sanam, Tumse milke dil ka. Javed Saab made the Question and Answer round interesting with his statement, “We don’t speak Hindi or Urdu- we speak Hindustani”. Sharing his experience on how the Madhuri Dixit popular song Ek Do Teen was conceived, he mentioned that the music director used the words 1,2,3,4 as dummy fillers for a tune and he liked it so much that he retained it. And the rest is history.

Javed Saab’s music makes us all hum along and each of his songs has a history & a story attached to it. He shared how some sincere, candid & genuine tunes automatically fall in place, citing the instance of Har ghadi badal rahi hai from Kal Ho Na Ho. He shared memories of the numbers that he has done for his children- Dil chahta hai and Jaane kyu log pyaar karte hai.

The richness of Javed Saab’s songs has made almost all of his number’s immortal. The audience could just not get enough of him and they requested for more inspite the clock ticking past 12 midnight.

Rajender Singh came shareed his heartfelt thanks to Houston for making this show such a memorable one. He thanked the sponsors for their outstanding support and also the Deputy Consul Surendra Adhana for attending the event. He also thanked Himadri and Harish Katharani for their support and for also hosting a special meet & greet at their home the evening before.

The night was truly a distinguished one with the rebellious, romantic and poignant words of Javed Saab and his seamless transcend from poetic brilliance into filmi melodies.

The upcoming events include MUGHAL-E-AZAM: THE MUSICAL in early 2019.

For further information call Rajender Singh at 281-222-4500 or visit starpromotioninc.com