Have you ever heard an Indian cinema (Hindi) male/female duet love-song and wondered what they are singing to each other? Well - if you are lucky to own the DVD of the film in which the song features - then you could always switch on the subtitles into the language of your choice and hope that the DVD production house included the song lyrics in the subtitling.
To give the western audience here a flavour of the sort of lyrical content of Bollywood love songs (and to also give Indian readers here a little entertainment) I have taken a famous, recent-ish love song (from the film “Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham”) and recorded myself singing the English lyrics, literally translated, over the original song.
Bollywood Love Song - sung by me - in English
Click on the red button in the shockwave object above - it will download approx 1.5Mbytes of audio recording and play it back. And please don’t laugh at my singing - I KNOW I‘m no pop idol.
If you are unable to make out what I’m saying in my singing voice - you could always follow the lyrics below whilst you’re listening to the recording:
The sun has dimmed
the moon has begun to burn
Oh, why has the sky …
… begun to melt?
The sun has dimmed
The moon has begun to burn
Oh, why has the sky …
… begun to melt?
I am standing still
The earth has begun to move
My heart has beat
My breath has begun to stop
Oh, is this my first …
… my first love?
Darling …
Is this my first .…
… my first love?
WOMAN:
The sun has dimmed
the moon has begun to burn
Oh, why has the sky …
… begun to melt?
I am standing still
The earth has begun to move
My heart has beat
My breath has begun to stop
Yes, is this my first …
… my first love?
Darling …
Is this my first .…
… my first love?
MAN:
This moment is beautiful
Everything is changing
Dreams are falling …
… into real life
Is this bond of ours …
… centuries old?
For in such a way …
… I am meeting you
WOMAN:
Love’s season will remain …
… like this always
Meet me like this …
.… birth after birth
MAN:
I am standing still
The earth has begun to move
My heart has beat
My breath has begun to stop
WOMAN:
Yes, is this my first …
… my first love?
Darling …
Is this my first .…
… my first love?
that was so funny. i simply cracked up.
there was an old series on C4 called movie mahal - which i used to follow when i was there. they used to subtitle the songs. it was so funny.
know the song “hoton pe aise baat hai, zuban pe chali aay”
it was subtitled as - if i were to reveal all, the sky would fall.
My father saw the clip and remarked. if vyajanti mala was to reveal all the skies would definitely fall:))
Heh-heh - it makes me laugh too. Self-referential humour I guess.
I remember that C4 program!
Indeed - the literal translation into English loses the poetic/romantic aspect of the lyrics. It seems that English is not the best language for the romantic exhibition of metaphor.
Posted by: Jag on January 3, 2004 12:05 PMAny translation into another language loses its meaning and the intricacy of rhyming that goes along with the song.
This one was funny too.
Posted by: sat on January 3, 2004 03:04 PMHonestly! I dont care too much for Bombay films and more so their lyrics.
I speak only moderate Hindi, yet I feel I can write most of their songs, just pepper it with some key words: Paagal, deewana, pyar, mohabbat, mein mar jaoonga (in any other form), aankhon, chaand, etc. etc.
Great singing voice Jag! You got talent! :)
Wow!! Very impressive singing voice and the translation is a riot…great entry…wish I cd award you sweeties here :) Thanks for the laugh.
Posted by: Ritu on January 3, 2004 11:19 PMSat, Anand, Ritu: glad you enjoyed it. It makes me laugh everytime I listen to it myself! It never ceases to amaze me how the sound of ones own voice is sooooo - alien. And as for singing voice - well I refuse to acknowledge that that is me singing! I end up having a fit of laughing at some parts of it!
Posted by: Jag on January 4, 2004 12:02 AMAbsolutely hilarious! Done the same with the song Bhumbro Bhumbro from Mission Kashmir…translates out to Bumblebee bumblebee! hehe. Happy New Year by the way.
