Favourite taunt of Pakistani politicians!
Islamabad: Now " Munni badnam hui" has found a place in the political circles of Pakistan with politicians from leading parties using the hit Bollywood item song to take a swipe at one another.
Speaking at a party function a couple of days ago, the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Imtiaz Safdar Warraich said: "We are being blamed for the wrong doings of others." In an obvious dig at the opposition, Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N), he said: "Our situation is such that we can only say, 'Munni badnam hui darling tere liye'."
Pakistan's Punjab province Law Minister and PML-N stalwart Rana Sanaullah was quick to latch on to the opportunity. "What a pity that the PPP leader has termed the entire party as Munni," he said, adding that "this Munni is not getting a bad name because of darling but because of her own actions".
This is the latest reflection of the popularity of the Bollywood song picturised on Malaika Arora in the movie " Dabangg".
There's a play called "Munni Badnam Hui" that's being used to spice up TV scripts and wedding revellers are dancing feverishly to its tune.
The song has become a rage in Pakistan. In fact, Malaika has almost become a household name in Pakistan after the song composed by Lalit Pandit.
No wedding or function is considered complete without the song. It also blares from audio systems in cars and music shops while FM radio stations are swarmed with requests to play the song.
However, the song has created problems for the real life Munnis in the country. Munni, a mother of two from Lahore, has been harassed so much that she has shut her small shop. "Every now and then someone will come to my store and say 'Munni badnam hui darling tere liye' in front of my customers. First, I didn't pay much attention and tried to ignore it, but then it became a routine event and I started to get irritated, Even sober and reserved people have sung this song loudly while passing by my store. I have scolded many of them but they just laugh and run away. Finally, I couldn't take this behaviour anymore and closed my shop for several days. Munni said.
This Munni is not the only one to face problems. Shahida Munni, principal of a school in Lahore, had been given the nickname Munni by her family and friends. "While walking in my neighbourhood, I am always scared that someone will start to sing the song. Most of the time my fears become reality as many boys either sing the song loudly or play it on the stereo!" Shahida said.
Sometime back I got chatting with an ex-colleague who thought that the recent hit number "munni badnam hui darling tere leeye" was a rather cheap number. Just to divert a little from the topic. As one of my friends had earlier pointed out, the original from which munni badnam hui has been copied is "Launda, badnam ho GAI naseeban tere liye" and NOT "Launda badnam ho GAYA..." as mentioned in the press. It is "Naseeban"(girl) addressing the guy "LAUNDA" and lamenting that she became "badnam" for him.
Of course I did not agree with his rather 'grotesque' description of what I think is a good fun song.
The reason for not agreeing with him was very simple. Anyone who was growing up during the late eighties and the early nineties, and is familiar with the kind of songs Bollywood produced during that period, will definitely vouch for the fact that "munni badnam hui" is a rather tame number in comparison to the kind of stuff that was produced back then.
So here is a list of what I think are the famous double meaning and raunchy songs that the Hindi film industry has managed to produce over the years, and the multiplex generation has never heard of. Of course this is not a complete list, so please feel free to add to it.
It all started with the pelvic thrusts of Madhuri Dixit in "Choli ke peeche kya hai." Now don't ask me what Neena Gupta was doing in that number. But this Anand Bakshi song, sung by Alka Yagnik and Ila Arun had the front benchers absolutely in raptures.
Immediately after this Varsha Usgaonkar tried to match Madhuri's pelvic thrust for pelvic thrust in the rather more direct "Choli ke andar kya hai." Of course, the song did not get anywhere, one Varsha was no Madhuri and two it was a tad more direct with lines like "Choli ke andar tabahi hai tabahi tabahi", leaving nothing to imagination.
Mithun "Ooty" Chakraborthy soon latched onto the trend and starred in the mega hit "Chadh gaya upar re attarya pe loutan kabootar re", more famous as "gutur gutur". Govinda and Karishma Kapoor really cashed in on this market. Govinda even went to the extent of singing "Meri pant bhi sexy meri shirt bhi sexy...". The censors let this one go, but would have none of "Sexy sexy sexy mujhe log bole" starring Karishma, which was eventually toned down to "Baby baby baby mujhe log bole". Of course the movie Khuddar (which also starred Govinda) tanked.
But nothing matched the brilliance they achieved together in "Sarkaye lo khatiya jaada lage" from the movie Raja Babu. I remember watching the movie at Chetak Cinema in Udaipur (Rajasthan). The crowd which had come to watch the first day first show was in fact disappointed. This is not what they expected from the David Dhawan-Govinda combination on a roll with a string of hits in the early nineties.
