Hit rewind and re-tune

[1]

Dhak dhak from Nautanki Saala

The generation of 80s, along with Sridevi, hummed Tathaiya tathaiya from the movie Himmatwala, and the masses in 90s drooled over Madhuri Dixit showing her moves in Dhak dhak from the hit Beta. Decades later, the songs are making a sensational comeback, albeit in a new version with new faces and identity.

Old classic songs are making a comeback in new catchy avatars. The recent examples of such reworked versions are Khoya khoya chand and Hawa hawai in the movie Shaitan, Apni toh jaise taise in Housefull, Bachna ae haseeno in Bachna ae Haseeno and the latest So gaya yeh jahan and Dhak dhak in Nautanki Saala. It has become a trend in Bollywood to change the old tunes and make a new composition suiting present music sensibilities. And many established music composers, including Shankar Mahadevan and Vishal Shekhar, are endorsing this trend.
Famous composer and singer, Sulaiman Merchant, is all for the trend provided it maintains the original sensibility of the song. “In my opinion, if you are a composer, you should be able to compose a new song. If we leave this fact aside, the trend of revisiting old classics has been going on for a while and it is all right as long as it does not violate the original composer’s aesthetics. First and last, he should agree to the changes and the songs should be dealt with effectively,” he says.
Popular playback singer Tanvi Shah says to recompose a song shows the daring side of music composers. “When a music director is redoing an old number, he is taking up a challenge as he is working on an already hit number. It is more difficult keeping in mind the popularity of the song in that period and nobody is hundred percent sure if the masses would like the new composition or not. Imagine the pressure on Vishal Shekhar when they were doing Disco deewane number for Student of The Year. Still, I would say it is a healthy trend as it revives the interest in old songs and makes the composition more trendy,” says Tanvi.
Singer Naresh Iyer says, “There are some songs that belong to the eternal category, and many music directors experiment with them to present them in a new light. It is a good way to rewind those classics and let newer generation hear them. Creating a new composition can be done any time, but reworking old numbers and bringing them out in a new style is the nicest thing.”