Popular songs also mirror morality levels in a society. There has been a slow but gradual dissolve of certain values and aspirations. Both Woh subah… in the 1950s and Choli ke peeche kya hai in the 1990s were big hits, but you can’t think of a song that is aesthetically beautiful or meaningful from the latter era.

Pick up any calendar year between 1950s and 1970s and every year will give you at least five or six memorable songs, but I would call the late 80s and 1990s as the dark ages in the history of Hindi film music. That’s also because it reflected the overall degradation in the morality of the society in that period. For instance, communalism was a bane in 1947 too when Partition happened but it was never as ugly as the 1980s. It was impossible for communal propagandists to emerge national leaders in the 1940s and 50s. The same value system that hoisted communal leaders to the national apex was the one applauding the popularity of songs like Sarkaye liyo khatia jada lage because parts of society do not stay in water tight compartments.

However, today there is a desire to look at our roots and heritage as evident in the lyrics of writers from the new generation. The younger generation has realised that something precious is lost, thanks to the older generation. In the songs of today, there is a desire to be better, though we’re still a long way from the era of a Sahir Ludhianvi or Shailendra. But the graph is going up, the worst is behind us.

... contd.