Kevin D. Carignan 
At one end of the spectrum are the shy hints – how that look pierced the heart, how the fragrant air stirred up previously unfelt desires, and how the bee landed on the flower. Think Lag Ja Gale (Woh Kaun Thi), Where Na Jaane Kya Hua (Stinger).
At the other end is the ‘permitted’ sexuality of ‘object songs’. But what about women in more real and complex life situations? The lonely wife who wants to cling to her man. The one with a new found self-confidence. The woman who celebrates her own body.
Ang Laga De from Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram Leela has a promising start. Written by Siddharth-Garima and scored by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the song, however, dissolves into the meh trope of jogan-jog. And quite simply because it rhymes with that rog.
Lyricists, surely we can do better. Things get better in the following stanzas: “Tere seee ki lau mere andar bhi hai” is an effective message that says “My desire is no less than yours”.
Lyricist Gulzar says it best in Jiya Jale from Dil Se, scored by AR Rahman. In this song of anticipation, a future bride visualizes her wedding night. The imagery is traditional – henna, flowers on the nuptial bed – but perhaps few poets have imagined so gracefully what happens to these elements during the act of love as Gulzar.
Further back in time, in Anamika, Majrooh Sultanpuri and RD Burman, aided by Lata Mangeshkar, try to infuse some chemistry into the unlikely couple of Sanjeev Kumar and Jaya Bhaduri. The lyrics are plaintive but Burman keeps the instrumentation sparse and the melody light and playful.
Burman senior, however, was there first. Raat Akeli Hai from Jewel thief, also from Sultanpuri, is higher on the come-hither scale. SD Burman opts for short phrases interspersed with accordion keys, rising crescendo. Asha Bhosle lends her best cabaret voice to this number.
Things get hotter as we move on to Razia Sultan. Written by Kaifi Azmi and tagged by Khayyam, Jalta Hai Badan stands out even among courtesan-themed songs, with its direct declaration of desire and how it might be repressed.
It’s a song to be heard, not seen – the choreography aims to match a gesture to each line of the song, and there’s plenty of twisting and cavorting on the floor by the co-dancers.
Asha Bhosle landed most ‘item’ songs from this era, including in-your-face Piya Tu Ab to Aaja (Caravan), but some of the most sultry songs conveying passion and nostalgia went to Geeta Dutt.
In Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam, she sings for a lonely woman trying to cling to her unselfish husband. The song, written by Shakeel Badayuni and composed by Hemant Kumar, becomes more explicit as it progresses – there’s disheveled hair, fragrant flowers and drunkenness. There’s also the wife’s desire to become dust under her husband’s feet, which isn’t sexy at all. The things we do for love.
Better to concentrate on Dutt’s languorous voice and the will of “Main aaj tum ko na jaane doongi”.
Dutt also lent his voice to the equally fervent Aaj Sajan Mohe Ang Lago Lo in pyaasa. The song is rendered as a kirtan in the Bengali style. As with many devotional songs in the bhakti tradition, the lyrics are imbued with a desire for union with a beloved deity. At its peak, poets and saints tell us, love becomes a spiritual connection.
Whether human or transcendental, this song expresses longing, searing intensity, like few others do.
One of the most elegant songs about passion and desire also belongs to Dutt. Written by Gulzar and composed by Kanu Roy, Meri Jaan Mujhe Jaan Na Kaho from Anubhav has images that include rain, the moment before a kiss, and “that moment when breath mingles with breath”.
The next of Madhumati is a bit of an outlier in this playlist since we have Manna Dey and a male chorus making brief appearances. But it’s an exuberant song about female desire, with the woman at center stage, fully owning her body as well as the metaphorical scorpion that makes her squirm. Composer Salil Chowdhury sets up a tribal melody, sung by Lata Mangeshkar, and a rhythm that builds into a frenzy towards the end.
Where there is rain, there is desire, our poets and songwriters have always said. They gave us happy and perky songs such as Ab Ke Sajan Saawan Mein (Chupke Chupke) and O Sajna Barkha Bahar Aayi (Parach). A more intimate and confident reflection can be found in this number of the film Abhinetri.
The Thumris evoke the themes of female desire and sexuality. Chhodo Mori Baiyan from Zubeida, written by Javed Akhtar and scored by AR Rahman, has the familiar imagery of a woman, presumably a gopi, bewildered and possibly seduced by Krishna. Her bracelet is broken, her clothes are loose, and now “I’m screwed; how am I going to get home in this condition?
The creators of these songs have always been men. And as talented and sensitive as they may have been, it would be interesting to wonder if the women would have written or composed these songs differently. The female gaze is now evident when it comes to on-screen images – see for example the opening shot of Ang Laga De. But where are the backing songs that, for example, celebrate the male body and also talk about the feelings of men, not just women?
With more women entering the writing and composing pool, perhaps we can hope to hear, not just see, more about what women want. Anvita Dutt and Zeb Bangash, we’re looking at you.
Also Kausar Munir, whose words in Doobey from Gehraiyaan attempting to explain a woman’s perspective on how a relationship unfolds, aided by the rollercoaster melody of OAFF-Savera. Can we now sing the stiffness of those shoulders and the roughness of that unshaven cheek? Or how it all started with running your fingers through her hair. And how and where it ended. Surely there is a song somewhere.
Aldo read:
Soul music: when Hindi movie songs send a prayer to the Almighty
Behind bars but still free to sing: The songs that perfectly capture the state of confinement
Songs of Comfort: A Playlist for Comfort and Words for Living
