“Nowadays, there are no sad songs in films. Aaj kal, aisa lagta hai ki sab log bahut khush hai. Acche din sach mein aa gaye hai” - Javed Akhtar

The show ‘Main Koi Aisa Geet Gaoon’ was held at a sprawling theatre in Mumbai on Friday, December 29. Presented by Saregama, it featured Javed Akhtar narrating never-before-heard stories behind some of the classic songs he wrote. This was followed by Meiyang Chang and Jahnvi Shrimankar singing those songs. The strong crowd of more than 2000 people had a gala time as Javed shared funny anecdotes while the singers crooned the tracks in their melodious voices.

In the second half of the show, Javed Akhtar, in his trademark humour, made an important comment, “You must have noticed that nowadays, there are no sad songs in films. Pehle hua karte the. Aaj kal, aisa lagta hai ki sab log bahut khush hai. Acche din sach mein aa gaye hai!” As expected, the last statement brought the house down.

Javed Akhtar continued, “Apart from sadness, one more factor has disappeared from our film songs – nature. Pehle baadal, chand, chandni, parvat, zarna, phool, kaliyan hoti thi gaanon mein. Ab aisa kuch nahin hota. Words like ‘chand’ and ‘phool’ have become outdated in our songs. I guess the urban, contemporary life has got cut off from nature. But this (upcoming) song got appreciation from several environmentalists.”

The song in question was ‘Awaara Bhanware’ from Sapnay (1997), starring Kajol, Arvind Swamy and Prabhu Dheva. Originally, the song was sung by Hema Sardesai and Malaysia Vasudevan and composed by A R Rahman.

Meanwhile, the second half of the show began with a Q-And-A session with the audience. A patron asked him about his journey and this is when Javed Akhtar gave an unexpected answer, “When I look back, I only regret that I wasted 10 years of my life drinking. I could have constructively used that time. But I didn’t and I can’t compensate for it.”

He further opened up, “To all the youngsters here, I have no religious beliefs whatsoever and I am saying this because of my life experience – anybody who is a teetotaller is better off than anybody who is not. On July 31, 1991, I left alcohol and since then, I haven’t had a single drop. Maine apni zindagi mein saari major galtiyaan sharab pee ke ki hai. You might claim to be drinking in a balanced manner lekin aap kahin na kahin toh slip karoge hi.”

Also Read: Javed Akhtar reveals that he wrote the evergreen song ‘Tumko Dekha Toh Yeh Khayal Aaya’ in 9 minutes, that too when he was 9 pegs down

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