Storming a male bastion
- Usha Khanna & Maya Govind

Music direction and lyric writing has very much been a purush-khsetra in our cinema. But what’s a rule if there isn’t a glorious exception ? Way back in the late ’30s and early ’40s, Bombay Talkies catapulted to fame their in-house Parsi lady composer who went by the name of Saraswati Devi (Jeevan Naiyya, Achyut Kanya, Bandhan, Kangan, Jhoola) but after that there was no lady composer along till Usha Khanna hit the scene in the 1959 with Dil Deke Dekho.

Says Usha Khanna who still composes for serials, “I have never encountered anything but affection and encouragement in my field. There have certainly been no unpleasant experiences. The only obvious thing is that as a lady my social limitations prevented me from going right to the top. For example, there was no way I could oblige a big producer by going with him and his director to a hill-station to work on a score!”

Usha Khanna feels happiest about the fact that her own parents encouraged her to study music and later take up film music as a career way back in the ’50s. “Though I never assisted anyone, I got a break without much struggle with a big name like S.Mukerji. Producers like Jugal Kishore, Saawan Kumar and Tarachand Barjatya also repeatedly gave me work. Mohd. Rafi, Lata, Asha and Mukesh would keep reminding me that I was the composer and could correct them in their singing if I found something not to my liking! Saawan Kumarji married me though I was a composer, and though we could not jell as man and wife, we continued to be the best of friends all along. As a filmmaker and lyricist, he keeps returning to me - I am now doing his 11th film!’

Usha attributes her current absence from films to the clout that music companies exercise and changing trends rather than to the fact that she is a woman. “In our time, good work used to get us assignments. Now you have to be part fo a camp,” -she ruse

Usha Khanna’s major musical triumphs include Hum Hindustani, Aao Pyar Karen, Lal Bungla, Shabnam, Truck Driver, Honeymoon, Hawas, Ab Kya Hoga, Saajan Bina Suhagan, Aap To Aise Na The and Souten. Among lyricists we have had Rani Malik and Pushpa Verma who did not stay around for very long, but the lady who did was Maya Govind. The fiery poetess made her debut in Atma Ram’s Aarop (Nainon mein darpan hai) and Ramanand Sagar’s Jalte Badan (Hum who hai jo apne ghar ko jalaakar tamasha dekhte hai) in the early ’70s - after a false start with two Khaiyyaam films that never saw the light of day.

She has recently written the lyrics for Hari Bhari, Gaja Gamini and Daman.
“I have proved my versatility in literature and a populr medium like films,” says Maya. I have composed almost 900 songs and worked with almost all the top names. But I have worked on my terms and thus my output has been curtailed. I cannot write songs at a sitting in a crowd of people, neither can I socialize or visit music directors, music companies and filmmakers asking for work.

“Yahaan groups ban jaate hain, so someone like me is bound to lose out. Otherwise, if quality alone had mattered, I should have been right on top!” sighs Maya. The fiery Maya bristles when asked why she wrote songs like Chad gaya oopar re (Dalaal) and the ilk when she is a woman herself. “I have never written a vulgar song in my life! Certain songs of mine were filmed in an obscene way. How could I control this when even my male collegaues could not? What is the difference between Chad gaya ooparre and Chad gayo paapi bichhua from Madhumati except that the older song was beautifully picturized ?

When others are at fault it is attubuted to the naughtines that is found in every Indian literature and art form folk to Kalidas’ erotica. But in my case, why does everyone make such a big noise about the three or four songs Jhor pened and where were projected thus? Why can’t I be equated with the songs of my latest films that have received such critical acclaim? Or with Qismat ka to yehi fasana hai, which was the only title-track from a TV serial ever to make it to a countdown show? Or the albums I have done on the 18 adhyaays of the Bhagwad Geeta? The people who accuse me of vulgarity are not even familiar with the meanings of the Hindi terms that I use !’

Maya Govind’s work include the other very chaste and poetic songs of Dalaal as well as a large variety of films (Qaid, Main Khiladi Tu Anari, Takkar, Policewala Gunda), albums and serials.

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