And that was till the last song of the movie "Sarkaaye leeyo khatiya jaada lage", started. The theatre had never been so loud. Every time, Karishma Kapoor lifted her red lungi to expose, the crowd simply went berserk. Miss Kapoor during those days was climbing the popularity charts and was willing to expose, if the script so demanded.
Of course such brilliance and titillation had never been achieved before nor would be achieved after this.
David Dhawan tried repeating it with Rishi Kapoor and Juhi Chawla in Eena Meena Deeka with the song "Saiyyan ke saath maddaiya main bada aaye rajjeyya main". The movie also had another song called "Towel main bahar jaogi to hulla mach jayega". Both the songs did not work. Well Rishi Kapoor was no Govinda and Juhi no Karishma.
Dhawan tried this again with Anil Kapoor and Juhi Chawla in Andaz. It had two songs. One was,"Main maal gaadi tu dhakka laga dhakka laga bhai dhakka laga" and the other was, "Khada hai khada hai khada hai, dar pe tere aashik khada hai khol khol khol, darwaza khol". Both the songs were cleared by the Censor Board, but the stunt did not work for Dhawan and the movie flopped. Guess by this time, people had already started to tire with such songs.
Ajay Devgan tried to mix cricket with a double meaning song. "Kal saiyyan ne aisi bowling kari, ek over bhi main khel payi nahi, chouthe hi gend mein out huyi, paanchava gend main jhel payi nahi" was a song in the 1994 movie release Vijaypath. Well the Intermediate Science Classes at St Xavier's College were empty the day the movie released, everyone having gone to watch the song at the theatres. Much to their disappointment the Censor Board did not let the song go and had it cut from the movie. So that was that.
Akshay Kumar and Mamta Kulkarni had their share of fun with "Bholi bhali ladki khol de re dil ki pyar waali khidki" and "Bharo......maang meri bharo" in the super hit Sabse Bada Khiladi (which was in fact written by Hindi pulp fiction writer Ved Prakash Sharma).
Mithun Chakraborthy sitting in Ooty could not afford to lose the race. So he sang "Mirchi re mirchi kamal kar gayee, dhoti ko phadke rumaal kar gayee."
Govinda and Shilpa Shetty together sang "LML Baba LML Baba" where LML stood for Lets Make Love Baby for the movie Hathkhadi. It need not be said the song was a huge hit. When Shilpa Shetty was asked why did she agree to star in this song? She said something to the extent of "I earlier starred in this movie called Aao Pyar Karen, which when translated into English means Lets Make Love." Now you know why they say that some people should just keep their mouth shut.
And then there were songs like "Din Mein Leti Hain Raat Ko Leti Hain" and "Daloonga Daloonga" from the movie Amanat.
Of course the entire double meaning song industry picked up after "Choli ke peeche kya hai" became a huge hit in 1993. But there were some good double meaning songs that hit the market even before that.
Take the 1991 movie Lakshman Rekha. It had a song called "Kya number hai, kya gaadi hai, kya bumper hai kya body hai, aage se dekho, peeche se dekho, upar se dekho, neeche se dekho, kahin se dekho ji...hai kya baat hai...uff kya baat hai..." Now talk about being subtle.
Or take Subhash Ghai's 1982 movie Vidhata which had a song called "Saat saheliyan khadi khadi fariyad sunaye ghadi ghadi." Now in the face of it there is no double meaning.
But of course when you get into the detail like "Ek saheli ka miyan tha dakiya, raat bhar mohe sone na de, thappu lagaye ghadi ghadi," it leaves nothing to imagination.
So in comparison to all these songs "Munni badnaam hui" is rather sedate and harmless. And wait till you hear a few Bhojpuri songs. As Avijit Ghosh writes in his recent book Cinema Bhojpuri "In Pyaar Ka Bandhan", singer Rekha Rao croons to the lyrics of Vinay Bihari, "Tani lahe lahe dheere dheere dala kamsin ba dukhala raja ji' (Put it in slowly, darling, I am very young, it hurts'), while on screen Sambhavna Seth dances to the tune and as she gyrates, a launda (a man dressed as a woman) tries to slip bangles into her arms. That is double-entendre at its best."
In fact Bhojpuri movies have a tradition of double meaning songs. As Ghosh writes "In the family drama Ganga Se Nata Ba Hamaar (1991) well-known music director Ravindra Jain not only provided the score, but also penned the lyrics for a couple of songs. In one of them he wrote, 'kahin nimbua to kahin be anaar sajni, nimbua bechari kisi ginti main na aaye, yeh zamana hai anaron ka beemar sajni'('There is a lemon at one place and a pomegranate in other. Nobody spares a second thought for the poor lemon, this is the age where everybody is mad about pomegranates'). It is obvious the composer-lyricist is not talking about the different sizes of fruit."
