Music will change with time and one should embrace it, says Gulzar

Eminent lyricist-filmmaker Gulzar believes there is nothing wrong with film music changing with times and one should accept and learn to embrace it. 

He says songs are written according to the mood of the character in a movie and it is unfair to compare them with those of the 50s or 60s era.

“Songs will be according to the film. If a character wants to sing a song after being drunk, he won’t sing ‘Dil Aey Naadan...’, but ‘Goli maar bheje main’. The language changes according to the characters,” he said.  “Time will change and with it music will too. Our speed has changed, clothes have changed, food habits have changed so why should music remain the same of 50s and 60s. Even that will change,” he said.

Gulzar was speaking at the curtain raiser of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival on Wednesday night.

The writer hailed Prasoon Joshi and Swanand Kirkire for bringing pure Hindi style to song lyrics which is otherwise being dominated mostly by Urdu and Punjabi.  He said one should keep up with the times and move ahead with the music.

“Somewhere, even the listener has to come out of the cave if you want to walk ahead. This has been going on in generation after generation, ‘oh these kids of today’s generation...’,” he said.

Gulzar also said that today, more than ever, Hindi film songs are being liked by the West, a space which didn’t have much presence of Bollywood music.

“Film music was taken outside by A R Rahman and it was accepted in the West for the first time. In our times, foreign version of films was made after editing the songs,” he said.  “Today, songs are being added because our music is being liked everywhere. You should look at this side also and not always complain that the music has changed today,” the lyricist further said.

The Jaipur Literature Festival will be held between January 19 and 23.

The festival’s Managing Director, Sanjoy Roy, said “over 400 authors” are expected to be present this year.  Apart from the authors, the festival, which is now in it’s 10 th year, is expected to see participation by a host of thinkers, politicians, journalists and popular culture icons.