The question which everyone asks is that whether the lyrics are written first or if the music is composed, and quite authoritatively Gulzar stated that its is always that the music is composed, and then it is the writer’s or a lyrists job to write the song. In conversation with Gulzar and Vishal was Nirupama Kotru along with Mayukh Sarkar on the guitar thus creating a musical rendezvous at Gaiety complex today, during the ongoing International Literature Festival.
Gulzar discussed how simple words and daily life activities could so easily be turned into poetry or lyrics and then be composed into beautiful renditions. Sharing an example, Gulzar stated, “When he was working on a film project Ishqiya with Vishal, he simply shared few random words and said that a song needs to be based on the road and should talk about the road signs that people generally pass without giving much thought. For that I then took a road trip and most of the road side warning were then amalgamated into that song, which finally took the shape of ‘ibne batuta’.” The explanation with the actual song sung by Vishal was quite entertaining for the audience. Other songs that Vishal sung were from Maachis and Haider, while Gulzar gave a narrative about each idea and the thought process and emotions behind writing those songs.
Gulzar further shared that how behind each song there is a meaning or research as gave an example of a song from ‘Saat Khoon Maaf’ when a tune of a folksong from Russia was used to bring originality into the movie to frame its essence. Poetry to music to creative writing, all three are interrelated and cannot be separated by any means.