Or take this song from Bambai Ke Laila Chhapra Ke Chhaila "Mamla garam ba, kahe ke saram ba, loha garam ba, chala da na hathoda" ('Everything is hot. Why are you shy? The iron is hot. Why don't you just bang, the hammer?')."
Oh, and how about the recent song "Babu rao mast hai" from Once Upon A Time in Mumbai. What can get more double meaning than that? I rest my case. In comparison to all the songs listed above "Munni badnaam hui" is as good as a bhajan.
There are some songs which do not find any written lyrics or are un-recorded but are sung by some groups on the roadside for earning a living. Munni Badnaam Hui is a similar one. It is a chorus but mainly has two voices, one male and the other female. This dates back to at least 40-45 years during the childhood days in Punjab in Zira(Pakistan) where different groups wear black robes and carry metallic rings and small drums for playing music. The voice is normally rough. In this song male voice is similar to that but female voice is sweet. While on the roadside song female voice is also rough. Wording is in duet form. Munni Badnaam Hui is sung by the male while Darling Tere Liye is sung by the female. Another line was Munna Badnaam Hua, Darling Tere Liye. (These lines do not find place in the Dabangg song). Somewhere wording had it Munda (means boy) and Londa (Boy). Part of the wording also used it as a Kudi (girl) and Munda (boy). With time the names have been changed. Earlier Names of Meena Kumari and Nargis Dutt were being used instead of Shilpa and Bebo. Wordings were being used by different groups. Even the song had the names of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor and other actors. The song is about a girl and boy who run away from home to become heroine/hero in the film industry and have to do lots of infamous acts before they get into films. They become famous in the film industry and with the people. It is a good attempt by Arbaaz to bring some of the village life songs to the film industry with a new touch. Only thing is the camera rarely focuses on Munni and focuses on other scenes. People would have enjoyed more, had speed of the reel been slightly slower and Malaika would have been shown more than Salman and others.
Munni Badnaam Hui, Navratri and even Bhagwati Jagran
There would be no points for guessing which was going to be the most popular song during the 2010 Navratri season that sets in from the current. It was no doubt be Munni Badnam Hui from DABANGG in as diverse manifestations as could be possible. Obviously it provided definite flexibility for the Navratri revelers to groove to it in as myriad forms as possible. But Goddess Durga might have wondered whether the argument was not being extended too far, as even Bhajans made to the tune of Munni Badnam Hui were going to make their debut during the Navratri in 2010.
In Northern India, Navratri is celebrated by evoking goddess Durga and in her honor paeans are sung throughout the night and that is why the whole process is aptly classified as Bhagwati Jagran. It was Narender Chanchal who had popularized this form of invocation to goddess Durga around North India by using the popular film songs and every year the current hit song would form an adaptative form of bhajan offered to the goddess Durga. The real trigger point was the song Chalo Bulawa aaya hai, which though originally was sung by Mahender Kapoor, it was Narender who made it rather an offering song at the Bhagwati Jagran or a binding element of the programme in between.
But goddess Durga indeed could be left looking into corners when she was offered Bhajans to the tune of Munni Badnam hui, after all, how will the bhakts be able to stop themselves from not dancing in gay abandon to the musical beats of Munni Badnam hui, though the lyrics may be an invocation to goddess Durga.
Nowhere else in the world would one find such kind of film based influence even in the religious ceremonies as it is in India? It could be owing to the fact that among the Hindus there is no such institutionalized mechanism of accompanying music in sync with the religious ceremonies as it is in the case of Muslims in the form of Qawallis, for the Christians it is the Choir while for the Sikhs it is the religious singing of the Gurbaanis. Therefore Hindus chose the film songs as channel vehicles to evoke religious sentiments during large scale mass gatherings. It has now evolved into such a big industry that every singer worth his grain now wants to be associated with it.
When the history of Indian music is written sometime in the near future, may be this aspect would also be factored into as an important ingredient of evolution of Hindi music, and the yeomen contribution that Gulshan Kumar made in popularizing this format of music would also be underlined in golden motif.
Malaika Was Paid More For Munni Badnaam Hui In Dabangg Than Any Other Item Song - Arbaaz Khan
While Malaika's hogged the limelight for the chartbuster that is "Munni", the woman who's lent her voice to the controversy-ridden song is probably just as spunky.
Singer Mamta Sharma's playback debut in Bollywood has made headlines, but it's been ten years of hardwork that's finally catapulted the lady into fame.
