Today’s young generation would scarcely believe the stratagems the lovers in the earlier days had to adopt to set up a rendezvous. ‘Atariya’ was one favourite place going back to the days of Romeo and Juliet. As we have seen earlier, its vantage position at the back of the house made it an appropriate place for a date, away from the prying eyes of the parents and others. ‘Angana’, on the other hand, was a central feature of the house, and more like a public square in a private home, where the family lived out its daily life, drying papads and pickles, chillies, spices and grains, did the pounding, dehusking, grinding, and finally, communal cooking, and laying out cots for sleeping under the sky and the stars. This was also the place for ceremonies and functions. Even in such a bustling place, the intrepid lovers managed to steal a glance and more: Kabhi yaad karke gali paar kar ke chali ana hamare angana.
Chhed chhad, bahana
Parody songs: Part 2
(I thank Ashok M Vaishnav for very generously sharing his compilation of parody songs with me – AK)
In Part 1 of this post I covered the parody songs based on a single song. This seems to have later led to the practice of parodying the mukhada or a short portion of a number of songs and blending them into a single medley of varied tunes. There is more creativity involved in this because the music director has to ensure that the output does not become a hotchpotch of unconnected tunes. But if it is done well, it is obviously more fun. The more the merrier.
Dekho Dosto Chhed Ka Maza!
Guest article by Shalan Lal [The title is adapted from Hasrat Jaipuri’s lyrics in the film ‘Shararat’ (1959)]
(From Krishna teasing the gopis to Kishore Kumar, Shammi Kapoor and other heroes teasing heroines in the films, chhed chhad has been an integral part of our culture. You would expect from the title that the post would contain a brief write up and some chhed chhad songs. But as the readers have seen Shalan Lal in her Aviary of Songs, she infuses even the most commonplace subject with deep knowledge of literature, arts and music. In her second guest article for SoY, she similarly explores the origin of teasing and myths related to the pastime of harmless leg-pulling across cultures, and also presents some of the best Hindi film songs in the genre. Thank you, Shalan. – AK)
The SoY posts bring attentions to certain aspects of music, songs, themes and music makers etc. So I laboured to see if there was any mileage in the genre called Chhed chhad songs in the SoY. I found that it was yet an uncovered territory and I could add some interesting material about it.