It was just eight years ago that Irshad Kamil started off with Chameli moving directly to Socha Na Tha, Ahista Ahista, Karam, Shabd and more. The nice times didn't take long to begin rolling, beginning with Jab We Met, and rapidly progressing to like Aaj Kal, Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, Action Replayy, Mausam, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, Desi Boyz and Rockstar.
The lyricist, however, is in no hurry of any kind. "I WOULD LIKE to work flat out and with complete honesty," he says candidly. "IT'S NOT THAT I AM within the game of looking to show that i'm a big-name lyricist - I NEED to be content even being a Raja Mehndi Ali Khansaab, a small name with an impeccable reputation. I HAVEN'T been impatient within the matter of fame or money. I turn down films whose stories I DON'T like. Some people feel that mera dimaag kharab hua hai but I FEEL that a lyricist has as much right to refuse a project as an actor, cameraman or choreographer."
Luck and talent, he points out, are in no way the prime factors in one's success. "They rank pretty low actually in a lyricist's career. There are such a lot of aspects - your personality, life's experiences and other aspects that may never study. Two people can read something but just one will incorporate what's good within it into his life. There are hugely-talented lyricists who fail to make the grade and finally end up as ghost-writers for well-known names. I never believed this till a couple of such people actually called up and offered to put in writing for me!"
Irshad has one grouse - that lyrics and lyricists are taken very casually by producers. "When ownership supercedes creativity, if I COULD put it that way, there's trouble ahead. Oddly enough, good content is the one precondition for good business!" he smiles ruefully. "ONCE I am asked to modify words for the sake of it, or simply for following a trend, I THINK like telling them, 'I will provide you with substitutes, but can doing this guarantee your film even three extra tickets?'"
Because of this, Irshad is excited working with composers who have no idea Hindi well! "It's when people like Pritam or Rahman-sir tell me to totally take care of the meaning that I THINK doubly answerable for my work and likewise feel unshackled. I DO KNOW that folks in today's times are going to be told Hindi by taking note of film songs, so I WILL NOT propagate wrong grammar or language. I enjoyed working with Shantanu Moitra in Prakash Jha's Chakravyuh."
And then there's M. M. Kreem. Irshad hasn't quite got over the sheer joy of working for this Southern genius in Neeraj Pandey's Special Chhabbis. "I HAVEN'T seen anyone so brilliant yet quick!" he raves. "Kreemsaab is incredible. If the director or I DON'T understand a tune that he is made, he comes up with another brilliant tune in five minutes!"
How does Irshad take a look at present-day trends where a lyricist has to think an excessive amount of concerning the sound of what he writes? "I'VE always given the idea the maximum importance. I WILL BE ABLE TO sacrifice sound for thought but never the converse!" he declares. "I'M also very particular about yet another point: that each song will need to have an ascending graph from the mukhda (opening lines) to the overall antara. The second one antara needs to be better and more powerful than the first, that is what most writers today don't realise," he says. "Poetry and lyrics are greater than about just being good within the language. I'LL know English but I WILL NOT write English poetry!"
Irshad is however very fluent with Punjabi. "I'M as acquainted with it as I'M with Hindi or Urdu, so I CAN never write incorrect or bad Punjabi. After I use Punjabi in my songs, like when the makers of Mausam wanted, you are going to never find the usual maahiya/maahive, heeriye, soniye roughly lexicon in them."
Yet another distinguishing feature of his romantic songs is that he never alludes to the usual aankhen, zulfein, baahen, kamar roughly descriptions. "I never go on that route," the lyricist tells you. "REAL LOVE is formless and subliminal. Tumse hi (Jab We Met) and Tum jo aaye (Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai) are examples of what I mean." The lyricist is very influenced by Sufi tenets. "For me, Sufism is ready devotion and a selected feel. It's the concept of mohabbat where you're thinking that of the sensation and never of a boy or a woman. Unfortunately again, people haven't any clue about what's Sufism. Someone desired to award me for writing the 'Best Sufi song of the year' for Rabba main to mar gaya from Mausam simply because of the word rabba being found in it!"
Irshad admits that he cannot thrust his personal views and tenets into his work on the expense of the script and character. "I'M very clear that even in my most situational songs I NEED TO present some truisms of life - there needs to be an ascent or uththaan within the song, like in Zor ka jhatka haaye dheere se lagaa in Action Replayy. It's the truth element that connects. I'M proud to mention that 80 out of 100 songs of mine have worked regardless of how the film fared."
Irshad believes that good directors automatically ensure good music. "Abbas Ali Zafar, my director in Mere Brother Ki Dulhan, is operating on his next script and intermittently keeps having interactions with music director Sohail Sen and me for potential song situations," he says. "Prakash Jha knows exactly what he wants and loves to work with individuals who know precisely what to do of their respective departments. I barely realised how quickly and simply we completed three songs for Chakravyuh. With director Ashwani Dhir, Sajid-Wajid and that i created a fantastic song in Son Of Sardaar before technical issues ended in our quitting the film. The song might be retained."
Coming up are also Pritam's Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai 2, Cocktail and T-Series' next directed by Bhushan Kumar's wife Divya and two films with A. R. Rahman, Raanjhana and the Hindi version of Kochadaiyyaan.
Screen India
