When I.S. Johar Turned a pro-Congress Song into a Critique of the Party
A pioneering political satirist of India, I.S. Johar was noted for not mincing words. Be it about taking a jibe at the electoral politics of the new nation or discussing his personal life, he had cultivated a reputation of being truthful and steadfast. That meant he was sidelined by the mainstream Hindi film industry and continuously faced bans from the ruling Congress government. But what Johar’s movies lacked in star appeal was more than made up for by an army of star duplicates — -the names Anitav Bacchan and Kannauj Kumar are bound to bring chuckles to those who understand the underlying politics of the casting — -and the repeated censuring only added to the ceaseless hunger to irk.
If you are interested in Johar’s personal life you must look into this bomb of an extract we published some time back — -where he had laid bare everything about sex and sexuality. This post is about a song from his 1978 movie Nasbandi which was a biting critique of Indira Gandhi government’s sterilization drive towards forced population control. The song “Kya Mil Gaya Sarkar Tumhe”, sung by Kishore Kumar with Kalyanji Anandji’s music and Hullad Muradabadi’s lyrics, asks the government what did it get by imposing Emergency and the sterilization programme. We can see a much troubled Johar — -who had directed, written and produced the movie — -limp out of a sterilization camp with his fellow sufferer Rajendra Nath.
Listen to the music and lyrics carefully
Apart from being an excellent piece of satire, we recently discovered there’s something else that makes the song even juicier. If you are aware of a certain well-meaning patriotic movie Jagriti, made by Satyen Bose in 1956, it contained a song with the same music. The motive of the song “De Di Humein Azadi” was in a way polar opposite to that of “Kya Mil Gaya Sarkar”, the former being an attempt to foster national integrity and values was a paean to the achievement of Mahatma Gandhi and his role in India’s freedom struggle. Naturally, Jawarlal Nehru, too, finds a mention being a national hero, but two decades down the line who would have imagined the recent oppressed would become the oppressor. So what better way then to just turn around a pro-Congress/ nationalistic song into a commentary on the same party?
I.S. Johar and Rattan Kumar (Shakti from Jagriti) both limp, but due to different handicaps
But the game does not end here. The song in fact in the Johar version completes a full cycle. That very tune at a slower tempo had made a very tragic song in Noor Jehan-starrer Anmol Ghadi in 1946. “Kya Mil Gaya Bhagwan Tumhe Dil Ko Dukha Ke” wasn’t a paean but a complain to god — -where Noor Jehan asks the almighty what he got by crushing her desires. So from a complain to another, even if re-produced in an entirely different setting midway, the music and its contained anger finally met when years later via Johar they reached home.