‘Lafzon Ka Jadugar’ pays tribute to Anand Bakshi

Nagpur: Think of a popular Hindi film song and in all likelihood it may have been penned by Anand Bakshi. The musical event Lafzon Ka Jadugar aimed at highlighting his contribution through 24 select songs which were presented at Scientific Society Hall on Sunday.
Conceptualized by Dr Sudhir Kunnawar for Saptrang, and anchored by Dr Manoj Salpekar, the evening had six singers presenting some of the best known songs penned by the lyricist.In a career spanning nearly five decades, Bakshi has written more than 4,000 songs. Most of these were composed by music directors Laxmikant Payarelal, Kalyanji Anandji and RD Burman.
A master at expressing simple thoughts and emotions, Bakshi’s biggest hits included ‘Darde dil’, ‘Mujhe teri mohabbat ka’, ‘Kya yehi pyar hai’, ‘Aaj mausam bada’ and the iconic ‘Mere mehboob inayat hogi’, which actually shot him to fame.
The evening began with a song ‘Bade achhe lagtey hain’ from the 1976 film Balika Badhu. What followed were a string of super-hit numbers like ‘Hum tum ek kamre band hai’, ‘Aye ri pawan’ and ‘Itna toh yaad hai mujhe’ from Mehboob ki Mehndi which was written by Gulzar, yet Bakshi was called to write the songs.
Though Bakshi wrote songs for all genres, young and old actors and debutants like in Bobby, he was best at songs which had an element of tragedy. But of the twenty-four songs picked for the evening, none reflected the mood as most of the numbers were peppy ones like ‘Sare shehar main aapsa’, ‘Hawa ke saath saath’, ‘Mere sapno ki rani’ and ‘Zara sa jhoom loon main’.
But for the fans of Hindi film music, it was a treat to hear the hit numbers from films of the sixties to nineties. And though the singers were all amateurs and a tad off key and the orchestra mediocre, the programme rode on the strength of Bakshi’s pen.