Posts Tagged ‘Gayatri Iyer’
This article is written by Sadanand Kamath, a fellow enthusiast of Hindi movie music and a contributor to this blog. This article is meant to be posted in atulsongaday.me. If this article appears in other sites without the knowledge and consent of the web administrator of atulsongaday.me, then it is piracy of the copyright content of atulsongaday.me and is a punishable offence under the existing laws.
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‘Bride and Prejudice’ (2004) was an English language film produced by Miramax Films, Pathe Pictures, UK Film Council and 5 other film production companies based in the USA and Europe. The film was directed by Gurinder Chadha. The cast included Aishwarya Rai and Martin Henderson in lead roles with the supporting cast of Anupam Kher, Nadira Babbar, Naveen Andrews, Namrata Shirodkar, Meghna Kothari, Piya Roy Chowdhary, Indira Verma, Daniel Gillies, Sonali Kulkarni, Nitin Ganatra etc. The film was shot in the UK, the USA and India. The lead actor, Martin Henderson was born and brought-up in Auckland, New Zealand and now settled in Los Angles with his career in films and TV. Naveen Andrews was born and brought up in London. His parents were immigrants from Kerala. He is now a naturalised US citizen with his career in films and TV.
This film is an attempt by its director, Gurinder Chadha to present a modern version of Jane Austen’s novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ in which there are fusion of Indian, British and American cultures. The inter-racial relationship between Lalita (Aishwarya Rai) and William Darcy (Martin Henderson) forms the core issues of tradition, culture and the race in the film with light comical element. In short, the basic themes of the novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’ have been presented in a way that is relevant in the current century.
From the video clips of the song, it would appear that the director has taken recourse to the Bollywood style with songs and dances forming an important part of the film. There are ‘Naagin’ dance, Bhangra dance and Dandiya dance in the film. There is a song by a popular American singer, Ashanti as an item number. Like most of the Hindi ‘masala’ films, ‘Bride and Prejudice’ (2004) has a love triangle with a mild melodrama, a manipulative mother, a villain and finally the lovers getting united with a Punjabi fat wedding. The good thing about the film is that the ‘masala’ elements by way of manipulative mother, the villain and the fights have been toned down probably to make it palatable to the foreign audience to whom the film is mainly addressed.
The film is not available to watch in India either on any video sharing platform or on OTT platforms. Some snippets of the film are available as well as video clips of the songs on a video sharing platform which gives some story idea about the film. I have, therefore, weaved the story of the film based on the film’s snippets and from the synopsis of the film posted on IMDb. Wherever, I got confused, I have taken recourse to the original novel, ‘Pride and Prejudice’. as almost all the original characters of the novel have been retained in the film. The condensed story of the film is as under:
Amritsar-based Chaman Bakshi (Anupam Kher) and his wife, Manorama Bakshi (Nadira Babbar) is looking for perfect husbands for their four marriageable daughters – Lalita (Aishwarya Rai), Jaya (Namrata Shirodkar), Maya (Meghna Kothari) and Lakhi (Piya Rai Chowdhury). Lalita is hesitant about arranged marriage and prefers marrying a man of her choice.
Balraj Uppal (Naveen Andrews), a London-based barrister visits India to attend his friend’s wedding in Amritsar. He is accompanied by his American friend, William Darcy (Martin Henderson), a hotelier. In the wedding, they meet Bakshi family. While Balraj and Jaya feel attracted to each other, Lalita does not like William Dracy because of his negative opinion about India and Indians.
After the wedding, Balraj, Jaya, William and Lalita visit Goa. During a concert in Goa, Lalita meets Johny Wickham (Daniel Gillies), the son of a nurse who had raised William. Johny reveals to Lalita that William kicked him out of his household as soon as his father passed way. Lalita likes Johny.
Back in Amritsar from Goa, Kohli (Nitin Ganatra), a distance cousin of Bakshis’ who has migrated to the USA and a Green Card holder, visits Bakshi family. His visit is mainly for selecting a girl for his marriage. Manorama likes Kohli and wants Lalita to marry him. But Lalita rejects this proposal. Kohli has proposed Chandra Lamba (Sonali Kulkarni), a close friend of Lalita who has accepted his proposal. They get married and are leaving for the USA for their wedding reception. With all persons left, Lalita and Jaya are disappointed as neither Johny nor Balraj keep in touch with them. On the contrary, Johny is in touch of their younger sister, Lakhi without their knowledge.
Kohli who has gone back to USA along with Chandra for their wedding reception, sends flight tickets to Bakshi family. In the USA, Balraj’s parents have lined up his meeting with his prospective brides. While Bakshis are taking the connecting flight from London to the USA, they meet William who is also taking the same flight to the USA. He exchanges his first-class ticket with Manorama Bakshi’s economy class ticket so that he can sit with Lalita and clear her misunderstanding about him.
Co-incidentally, Kohli’s wedding ceremony is being held in one of Wiiliam’s hotels. Lalita meets William’s sister who reveals that her brother has been talking nice thing about her. With misunderstanding about William cleared, Lalita and Wiiliam are now on good terms and started liking each other. However, at the wedding venue, William’s mother introduces a girl of her choice to William to eventually marry her. William says to his mother that he is in love with Lalita. William’s mother gets annoyed and leaves the venue. She has also tried to create misunderstanding between Balraj and Jaya.
