Humor and Music

We all make mistakes. I made a big one when I convinced the Supreme Editor to come with me to see the Bollywood movie “Mere Brother Ki Dulhan”. She had earlier expressed her opinion that it did not look promising and would most probably turn out to be a disaster. She was right. She is far too gracious to rub it into me by openly saying, “I told you so” but, after twenty-one years of marriage, one is acutely aware that not all communication needs to be verbal.

To me, the best part of the film was when, for just a few seconds, they played a clip of the song “Meri pyari Bindu” from Padosan. And then someone came along and smashed the TV screen on which it was playing. That about sums up the movie.

But it made me want to listen to that song fully:

It also made me think about the connection between music and humor. There are pieces of music that automatically move you to tears with their poignancy. There are other compositions that energize you and pep you up. But there is hardly any piece of music that can make you burst spontaneously into laughter (except, of course, my singing).

I have been thinking about this since the time I saw the opera, “The Barber of Seville”. It was recommended to me as a comedy and we happened to see it at the Sydney Opera House a few months ago. It was, no doubt, an amazing experience with the atmosphere, the quality of the music, the acoustics and the sheer grandeur of the venue. But it did not really make me laugh. We had the benefit of having the Italian lyrics translated into English and displayed as suRtitles (appearing on the top of the screen as opposed to suBtitles that appear below) but it was still not particularly amusing.

This post is about a few songs that spring readily to my mind when I think about comedy and humor. I am sure readers will have their own preferences and I would be interested in hearing about their choices. Essentially, for something to be really funny, we would need a combination of situation and lyrics. And it can last only for a few minutes – not a few hours.

There is the all-time classic, “Ek chatur naar”, also from the movie “Padosan”:

I love “Jahan char yaar” from “Sharaabi” and have also been guilty of belting it out personally on a couple of occasions much to the agony of a few friends who had to bear the brunt of it but were, I hope, at least somewhat anaesthetized by copious amounts of alcohol:

Then, there is the zany “Guni janon bhakt janon”:

The amazing versatility of Kishore Kumar is displayed at its best in “Aake seedhi lagi” where he sings in both the male and female voices:

This may not exactly be a ‘funny’ song, but “Mere paas aao” from “Mr. Natwarlal” always brings a smile to my face, especially the line, “Yeh jeena bhi koi jeena hai, Lallu? Hein?”

In the same vein, a really light-hearted number that demands not to be taken seriously is, “Woh ladki hai kahan” from “Dil Chahta Hai”:

Among English songs, I never tire of listening to Harry Belafonte’s “The Woman Piaba”:

And for quintessential British wit and humor, you can’t beat “Why can’t a woman be like a man”:

Heck, there are worse ways to begin a Sunday.