Karan Johar revives the playback era with Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh

Care for a spot of global dessert in the desi thali? Karan Johar has decided to provide just that tadka, a tuneful one at that in his underproduction directorial venture Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani. Set in two business families of New Delhi, it was felt that this star-studded film featuring Shabana Azmi, Jaya Bachchan, Dharmendra, Alia Bhatt and Ranveer Singh needed a spot of glamour in the midst of the homespun clamour. Karan   hence flies off too Switzerland next month with Ranveer and Alia Bhatt to shoot a romantic song. Apparently, the number and the style in which it is to be shot echoes the chic chiffon-in-the-snowfall style   of Karan’s mentor Yash Chopra. Dharmendra who is one of the lead cast members of Rocky Aur Rani says, “Indian cinema has forgotten the art of lip-sync singing. We used to sing such lovely romantic songs on screen in the voices of Rafi Saab and Lataji. Now there is only background songs.  Kahin aisa na ho ke Lataji  ke saath  woh hamari parampara  khatam ho jaye (I hope we haven’t lost the tradition of  playback singing with  Lataji).” Many prominent contemporary filmmakers believe the art of ghost voicing is dead. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra says he is uncomfortable with his characters singing on screen unless he makes a full-blown musical like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Saawariya or Steven Spielberg’s Westside Story. In the 1970s, part of the Golden Era of film music, one of Bollywood’s most prolific filmmakers Basu Chatterjee would often force his songs into the background. Immortal melodies like Rajanigandha phool tumhare (Rajnigandha), Na jaane kyon hota hai yun zindagi ke saath (Chotisi Baat), Yeh din kya aaye lage phool hanse (Chotisi Baat), Yeh jeevan hai iss jeevan ka yehi hai rang-roop (Piya Ka Ghar), Lata Mangeshkar’s version of the tandem Rimjim gire saawan (Manzil) and Tere bin kaise din beete sajna (Priyatama) were relegated to the background in Basu Chatterjee’s films. Basuda was a great director. But he just didn’t know how to use those beautiful songs. He would put them in the background because he was uncomfortable with lip-sync numbers. A lot of progressive directors today feel the same way as Basu Chatterjee. Shoojit Sircar and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra have decided not to have lip-sync songs in their films. Composer A R Rahman is unhappy about this development. A lot of his very good songs in films like Rang De Basanti and Delhi 6 were used as soundtracks in the background. They were not used as lip-sync. So, the reach of those songs was just 30 or 40 percent of what it was meant to be. Rahman feels lip-sync songs make a much greater impact. “Songs that are sung by major stars on screen get played in clubs and on radio. They make a psychological impact on the audiences’ mind. One reason why I like  to do music in young stories is because these films allow their  actors to sing on screen.”