Amitabh Bhattacharya’s quirky lyrics, with their unconventional catchphrases and streetwise eloquence, speak straight to the youth. His recent song, ‘Pyaar ki pungi’ from Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Agent Vinod’, is on its way to becoming the new buzzword. “For ‘Agent Vinod’, lyrics had to be smart and peppy. ‘Pungi’ is the kind of word people often use in different contexts,” he explains.
For the purists who have for long expressed an immediate dislike for his work, the recent National Award for his words in Onir’s ‘I Am’ should silence them. Among his staunchest critic has been poet-writer Javed Akhtar who, time and again, has rued song writing being on a terminal decline. Bhattacharya says he respects Akhtar too deeply to drag him into this but he does point out, in his defence: “I write songs for situations and the target market for our films has shifted to youth-centric markets. People say that my songs are a rage among the youth but I am merely expressing the concerns of our time and age. Words like ‘Emosanal atyachar’ (‘Dev D’), ‘Ainvayi ainvayi’ (‘Band Baaja Baaraat’) and ‘Bhaag DK Bose’ (‘Delhi Belly’) are used in everyday parlance. It is not poetry and I have never said so.”
It’s not poetry because Bhattacharya grew up with dreams of entering the medical profession and then, the hospitality industry and became a writer with initial reluctance and self-doubt. He was disinclined, he says, towards literature and poetry until college when he became involved with music in his home town Lucknow. When he reached Mumbai, at first he sought a break in singing and when that didn’t happen, song writing was the natural fall-back strategy.
“I never thought I would become a song writer because for a long time I felt I was not prepared to do something like this.” But lyric writing did become his calling. From the beginning of his career, with ‘Dev D’ and his early collaborations with composer Amit Trivedi, Bhattacharya has built a body of interesting work.
His lyrics evoke a north Indian flavour aside from having a conversational quality. On the other hand, songs from ‘Aamir’, ‘Udaan’ and ‘I Am’ are meaningful and thought-provoking. These are also songs that are close to his heart and composed either in the solitude of his Malad home over endless cups of tea or at buzzing coffee shops.
‘Udaan’s finest song, ‘Naav’, struck him on a drive to Bandra’s Carter Road with friend Amit Trivedi. “Amit had given me the tune of ‘Naav’ and I had been trying to create something around it. Usually when we get tired, we go for a drive. We did the same thing that day and while we were moving towards a restaurant, the lines of ‘Naav’ came to me in an instant.”
On the contrary, ‘Emosanal atyachar’ was written at the Café Coffee Day outlet at Mumbai’s crowded Lokhandkwala neighbourhood. An admirer of Javed Akhtar, Sahir Ludhianvi and Gulzar, he is also impressed by the works of his peers Prasoon Joshi, Irshad Kamil and Neelesh Misra. “And Piyush Mishra,” he adds. “His songs in ‘Gulaal’ were exceptionally good. Being a theatre person, he brings a different perspective.”