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Lyricist Prasoon Joshi on Masakali remake: Leave the classics untouched

Hindustan Times | ByRishabh Suri
Apr 10, 2020 04:30 PM IST

Sharing his disappointment over the new song, Joshi says that he had painstakingly written the original Masakali and feels that people should realise that there is a certain sanctity to all things

Recreations, rehashes, remixes- the trend of taking old classics and transforming with the aim to appeal to the internet savvy generation, has been going on for some time. And Masakali, from the film Delhi-6 (2009), is the latest to join the bandwagon.

Prasoon Joshi had penned the lyrics of the songs of the 2009 film, Delhi-6
Prasoon Joshi had penned the lyrics of the songs of the 2009 film, Delhi-6

However, ever since it was released online, netizens were quick to troll it, and this time, the original team joined them, including the likes of filmmaker Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and music composer AR Rahman. 

And lyricist Prasoon Joshi echoes the same sentiment. “It’s very simple. Delhi-6 is one of those few albums where every song that I wrote was close to me. As an album, I have painstakingly written every song, even Arziyan from the film is very close to my heart. So was Rang De Basanti (2006),Taare Zameen Par (2007)--- these are milestones, I would consider, and there is a certain sanctity to all these things,” he shares.

The new version has been filmed on actors Sidharth Malhotra and Tara Sutaria, and has been recreated by Tanishk Bagchi. Joshi reminisces how he specially coined the word ‘Masakali’ for the song. 

“First of all, Masakali is not a word, it was coined by me. There is no such word in the dictionary of language, Masakali means nothing! No word in English, Hindi or Urdu. To justify the use of this word, we finally had to name the pigeon in the film Masakali, it was so nice, all of us loved it and kept that.It was something made for this film, and it has a certain association, capsule of emotion. I remember, after I wrote the song, a girl who was fighting cancer, wrote to me, ‘These lines- Udiyo Na Dariyo has brought me out and given me strength’. I still have that letter with me. If such intricate associations are there, those have to be respected. I felt a little disappointed with it,” the 48-year-old says. 

He agrees that some songs shouldn’t be tampered with and should be left “ untouched, unless it is absolutely well thought through, and done for a very specific purpose,” he says. 

On whether he has spoken on the matter with the film’s team - Mehra, singer Mohit Chauhan and Rahman and if they are planning any legal action, Joshi says, “Rahman and I have been working on a couple of other projects, we have been talking, and are on the same page. But right now, we haven’t thought of any action, the thing is it’s still sinking in right now.”

We reached out to Bhushan Kumar, the head of the company which has produced the song as well as Bagchi for a comment, but our efforts weren’t met with a response.

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