Posted by: Amrita on January 5, 2004 01:04 PMthat was hysterical - but i’m afraid your singing has driven one of my daughters out of the room with the remark “what’s that ? it’s even worse than what we listen to” - subtle ;)
happy new year!
Posted by: zed on January 7, 2004 06:12 PMHi Zoe - glad to hear that you had a laugh! Not sure what was meant by “what’s that ? it’s even worse than what we listen to” - you been playing something ever-so-slightly better then? Intrigued as to what that could be!
Happy New Year to you too!
Cheers!
ps - I finished “A Suitable Boy”.
See: http://www.route79.com/journal/archives/000140.html
How far have you gotten?
Posted by: Jag on January 7, 2004 11:07 PMhehheehheheee! Hilarious.….…..It was so cuteeeee! I cudnt stop giggling.….…This is such a filmy number which u have chosen. It is so interesting for me to know the point of view of a person who is a second generation Indian about so India and Bollywood. I agree with Anand when he says that almost every song has to have a the mandatory set of words with it..like pyaar, mohabbat, ishq, (now thr was film called Pyaar ishq mohabbat..can u beat that!) Dil, chahat and watever.…
But thr are some beautiful songs being churned out too. They aren’t mainstream, but they are beautiful. Take the example of this song, Allah ke Bande.….from the movie waisa bhi kabhi hota hain. this is the link to that song. (second song) listen to it and tell me how it is. It is sufi poetry..beautiful! http://www.raaga.com/channels/hindi/movie/H000599.html
Posted by: Shobha on January 8, 2004 05:02 AMerm, jag .… Q took the book back to the library after i’d renewed it 3 times. i got to page 50 though :)
Posted by: zed on January 8, 2004 08:38 PMZoe: that’s a shame. Never mind! I would have to admit though that around page 50-ish is the “breakthrough” point. I sometimes feel that a long commuting time is the only thing that enables getting through a book like this. :-)
Posted by: Jag on January 8, 2004 09:17 PMheehee! That was so funny! (I loved the “lalala lalala”) Thanks for that ;)
Posted by: Kyren on January 10, 2004 01:43 PMShobha: I listened to that song on Raaga.com and it was excellent! Very poetic indeed. Furthermore I listened to some of the others on that page - some of the others from “Waisa Bhi Hota Hai: Part II” are very interesting too!
You can read a review on the music of that film at: http://planetbollywood.com/Music/WaisaBhiHotaHai:PartII/
Kyren: thanks for commenting here! Yes - the “lalalala” bits were a very special effect!
Posted by: Jag on January 11, 2004 03:14 PMOh damn! THats cool! U r not a bad singer either ! COol got any more songs… how about “tumse Milke” from Parinda.
If u wanna do it here are the lyrics to it
http://www.hindilyrix.com/songs/get_song_Tumse%20milke%20aisa%20laga.html
Mail me if u wanna chat. !
Seems like a cool person! and def. a bolly fan.. which i am too !
Very Creative Try! Good at that too!
U need to change ur title to CREATIVELY IN TUNE
Thumbs Up!
Posted by: Indu on February 23, 2004 07:33 PMHey Bhumi and Indu:
Many thanks for your compliments!
Bhumi: I may try the “Tumse Milke” song sometime! I am definitely a Bollywood fan too! You can email me on jag@o2.co.uk - but be sure to respond to my “spam filter” challenge if you do.
Indu: cheers for the thumbs up!
Posted by: Jag on February 23, 2004 09:42 PMI found this page in a google search. Since everyone here is presumably discussing a song parodied by Jag, I am tempted to listen to it. Where can I hear it?
Posted by: Sufi on June 21, 2004 07:46 AMHi Sufi - there is a “Flash” animation at the top of the page - a big red button next to the picture of ShahRukh Khan - just press that and wait until it loads and turn up the volume. If you cannot see the picture it is probably because your browser is disabling Flash objects for some reason.
Thanks for your interest!
Posted by: Jag on June 21, 2004 10:50 AM