Next day, William goes to meet Lalita only to find that Bakshis have already left for London. When William reaches London and meets Lalita, he comes to know that Lakhi, in the pretext of shopping, has actually gone with Johny. Both William and Lalita go in search of them and find them in a theatre, A fight ensues between Johny and William during which Lakhi is pulled away from Johny. Bakshi family is relieved that Lakhi is back. They also get a good news that Balraj has proposed to Jaya, and she has accepted. Bakshis are back in Amritsar for a twin wedding. Lalita’s marriage with William and Jaya’s marriage with Balraj takes place and they are taken in procession on the two decorated elephants in the midst of a large gathering of guests in keeping with a fat Punjabi wedding.
The film had 7 songs written by Javed Akhtar (4), Dev Kohli (1), Chaman Lal Chaman (1) and Anu Malik (1) which were set to music by Anu Malik. Two songs had English lyrics. I am presenting the first song from the film, ‘balle balle je soniyaa de rang dekh lo’ to appear on the Blog. The song is rendered by Sonu Nigam, Gayatri Iyer and chorus on the lyrics of Chaman Lal Chaman. This is a Punjabi folk wedding song on Bhangra beats. The first part of the song is a teasing one. The second part of the song is the expression of love. I give below a rough English translation of the teasing part of the song:
The boys say: Look at the colours of these beauties who are as free as kites without strings. They move too fast to grab them. Beware that their beauty can sting like bees.
The girls say: O good looking boys, you want to dance. Let us see how good you can dance. You only know how to talk and tease.
The boys reply: You are like sharp knives. You are like electric wires without insulation. If you come close to us, we will get the ‘shock of love’.
The song, choregraphed by Saroj Khan, is fast-paced and is full of energy. The main dancer (in black sherwani) is Naveen Andrews in the role of Balraj in the film. He dances with full energy and pace. In an interview, Saroj Khan stated that she had to teach Naveen Andrews the Bhangra dance steps from scratch and he has come out with a flying colour in this song. According to director, Gurinder Chadha, it took six days to complete the picturisation of the wedding song. The crew members – both Indian and foreigners – were so mesmerised by the rhythm of the song that they impromptu performed on the wedding song after the shooting of the song was completed.
Video Clip:
Audio Clip:
Song-Balle balle je soniya de rang dekh le (Bride and Prejudice)(Eng)(2004) Singers-Sonu Nigam, Gayatri Iyer, Lyrics-Chamanlal Chaman, MD-Anu Malik
Sonu Nigam and a male voice,
Gayatri Iyer and a female voice,
Male Chorus,
Female Chorus
Lyrics (based on audio clip):
hoye hoye
hoye hoye
hoye hoye
hoye hoye
hoye hoye
hoye hoye
o balle balle
o balle balle je soniyaa de rang dekh lo
binaa dor di udh di patang dekh lo
ho balle balle je soniyaa de rang dekh lo
binaa dor di udh di patang dekh lo
aaj munde huye enhan de malang dekh lo
binaa dor di udh di patang dekh lo
ay kudiyaan kudiyaan
ay tikhiyaan chhuriyaan
ay kudiyaan kudiyaan tikhiyaan chhuriyaan
kudiyaan jawan hath na aawan
ho o o
ena pundiyaan de maare huye tang dekh lo
o balle balle je soniya de rang dekh lo
bina dor di udh di patang dekh lo o o
sat sri akal soniyo
sunaao sanoon haal soniyo
sat sri akal soniyo
sunaao sanoon haal soniyo
oh zaraa nach ke dikhaoo
sadde naal soniyo
na soch sawaal soniyon
ehdi kyun chaal soniyo
na soch sawaal soniyo
ehdi kyun chaal soniyo
eh naaraa naaraa naaraa
eh tikhiyaan tejh kataaraa
eh naaraa naaraa naaraa
eh tikhiyaan tejh kataaraa
bijli di nangiyaan taaraa
oh taaraa taaraa taaraa
je kol enaa de aaoge ta
pyaar de chakke khaaoge
je kol enaa de aaoge ta
pyaar de chakke khaaoge
ho o o o o o
ho o o o o
ho o o o o
ho o o o o
baage vich aayaa karo
baage vich aayaa karo
jab chand chup jaawe
tusi mukhdaa dikhaayaa karo
jab chand chup jaawe
tusi mukhdaa dikhaayaa karo
tu aagayaa to bahaar aayi
haseen ho gayi nazaare saare
tu aagayaa to bahaar aayi
haseen ho gayi nazaare saare
maalaa vich phul tangeyaa aa
maalaa vich phul tangeyaa
umraan lang chali aan
par joban nahin langeya
umraan lang chali aan
par joban nahin langeya
hooooooooooooo
ho o o
hooooooooooooo
ho o o
ho o o o o
ho o o o o
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
aa aa aaa
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm hmm
aa aa aa aa aaa
aa aa aa aa aaa
hmm hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
hmm hmm hmm
Atul’s Song A Day- A choice collection of Hindi Film & Non-Film Songs 
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