When the West meets the East

In the year 1961, the film ‘Chhaya’, made by the master storyteller of India, Hrishikesh Mukherjee was released. The film starred Sunil Dutt and Asha Parekh. The simple yet intriguing chemistry between the duo is visible in all the hit songs of the movie, was something, which only Hrishida could elicit from his actors. One of the songs of the film, “Itna Na Mujhse Pyaar Badha” sung by none other than Lata Mangeshkar and Talat Mehmood, is a sweet testimonial to this fact.

The song had a good sense of fusion about it which incorporated the west and the east in a meaningful way. This was the signature of the person who composed the song, Salil Chowdhury or Salilda as we know him. Right off the bat, let me make it clear that Salilda made no bones about being inspired by the west. His aim was to create music which “transcended borders”.

Many of Salil Chowdhury’s compositions can be traced back to western roots, but most of the times he gave them an original face lift and added a whole lot of original content. This made his music extremely popular as they sounded ahead of their time while retaining the simplicity that the Indian music has been traditionally known for. Every artist needs a muse or an inspiration which is absolutely fine. The only problem is that sometimes, Salilda crossed the thin line between inspiration and plagiarism.

Close to two centuries before the movie ‘Chhaya’ released, there was a musical genius in Austria called Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Mozart composed over 600 symphonies, which are still as popular, if not more, as they were then. Each of Mozart’s work can be made into an entire course in music and probably even then we may never learn about each and every intricacy of his compositions. But why am I telling you that? I am sure you know that already.

What you may not know is that his symphony #40, composed in G Minor seemed of major interest to our Salilda. The song “Itna Na Mujhse Pyaar Badha,” is a resounding proof of that. Even though the song has the upbeat playfulness of west; the lyrics and the choreography of the song have a sense of simplicity and calm about it which makes it Indian. Also, what is interesting about the song is that its main chorus of the song is a direct lift from Mozart’s #40. Although to the credit of Salilda, he did try to bring some originality in the antras of the song, but even they ended up being dangerously close to what the chorus sounded like. Essentially, the chorus was a copy and the antras were inspirations of the chorus.

To be fair, nobody owns the rights to Mozart’s symphonies, so in effect there were no legal lines crossed, but Salilda did fail to give credit where it was due and kept it all for himself. Being inspired by Mozart is a good thing, only good can come out of such an inspiration, but passing his work as your own, well; not so good.

By:Saharssh