When Mukesh Bhatt called Jeet Ganguly to his office he was expecting the filmmaker to sketch a song situation for him. But Bhatt surprised him by simply telling him, "I want you to create the sound of silence for me..give it words and a dhun and shape it into a passionate, romantic song."
Jeet returned home wondering how to make silence speak through a melody. For the next three days his poet-lyricist wife Chandrani quietly watched her husband turn pensive, plumb the depths of desperation, bang his hands on the keyboard, strum his guitar and finally sing a song to Bhatt on the phone whose catchy tune she was soon humming while Jeet slipped into silence himself for most of the night.
Recalling his creative flight, Jeet points out that prayers are unspoken communication with God. "Also, when two people have been in love for a long time, they are in such complete sync that they can often read each other's thoughts before they are expressed in words. That's when I decided that I would stop thinking and just connect with my inner self and let the song come from within," he reminisces.
The next day, he sang, Khamoshiyan... teri meri khamoshiyan... Khamoshiyan... lipti hui khamoshiyan, to Mukesh and Mahesh Bhatt.
"They loved it though Mukeshji insisted the anatara had to be better than the mukhda and Bhattsaab, who had tried to inspire me earlier by giving the example of Rabindranath Tagore who wrote a song for every occasion, sat with Reshmi Singh to find the right words for this melody," says Jeet.
In a couple of days the lyrics were presented to him following which he called up Arijit Singh "because I felt only he could sing something so intense and passionate". To his delight, Arijit was spellbound when Jeet played the track he had recorded and immediately called up Mukesh Bhatt to thank him for the song. "Mukeshji told him that I'd worked really hard on the song and he should give it plenty of time too. We took three hours to record it. Arijit has an innate understanding for lyrics, he felt the words and sang them from the heart," smiles the composer.
Jeet has heard a lot of Western songs, studied them, but points out that when it's a strong Indian melody like this one, he's instantly reminded of Madan Mohan, Gulzar, RD Burman and Salil Chaudhury, his childhood gurus.
"My father, Kali Ganguly, is an arranger, composer and accordion player who has worked with Salilda whose songs I had grown up hearing. Lataji's (Mangeshkar) Lag ja gale and Aye dil-e-nadaan resonates down the decades, connecting with every successive generation of listeners with its simple lyrics and sargam," he says, adding that for this song he played with the D minus scale because he could relate to the chords... the notes as he strummed his guitar.
Interestingly, this is the title track of a supernatural thriller but fortunately, when Mukesh Bhatt was briefing him, he didn't tell him that. "He didn't tell me he wanted a dark song for a horror film. He simply told me that he wanted me to find the notes of silence which would touch everyone's hearts," he recalls.
Khamoshiyan ek saaz hai, tum dhun koi laao zara
Khamoshiyan alfaaz hain, kabhi aa gunguna le zara
Beqarar hain baat karne ko, Kehne do inko zaraa...
The studio of Radio City 91.1 FM was transformed in to a cheerful atmosphere by the team of
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Music Corner
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