Prasoon favours meaningful songs over brash lyrics

In this day and age when songs like "Munni Badnaam", "Chikni Chameli" and "Jalebi Bai" are becoming chart toppers, meaningful poetry is slowly on the downslide. National award winning lyricist Prasoon Joshi is unhappy with the trend and asserts that only songs with meaningful lyrics will have a longer shelf life.

"Simple poetry is still appreciated today. A song should have longevity, it's age should be big. You can play a song again and again and fix it in the minds of the people. But a song will only stay on forever if it has good, meaningful lyrics," the 40-year-old lyricist said at the Screen awards here.

Prasoon, who started off his career as an ad-filmmaker, won award for the best lyricist for his song "Accha lagta hai" from "Aarakshan" and is happy that he is part of an industry where famous poets have penned songs for films.

"I am happy that I am a part of an industry where famous poets like Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi and many more have written songs for films. This happens only in India and I am proud to be working in such an industry," said Prasoon who debuted as a lyricist with Rajkumar Santoshi's "Lajja" in 2001.

Prasoon is known for songs like "Sason ko sason se" ("Hum Tum"), "Chand sifarish" ("Fanaa"), "Taare zaameen par" and "Maa" ("Taare Zaameen Par") and "Rang De Basanti".