"The song has given me a new identity," says Mamta, who was in Kanpur to perform at a Dandiya event. "Though I have been singing for the past ten years, " Munni Badnam Hui" helped me carve a niche for myself in Bollywood. When people come to know that I have sung this song they start treating me like a celebrity," says the singer who used to sing at religious programmes in her hometown Gwalior and has sung in 11 languages, before she got her big break. "I had no connection with the industry. My mother is an insurance agent and therefore I never attempted to get any professional training in singing, even though I was always inclined towards music. Whatever I've learnt is just by listening to Lata didi and Asha tai," lets in Mamta.
Ask her if all the controversies surrounding "Munni" took away from the song, and Mamta replies, "Not at all. In fact, I think controversies sell in today's world. At one point, I did feel that the controversies were responsible for the popularity of the song. But I realized that the song itself had caught on so well. The lyrics were so catchy. When people introduce me, they say, 'woh Zandu balm wala gana inhone hi gaya hai.' And that helps to build my brand value as well."
However, the success hasn't come easy. Mamta is still fighting the monopoly of a few well-established singers in Bollywood. And that bothers hers. "When any new singer tries to make space for herself among the well-established singers in the industry, they react by trying to nudge the new one out. I've faced that too. But I think there's place for everyone in the industry and if a person is talented, then she will get her due," she says. Mamta will be singing next for Sunny Deol's "Main Yamla Pagla Deewana".
'Munni' embarrasses many women in Pakistan
The story is much the same for other 'Munnis' on this side of the Indus who wish the song had never been written. First it was the boys in the neighbourhood, and then the men got wind of the popular song from Salman Khan's film, and they would all come to Munni's store and sing " Munni badnaam hui darling teray liye" and embarrass her.
While the song - believed to be a copy of the Pakistani song "Ladka Badnam Hua Tere Liye" from a 1992 film starring Omar Sharif - has done wonders for Malaika Arora Khan, the "Munni" in the song, the Munnis in real life want to wish it away.
This isn't the first time women have had to face problems because of the mention of their all too common names in a song. Popular Punjabi singer Abrarul Haq was once directed by Pakistan's Supreme Court to change the lyrics of his song because the name "Parveen" embarrassed many women with the name.
The song "Munni Badnaam Hui", like the film in which it features, has become a huge hit in Pakistan.
The song blared in the background when Geo News channel ran a montage of former US Ambassador Anne Patterson in a segment on embarrassing disclosures made in her diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.
Last month, three police officers were arrested and 30 others suspended after they forced three women to dance to the song for five hours within a police station in Punjab(Pakistan) province.
`Munni badnaam hui' creates problems
'Munni Badnaam Hui Darling Tere Liye' from the Bollywood film 'Dabangg' might have legions of fans but not the real life Munni, a mother of two in this Pakistani city, who has been harassed so much that she has shut her small shop. Munni, a fairly common name in the subcontinent, is ruining the day the song became a hit. Her store is located at her home and she has been unable to open it since the song became popular. "Even sober and reserved people have sung this song loudly while passing by my store. I have scolded many of them but they just laugh and run away. "Finally, I couldn't take this behaviour any more and closed my shop for several days. Now it's been two months and either I don't open my store or if I do open it, then I don't sit at the counter myself." A mother of two, Munni said the song has also impacted on her personal life. "On seeing me, boys in my neighbourhood would start singing this song at full volume. Many times they play it on tape to tease me. This song has really become a nightmare for me."
Pak cops force women to perform 'Munni'
Officers at a police station in Pakistan's Gujranwala district had to pay a heavy price for being enamoured with the " Dabangg" super-hit song " Munni Badnam Hui" when they were suspended Friday for forcing three female dancers to perform it at the police station.
Three dancers of a musical troupe in Lahore were on their way to Gujranwala to perform at a marriage ceremony, but officers of the Sadhoki police station stopped them at a checkpost midway and took them to the police station, Dunya TV reported. Having arrested the dancers, the policemen were not ready to let go the opportunity to have some fun. They asked the dancers to perform to the Malaika Arora song "Munni Badnam Hui" one by one. After having his wish fulfilled, the police station in-charge registered an FIR against the three dancers and detained them in lock-up. The dancers, who could not go home even after entertaining the police officers, were only released on bail after two days. They filed a writ petition before the session judge who ordered an inquiry after listening to their plight. The Regional Police Officer (RPO) Gujranwala, Tariq Masood Yaseen, after conducting an inquiry, has suspended the police station in-charge Abid Farooq and the entire staff. All of them have been detained in the same lock-up where they kept the dancers for two days while further investigation is underway.
