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Bollywood music directors have often been accused of plagiarising melodies from other traditions. Though some have had the temerity to pass off note-for-note copies as their own work, many others have used material gathered from a variety of sources as a springboard for their imaginations, transforming these base elements into something completely unique.
As a case in point, here’s Ay Dil Ab Kahin Le Jaa, from the 1963 film Bluff Master. The music was composed by Kalyanji Anandji and the tune is sung by Hemant Kumar. Below, the Sidney Bechet classic that inspired it.
And as it’s performed by Angelique Kidjo.
2 comments
Naresh I listened to both tracks closely We are all of course familiar with Bechet’s evergreen classic I hadnt heard this song from Bluff Master before I would say the the chord structure of the Bluff Master song is well developed around the tonic so I think it falls technically short of being called plagiarisation. BTW I checked out the history of the song The asst music directors to Kalyani Anandji are Laxmikant Pyarelal ! No Manohari or Sebastian here !
Hi Ashwin,
Yes, that’s exactly the point I was trying to make. That tunes like this were the source material that were recast and reimagined as entirely new songs. I think Bollywood gets a bad rap, but this tune, I think, is like Parker or Coltrane playing a standard — you can recognise the theme but it’s improvised into something wondrously different.