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Smoking, drinking scenes can't be kept out of films: Pyarelal
LAST UPDATE: Tuesday, 6 May 2008 - 11:42:40 PM
NEW DELHI: Legendary music director Pyarelal of the Laxmikant-Pyarelal duo has joined the debate triggered by Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss' remarks on smoking and drinking scenes in movies.
The music director says such conditions are impossible to implement. If scripts demand such characters, clipping them would mean limiting artistic creativity, he adds.
"If an actor is playing the role of a crook, how can you expect that a devotional song will be picturised on him? without a cigarette or alcohol in his hand? I think that will limit the creativity of the writer or director,"says Prarelal.
"Or please spare songs on Mirza Ghalib 'shayaris' because most of them can't be imagined without drinking scenes," he adds.
Recently, the Health Minister had commented that actors should not drink or smoke on screen in films and serials as drinking or smoking scenes glorify the use of alcohol and youngsters in their bid to imitate their icons end up taking to smoking or drinking "We make music keeping the situation and character in mind. I think Shahrukh Khan or Dilip Kumar in a Devdas song without a liquor bottle in hand would not be acceptable. Sanjay Dutt in 'Choli ke peeche song', Dev Anand in 'Main Zindagi ka saath nibhata chala gaya' are some examples where you cannot compromise with the character's demand," says the veteran who together with Laxmikant gave music for almost 500 films in a career spanning 35 years.
The duo won several awards including seven Filmfare Awards, four times in a row, for their musical scores.
Disapproving the use of 'drinking scenes' just to inject a fun element Pyarelal says, "It should be stopped. Most of my songs were without these scenes. Its not possible for me to imagine a drinking or smoking song scene in films like 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram'. Those who are taking advantage of the freedom, should be warned." Laxmikant-Pyarelal has worked with almost all notable filmmakers of their times including Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Feroze Khan, B.R. Chopra, Shakti Samanta, Manmohan Desai, Yash Chopra, Subhash Ghai and Manoj Kumar.
Commenting on the present day music, Pyarelal says there is no dearth of talented singers or music directors in the country but the industry needs a revolution. "The emphasis of the present day music is instant popularity and not something original. It can't be changed in one day and will take some time. It is up to public what they want to hear." Adding that of late, the quality of Hindi film music has seen a downfall and the timeless melodies era of music directors like Shankar-Jaikishan, Madan-Mohan, Khayyam, O P Nayyar, S D Burman will never be recreated, he says, "Today the importance of lyrics has taken a back seat and much attention is being given to sound.
"There are some great lyricists like Gulzar Saheb who can write good lines even with the present-day norms and new values."
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