From songs to film titles: we have seen this happening many a time, the most famous case being the Chor Machaye Shor super-hit ‘Le jayenge le jayenge / Dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge’ becoming the title of the all-time blockbuster, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
From Param Sundari to Om Shanti Om: When songs became movie titles!
But this time. we want to look at interesting cases here: where a song’s evolution into a film title had a major commonality. A recent example is Param Sundari, produced by Dinesh Vijan. Imaginatively titled as it is a love story between a Punjabi lad, Param (Sidharth Malhotra) and the South Indian girl, Sundari (Janhvi Kapoor), the film’s title owes its origin to the 2021 A.R. Rahman-Shreya Ghoshal chartbuster of that name from Vijan’s OTT success, Mimi. Another common point: Amitabh Bhattacharya wrote the lyrics of both these films.
‘Om Shanti Om’ was the 1980 Laxmikant-Pyarelal-Kishore Kumar chartbuster from Subhash Ghai’s Karz. In 2007, Farah Khan released a reincarnation-and-revenge drama with that name, using the title as the names of Om, who as the reborn Om, took revenge on the villain for his love, Shanti’s, murder. The film also had the OG Karz hero Rishi Kapoor in a cameo, and showed how the song was shot in the original film!
‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’, the Hum Kisise Kum Naheen hit by Kishore Kumar, later became the title of Yash Raj Films’ 2008 story featuring Ranbir Kapoor, son of the original hero, Rishi Kapoor, who had enacted the hit song in 1977. As a bonus, Vishal-Shekhar sampled the original number and got Kishore Kumar’s son, Sumeet Kumar, to sing the main song. Kishore thus, got to ‘sing’ for Rishi’s son, Ranbir as well! Ranbir played a young software designer who discovers himself after three romantic relationships and the title fitted like the proverbial glove.
‘Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani’ saw Ranbir Kapoor in the lead again. This time, his film’s title was based on his uncle Randhir Kapoor’s hit title-song in the 1972 Jawani Diwani. The title became a perfect fit for this coming-of-age story revolving around contemporary youths.
‘Jaane Jaan’ was another hit number from Jawani Diwani that was filmed on Randhir Kapoor and Jaya Bhaduri (Bachchan). In the 2022 whodunit directed by Sujoy Ghosh (an ardent R.D. Burman buff, the song’s composer), Randhir’s daughter, Kareena Kapoor Khan, played the title-role and title’s aptness became clear when the denouement came.
‘Main Solah Baras Ki’ on the other hand, had only a tangential connection. The Kishore-Lata duet, again from Karz, was filmed on Rishi Kapoor and Tina Munim, the Dev Anand discovery from Des Pardes. 18 years after Karz, Dev tributed his protégé’s hit song by making a film with that title and introducing a new face in it again—Sabrina.
Past-Time
If the ‘new’ segment above was Kapoor-heavy, we begin the blast from the past too with Shammi Kapoor’s hit song, ‘Tumse accha kaun hai’ from the 1965 Janwar. Four years later, a new Shammis romance film used this title. Besides Shammi, the film’s composers Shankar-Jaikishan, Mohammed Rafi (as the main voice for the hero) and lyricist Hasrat Jaipuri were also common.
Notice also that the cult ‘Pyar kiya to darna kya’ from Mughal-E-Azam (1960) was enacted by ‘Anarkali’ Madhubala for ‘Emperor Akbar’s Prithviraj Kapoor’s benefit. Akbar was frowning at her romance with his son, Salim.
Coincidentally, Prithviraj’s character also disapproved of his son’s romance in another film in 1963. And guess the name of that film? It was Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, and this time, the reel son was his real son, Shammi Kapoor again!
‘Dekh tere sansaar ki haalat kya ho gayi Bhagwan / Kitna badal gaya insaan’ from the 1954 Nastik is another famous old number. Hero Ajit’s character mourns the inhumanity that has become so prevalent in society. Three years later, Ajit starred in a film named Kitna Badal Gaya Insaan, and Nalini Jaywant, his co-star in Nastik, was again his heroine!
In the 1962 Aarti, Meena Kumari sang, in Lata Mangeshkar’s voice, the evergreen philosophical soliloquoy, ‘Kabhi to milegi kahin to milegi / Baharon ki manzil raahi’. Six years later, a Meena Kumari film wherein all four songs were Lata Mangeshkar solos, was titled Baharon Ki Manzil and also had Majrooh Sultanpuri as its lyricist!
‘Phir tere shahar mein / Lutne ko chala aaya hoon / Phir wohi ishq tera / Phir wohi dil laya hoon’ was a Mohammed Rafi solo for Joy Mukerji in his father S. Mukerji’s 1962 musical hit, Ek Musafir Ek Hasina. Very soon, Nasir Husain cast the young hero in another musical romance, Phir Wohi Dil Laya Hoon, with O.P. Nayyar spinning magic with Mohammed Rafi again.
Finally, in the 1953 classic, Do Bigha Zamin, Shailendra penned the evocative song for a farmer, ‘Dharti kahe pukar ke /Beej bichhale pyar ke’. The film was a Bimal Roy saga on a farmer under debt. In 1969, Shailendra’s close friend, Deenanath Shastri, incidentally Dharmendra’s secretary, decided to produce a film named Dharti Kahe Pukar Ke. This time, there was another farmer in debt at center-point. Shailendra was to write the lyrics but was severely ill. The film, directed by another Bengali, Dulal Guha, finally had lyrics by Majrooh Sultanpuri, after Shailendra passed away before any song was recorded. The new film, incidentally, also had a hit title-song.
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