My new song

Please do hear my new song ... from "Once Upon a Time in Mumbai" ... directed by Milan Luthria, music by Pritam. The song is in three versions, this one is by one of my most favourite singers, KK.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnTwoClMYS0

My silence, music and Faiz

Forgive my long silence ...
Life was trying to catch up with me.
I am still walking ahead.
Let me break my long silence with the notes of music -- three of my new songs from two soon-to-be-released films ...

This is "Tere Bin Kahan Hamse" ... from the about-to-be released "Jashnn" from the Bhatts. It is composed by the hugely talented Sandesh Shandilya, and sung by Shaan and Shreya Ghoshal, one of the most talented singers in Bollywood.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOlT2BrVH0k

The next two songs are really special to me. They are from "Sikandar", written and directed by Piyush Jha and produced by Sudhir Mishra and Big Films It is a gritty and eloquent film set in Kashmir.

I have covered Kashmir as a journalist for long long years and have enduring friendships there. It was pure joy to be able to write a song in a film set in Kashmir. You cannot imagine my excitement when my friends call me to say that these two songs are playing on the FM in Kashmir ...
There is an old tradition of Urdu poetry in which a writer pays a tribute to a master by taking the "mukhda" (opening two lines) of an iconic ghazal and writes a new song.
I love the ghazal so much that I wrote two!

This first version has music by Justin-Uday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSSW5SxuDX8&feature=related

And this is another version, with different lyrics, composed by Sandesh Shandilya.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvE716Am18I&feature=related

When I wrote these two songs, and when they were recorded, I waited with the trepidation of a student before his exam for the verdict from across the border, from Dr. Salima Hashmi, daughter of the great poet himself ... she heard both the songs and said she loved them! It was so humbling, so rewarding, and such a great relief, above all ...
These are links to some of the comments she made about the song:
Indian Express
India Today
Hindustan Times
Screen

Radioandmusic.com interview

"Do you think the contribution a lyricist makes often gets overshadowed?
Sadly, yes. We are the backroom boys whose names will not be read out on the FM stations, who will barely get any royalties, Most people don't even know who wrote a certain song because unlike earlier, radio stations don't feel the need to mention their names. Heck -- even most singers often don't know whose song they are singing!

Often lyrics are written to fit tunes, doesn't that kill creativity, inspiration?
It's a challenge, but very satisfying when one pulls it off. But there interesting changes on that front as well, and one sees music directors often asking lyricists to write first, which is then composed later. That is a very encouraging sign.

What kind of trends do you observe, there was a time when Bhojpuri lyrics where catching on.
I think we are often are a bit too quick to try and catch trends. The only trend is that there are at all times some good lyrics and some bad lyrics!

Read the full interview by Chirag Sutar here.

Time magazine on changing Bollywood

"Neelesh Misra, a journalist and lyricist, whose story based on a young, ailing professor who helps his students mend their lives has been bought by a leading production house, says, "Ten years back if you told a producer you had a story starting with a dying professor, they'd show you the door. Now, they are seeking out scriptwriters who'd give them something fresh."
Does this mean the end of Bollywood as we know it? "Hardly," says Misra, "It might be easier to sell an offbeat script today, but you still can't negotiate a [decent] price."

Read Madhur Singh's full story on changes in Bollywood here. It is old but I just received a link from someone, so ...

Bollywood nugget: three interviews

Transcript of CNN-IBN interview (full text here):

Mumbai: A journalist who never thought that he will become a lyricist and this year, he is writing songs for some of the biggest films. This week on the Next Big Thing, it’s lyricist Neelesh Misra whose songs always has a soulful touch to it that works almost every time.

“Bollywood seemed out of reach. I grew up in Naintal. My only attempt to reach out to this world has been a letter that I wrote to Jagjit Singh with a song of mine which I don’t know if it reached him or not. But he rejected it. And I recently met Jagjit Singh at Lucknow airport and told him that I was in Bollywood because you rejected my song and because that was the same song that I sang to Mahesh Bhatt when I first met him and that set the ball rolling,” he says.



Excerpts of Indiainfoline interview (read full text here):

"Any benchmark that you have set for yourself as a lyricist?

I think I am really just an outsider in Bollywood as of now, and that is the way I would like it to remain. I am keen to get the opportunity to write everything from hopelessly romantic songs to item numbers to songs of urban angst to those of heartbreak.

I have been fortunate that I have already got the opportunity to do some of those, and I am doing a greater range now. But at the heart of everything, there has to be poetry and good storytelling -- simple, universal and the type that does not talk down to listeners. That has been the core of the work of the great masters of songwriting and if I can achieve even a piece of that jigsaw, it would be something I can truly be proud of. "


Excerpts of radioandmusic.com interview (read full text here):

"Neelesh laments on the dire situation of lyricists in the country. He believes apart from the likes of Javed Akhtar and Gulzar, songwriters country over are not getting their due. Lyricists are doing a thankless job. "They are treated as backroom boys and things need to change soon. FM channels, radio and television are popularizing songs without giving them any credit," states Misra."

Bollywood nugget: The Hindu on lyricists

"He doesn’t mind reading out his creation on the phone। He comes from a small town but prefers receiving the melody on e-mail. Poetry is not his full-time occupation. He can write about romance while covering militancy."


Anuj Kumar of The Hindu has written a story today on me and my fellow Bollywood lyric writers. You can read it here.