veer zaara

i feel like telling this story.
i was driving to work, years back, and i put on the hindi radio, i never put on the hindi radio since it is only full of jingles - rice on sale, oil on sale and voila daal on sale - yay! now we can all party.

so anyways, i put the hindi radio on and this song floated out. dharti sunehri ambar neela, har mausam rangeelaaaa, aisa des hai mera. and right away i fell in love with it, i was dancing in the car, singing along and totally having a ball. by the time i reached the school, the song ended. and to my utter dismay they did not announce the name of the movie, instead they went on an on about dal atta and chawal. what is a girl gotta do? you have to go to work.

but, the song stayed in my head, like a white noise, in the background, but naggingly - very obviously there. i could not remember the right combination of words, i could not decide who was singing it, it sounded like udit narayan but wasn't not sure, the punjabi bits were too authentic for him to be able to pull off. what was it..... after a sufficient amount of time had passed and i stopped thinking about the song, almost, one of my students out of the blue said to me Ms.B you should listen to veer zaara songs, you will like them. and in my innocence i asked her what veer zaara was? bad move. she gave me the look teenagers reserve for their parents and teachers - the one that says "i do not get how you survive being this clueless" - so i backed off and did not question her any further. that night i found veer zaara on smash hits and i found aisa des hai mera and the rest as they say is history.

i heard it a million times in the next week... and a gazillion the week after.

and then i just fell hook line and sinker for all the other songs, and then i watched the movie and i fell for it so hard i bruised all over. it hurt for weeks.

the main yahan hoon yahan hoon yahan;i loved shahrukh khan and the lyrics equally. which is saying a lot, for the both of them. especially the part - tum bhula na sakogi vo andaaz hoon, tum chupa na sakogi main vo raaz hoon, goonjta hoon jo dil me to hairan kyon ho, main tumhare hi dil ki to awaaz hoon... sun sako to suno, dhadkano ki zubaan, main yahan hoon yahan hoon yahan hoon yahan... or that song at the mazaar, aaya tere dar par deevana, pahuncha ye kis mod par afsaana. that has been very well sung. but i am a sucker for sufi songs in anycase so my saying it is great probably does not mean a lot.

i just loved that part when she sees him and runs to him, even though i think it is unimaginable for any girl to be able to do that, not the ones i know atleast. so... that's what movies are - a bit unrealistic.

but then the next time they meet, that scene in the haveli, i thought that was the most authentic scene of the movie, when she is walking towards him, his back is turned to her, and then he hears her and turns to look, and she falters, her foot slips, like the impact of his gaze is a physical force that can stumble her, stop her in her tracks. every time i watch that scene, i think is a moment of directorial genius. and i think shahrukh is at his best in the scene that follows, when she apologizes for her behavior at the mazaar and he smiles, awwww....

oh and i loved hema malini and amitabh bachhan in the movie i loved her over the top yelling "arre o chaudhary sumer singh!!! marna hai to izzat se bistar me let ke maro, ye kya potyan di umer de bachhayan de naal gilli danda khel ke mar rahe ho". and his going "main jad vi koi important kamm kar reha hunda han na, eh picchon waaz maar dendi hai". they are cute together. i think my husband and i are going to be like that, we are totally headed that way and we both loved bauji and mati in the movie.
what else?
well i love the hum to bhai jaise hain vaise rahenge song, the lodi one too, mostly for the gurdaas maan voice and the kuch mangaaoon yaad tumko reh nahi paaye... meri bhi yehi problem hai, kuch mangaaoon, yaad inko reh nahi paaye. what did i tell you, we are so headed the bauji mati way.