 Akshay and Aishwarya are thrilled. They’ll get to enact songs
featuring their mother-in-law Dimple and father-in-law Amitabh,
respectively. But composer Pritam Chakraborty is in a bit of a jam.
Vipul Shah has decided at the last minute to re-record an entire
complicated track for Action Replay for a retro-song to be filmed on
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Akshay Kumar.
And this is no ordinary request. The one all-comprehensive track will
have to represent screen jodis as diverse as Raj Kapoor-Nargis, Rajesh
Khanna-Mumtaz, Amitabh Bachchan-Jaya, Dharmendra-Hema Malini, and Rishi
Kapoor-Dimple Kapadia.
The long-planned retro-song representing various eras of evergreen
screen jodis has now undergone a massive change. Every section of the
song will now have differently 'mooded' lyrics and tunes to go with the
different looks that Akshay Kumar and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will don to
represent screen pairs over the decades.
Pritam had recorded a straightforward love song for the situation.
That just won’t do. The director has a far more ambitious tune-plan
which Pritam has not quite understood as yet.
Vipul, who has just gotten Akshay's and Aishwarya’s dates in July to
shoot the song in Manali, has asked his exceedingly-busy composer
Pritam to scrap the song that he had recorded, and create an entirely
new composition that would aurally represent Akshay's and Aishwarya’s
tribute to screen pairs over the years.
Explains Vipul, “I feel it isn’t enough to simply dress up Akshay and
Aishwarya to represent the various screen pairs. Every section of the
music, vocals, and lyrics will represent the pair that we show Akshay
and Aishwarya playing. For example, if the mukhda is dedicated to Rajesh
Khanna and Mumtaz, then I want the R.D. Burman feel of 'Jai Jai Shiv
Shankar' in Aap Ki Kasam. On the other hand, if I want Akshay and
Aishwarya to do a Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri, I’d want Pritam to
come with a suitable mood and tune, like R. D. Burman’s 'Bahon Mein
Chale Aao' in Anamika. If I show Akshay-Ash doing Raj-Nargis, I want a
Shankar-Jaikishan piece. If I show Akshay-Ash doing Dharmendra and
Hema-Malini, then I want a Laxmikant-Pyarelal section in the
composition. But if I want Akshay-Ash doing Shammi Kapoor-Sharmila
Tagore, then I want O.P. Nayyar to come into play.”
Just how Pritam would get all these diverse and seemingly
incompatible compositional styles into one song is a mystery to the
composer. But Vipul is confident.
“Pritam is smart and he is talented. He will do it. Our film music is
so rich. Not only are there composers as far-ranging as Madan Mohan and
Shankar-Jaikishan, but even the composer that you hear in one kind of
cinema is different from what he does in another kind of cinema. How
can we compare what R. D. Burmam composed for Rajesh-Sharmila with what
he composed for Rajesh –Mumtaz? I want all of this diversity to be part
of that one song.”
Pritam, who has already composed two full-on retro numbers for Action
Replay -- a satire on marriage and an Elvis Presley styled rock ‘n’
roll track — has a month to rise to the challenge. The most ambitious
retro song in the history of Indian cinema will be shot on July
12,13,14, and 15 in Manali.
Subhash K Jha / Sampurn Wire
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