Roundabout | A songster from the Ambala-Patiala school of poetry, theatre & culture
Ambala boy Shilender Singh Sodhi, alias Shellee, has emerged as an eminent lyricist in the changing scenario of Bollywood songs sung true to the mood of present times
Home for Shellee was Ambala Cantt, where his father Himmat Singh Sodhi, a well regarded poet and critic, taught Punjabi literature in the prestigious Gandhi Memorial National (GMN) college. Writers, scholars and activists walked in and out of their home. Born in 1971, Shellee’s entertainment at home was the famous musical programme on All India Radio, “Awaaz de kahan hai”, named after the immortal song of the film “Anmol Gharhi” (1946) sung by Noor Jehan and Surendra. Looking back Shellee says, “Family time was listening to it with my father and mother, Darshan Kaur, who belonged to a family that had migrated from Gujranwala in Pakistan, at the time of Partition. The programme catered to listeners on both sides of the border and emotive letters by listeners were read out, often bringing tears to the eyes.”
Although named Shilender by his father after the immortal progressive lyricist of Indian cinema, he earned himself the pseudonym of PB Shelley after the famous romantic poet of English Percy Bysshe Shelley. “It was a fond gesture by my teacher because perhaps he found my original name too long. Over time PB was dropped but Shellee remained with the ‘y’ shunted out. Although a masters in theatre from Panjab University, Chandigarh, and greatly appreciative of his teacher Kumara Varma, Shellee says, “My real initiation into theatre and song writing was greatly influenced by Balraj Pandit, the legendary theatre director in Punjabi University, Patiala, and Milkhiram Dhiman and writer Swadesh Deepak in Ambala.” So he adds with a laugh that it is not wrong to call himself a product of the Ambala-Patiala school of arts.
After completing his formal education, the inevitable choice was to turn towards the tinsel city of Mumbai in the mid fifties, where he had hoped to assist the great poet-director Gulzar in film direction. However, that did not work out but the journey started off as ‘struggler’, a word coined by senior script writer Amrik Gill, also from Punjab. Shellee says,“I did just about everything from translation, production and ghostwriting which often comes to one’s rescue in the years of struggle and for several years I was with the Film Censor Board and of course my Chinese-Indian wife Meiying, an accomplished hair-stylist, stood by me as a rock in the years of struggle.”
Soon came the time when mood was changing with the changing nature of Indian music and tastes of youth that welcomed current western styles and the old romantic era melodies were moving into the realm of nostalgia. Pop, hip-hop and much else had changed too with the opening up, old perceived and somewhat sad and tragic depiction of women. It required a director with the dare of Anurag Kashyap to experiment with the much loved legend of Devdas in contemporary thought and action with Dev D. It was this 2009 film that was to give our Shellee major recognition for his new-world lyrics, to the peppy music of Amit Trivedi. Here we saw Shellee dip into the Haryanvi dialect and create songs to celebrate the dilemma of the new Devdas- “Mitha sa chada hai bukhar, re re mai thaara pardesi!” ( A sweet fever envelopes my being, yes I am your outsider). Shellee had proven his worth as the lyricist in sync with the times and film after film followed after Dev D.
The great challenge to the lyricist came in 2016 with “Udta Punjab” directed by Abhishek Chaubey in which he once again teamed with Amit Trivedi to write the famous cocaine (Chitta) song. The film dealt with drug menace in Punjab and the Chitta song became hugely popular and controversial too. The lyricist, however says, “The song depicted the state of mind of the addicts while the dependence on drugs comes out in the song, so does the desperation and the devastation. There is a line in the song that says, “Pehle maza par phir mazar ban gaya” (First it was fun, then it turned into a grave).”
And this Friday, our celebrated, homegrown lyricist, was in the city for the premiere of his first Punjabi film, “Jahankilla”, an inspirational story about a poor village boy who, with the dint of hardwork, qualifies for the Indian Police Service, the ultimate destination in the Punjabi heart. Once again, Shellee is at his peppy best in lyrics penned in Punjabi and one wishes him more glory.