By Sharada

There are only two kinds of reactions you can have when you look back to the era of Bollywood club mixes in the 90s and early 2000s. You either hate it or love it, either way, you cannot avoid it. You might still hear those songs in clubs and we are sure there is at least one friend who is still crazy about them. All the people from the 70s and 80s will not hesitate to point out that it was their music and it was ruined by the remix trend, but we know that we liked it better this way.

In the recently released film Begum Jaan starring Vidya Balan, singers Arijit Singh and Shreya Ghoshal have tried to recreate in their voices the popular Mukesh-Asha Bhonsle number ‘Woh Subha kabhi toh aayegi…’ from the 1958 film Phir Subha Hogi . Though they are good singers, their version is not a patch on the original and fails to evoke any kind of emotion in the viewer’s heart and mind. The much needed pathos seems missing in their voices and they are unable to do justice to Sahir’s thought-provoking lyrics.

The reality of this hits us even more because the original was sung by Mukesh, a master of poignant songs! After all, how can a meaningful song written and composed for a different situation of a different film from a different era and for a different generation of audience have the same effect in any random film of today? In Begum Jaan which deals with prostitutes, the song comes at the end of the film and they have even tampered with the lyrics by changing the words ‘Woh subah kabhi toh aayegi…’ to ‘Woh subah hami se aayegi…’!