A Love Affair

First of all, apologies that this post comes so late in the day. It’s as overdue as overdue can be and as important as important can be. Getting straight to it.

This is the story of a love affair. It began a long time ago, when a man named Ranbir Kapoor acted in a movie called Rockstar. This story is NOT about my delusional-love-affair with him. So, hang in there, don’t run away just yet. When the music of his last movie Rockstar released, I jumped at it. Literally, metaphorically, emotionally, and quite-eagerly. This post is about my love-affair with the music, and more specifically, the lyrics of the songs. (See? No Ranbir Kapoor, although I love him so very much!) It’s high time I said, Mr. Irshad Kamil, PLEASE take a bow; a hundred times if you wish. (Irshad Kamil wrote the lyrics of the movie for those who didn’t know!) In equal measure, I also want to mention what a super-fantabulously-fricking-amazingly-awesome job A.R. Rahman and Mohit Chauhan have done to bring that poetry to life! And I am not exaggerating. The music of Rockstar is the soul of the movie, and the lyrics are so unflinchingly honest that they hit the spot! They do. The lyrics describe true love; the highest form of truth possible. The music of Rahman adds grace and beautifies the words even more. To add to it, Mohit Chauhan has sung the songs with so much reverence, it may be as if they were his tended and cared for Garden of Eden. If you don’t believe me, read the rest of the post, with a little faith if possible, and tell me how can one not fall in love with such a beauty.

Snippets of songs that I am in “true-love” with:

Song: Jo Bhi Mai Kehna Chahu

Lyrics: 
Maine yeh bhi socha hai aksar
Tu bhi main bhi sabhi hai sheeshe
Khudhi ko hum sabhi main dekhein
Nahin hoon main hoon main toh phir bhi
Sahi galat, tumhara main
Mujhe paana, paana hai khud ko…

My Interpretation: 
We are what we see around
and we are what is within others found
I’m non-existent yet I exist in you
I’m your right and I am your wrong
I’m all I want.

I Speak:
By attaining my lover, I shall attain myself. By attaining myself, I’ll attain my lover.

Now, if that is not love, what is?

Song: Aur Ho

Lyrics:
Main hasrat mein ek uljhi dor hua
Suljha de…
Main dastaak hoon, tu band kiwadoon sa
Khulja re…

My Interpretation:
I’m a knot in an unfulfilled wish
Untie me
I’m the knock and you’re a closed door
Please open up

I Speak:
This song, primarily, is about his anguish on not being able to release himself from the web he has created for himself. In these lines, he’s in a tumult and asks his lover to liberate him. A knot in a strand of a wish that is unfulfilled and a knock that is not being answered shows how acceptance is not coming to him.

Love is liberation.

Song: Kun Fayakun

Lyrics:
“Main toh jag ko naa bhaaya
Tune gale se lagaya haan phir tu hi hai khudaya”

“Kar de mujhe mujhse hi riha, mujhse hi riha”

My Interpretation:
This song, in its entirety, is such a soother. Kun fayakun, in Arabic, means “God said “Be” and it was!” It’s about how when there was nothing, God created everything in an instant. (This song is not for atheists and rationalists. Please don’t ruin it by telling me how to look in another direction.)

I Speak:
In this song, he is (according to me) talking about God’s love for him. He says that when no one accepted him for who he was, he came to God and God accepted him.

He also asks God to “free him from himself” which basically means that he’s asking himself to surrender.

Surrender is the highest form of love in my dictionary.

Song: Naadan Parindey

Lyrics:
Kaagar kaagar
Mori itni araj tohse
Chun chun khahiyo maas
Arajiya re khahiyo na
Do nain mohe
Khahiyoo na do nain mohe
Piya ke milan ki aas

My Interpretation: 
Here I have to give credit to a certain someone who made me realise how important these lines were. I was told, “When a man dies and if his body is rotting, the crows being scavengers tend to eat the body if unattended. And when they begin scavenging he body, they eat the eyes of the man first. In these lines, he says that, If I die, o crow please, rip my flesh apart as you wish, just do not eat my eyes as I hope to see my beloved when I go beyond this life I just lost.”

I had goosebumps when i heard it. Still do.

I Speak:
Is that not love? No? No?

Song: Tum Ho

Lyrics:
(This song is my Bible of love. However, I shall exercise restraint and just quote a few lines.)
Kis tarah cheenega…
Mujhse yeh jahan tumhe?
Tum hi hu mai kya fikar
Ab hume…

My Interpretation:
I am you.
How is this world going to take us apart?

I Speak:
I have said this a hundred times, and I shall say it again. (To those who have heard it, please bear with me.) We are in a world where acceptance of love plays a major part in helping lovers walk into the sunset. If love is not accepted by society, it does create quite a disturbance. These lines, are like time that you may never be able to contain and bind even if you wish. When the relationship between two people reaches a point where one is another and vice versa, no mighty force in the world can put out that love. It is going to exist, do what you might. And this is why I think, the three words “I am you.” are way much more powerful than the three cliched words, “I love you.”

Isn’t that how love is meant to be?

I am going to sign off with the line that the whole movie and the concept of love is based on:

Track: Meeting Place

Words: Yaha se bohot dur, galat aur sahi ke paar, ek maidaan hai. Mai waha milunga tujhe.

Source: “Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field I’ll meet you there.” – Rumi

The complete version of this quote (thanks to a friend) are:

“Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass, the world is too full to talk about language, ideas, even the phrase each other doesn’t make any sense.” – Rumi

My Interpretation:
Love is to “Be one”.

Isn’t this love?

Yes, it is.

Thanks for such a wonderful album Irshad Kamil, A.R.Rahman, and Mohit Chauhan. It’s a love affair I’ll take to my grave and beyond.

– Sameen