Yellow River's
Wikipedia entry reveals that this track was first
offered to another band, The Tremeloes, who found it too
pop-oriented for their future and went ahead with another
track, after recording it with Christie's lead, Jeff
Christie! PS: Is it just me or
does anyone else also 'hear' the tune of 'Sayonara' from
Love in Tokyo in Yellow River? Nothing too direct, just
traces :-)
8
Kyun hai deewanu tu akela [Film: Bees Saal
Pehle]
Composer: Hemant Kumar
Inspired from Mary Hopkin's Those were the days.
Looking for the
Hindi track!
9
Oh oh oh oh Baby [Film: Police]
Composer: Hemant Kumar
Inspired from the oldie number Oh oh oh bernadine.
Looking for the
Hindi track!
10
Gore gore
[Samadhi]
<TC>
Composer: C Ramachandra
Lifted from the number by Edmundo Ros, 'Chico chico'.
Multiple sources of inspiration! The opening is from Mike
Oldfield's 'Tubular Bells' (1973). The main tune is from Deep Forest's
first song of the same name released in 1992!
The
musical was based on Edna Ferber's book with the same name that was
released in 1926. The composers of the original version of Showboat
(there have been many versions subsequently!) were Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern.
The original 'Old man river' has been sung by people like Bing Crosby,
Paul Robeson, Al Johnson and Jules Bledsoe. However, without robbing any
credit from our own Bhupen Hazarika, I personally felt 'Bistirno paarore'
is the Indian interpretation of the older classic and is
Indianized to a large extent. Particularly, listen to the original from
the point 00:54:00 onwards - there are clear indications of how the
Indian version was conceived! Also, note that the subsequent version
Ganga was based on the river while the original showboat version was
about the river Mississippi! Was Bistirno...based on some river too?
Bramhaputra? Just a guess - its possible! Also strikingly similar is the kind of quivery voice on
both the Indian and western version!! I'm sure the subsequent western
versions were licensed and authorized. But was the Indianized version
authorized by the original's license owners? That's what holds the key
between a plagiarized work and an inspired one!
23
Dil deke dekho
[Dil deke dekho]
<TC>
Composer: Usha Khanna
Lifted from the song 'Sugar in the morning' by The McGuire Sisters.
The violin intro is a rather clumsy Indian
version (IMO) for those who've heard the original for ages! The rest of
the actual tune is Roshan's original.
Ditto! I also happened to come across an
interview of Jojo in the Nazara
website where, when asked what is the inspiration behind 'woh kaun
thi', he says "....inspiration... for woh kaun thi... well just an
expectation of somebody in your life... a mystery"!!!!?
The composer of Caro diario was Nicola Piovani
who was also the composer of the Oscar winning 'La vita e bella', better
known as 'Life is beautiful'. Wonder if Vishal and Gulzar saab saw the
movie in some international film festival in Mumbai and decided that
this piece was too good to resist!!?
36
Do chamakti aankhon mein [Detective (1958)]
<TC>
Composer: Mukul Roy
Lifted from Harry Belafonte's 'Jamaica Farewell' (1956)
'Andalucia' was originally written in 1930 by Ernesto Lecuona as part of his 'Spanish Suite'. It was later performed by itself by his band, the Lecuona Cuban Boys. The song enjoyed some success, but it was ten years later, when Jimmy Dorsey recorded it in 1941, as a vocal
number (by the name, 'Breeze and I), with Bob Eberly singing Al Stillman's lyrics, that it became a #1 hit in the U.S. It's a wistful song, in which the singer laments that his love is known only to 'the breeze and I'.
38
Haal tujhe apni
[Aasha (1957)]
<TC>
Composer: C Ramachandra
Inspired by the song 'Andalucia' by Ernesto Lecuona. (refer last entry!)
Also, check out the other recent version of Tequila (this page, listing
no. 06). Apart from the 2 songs mentioned above, another really famous S
D Burman number sounds like the opening line of Tequila. How about 'Mere
sapnon ki rani kab' from Aradhana (1969)? But yes, the similarity is
strictly restricted to the first line only! Listen to
Mere
sapnon ki rani kab
Trivia on Tequila:
Dave
Burgess of The Champs was working a session, one afternoon in 1957. With some studio time remaining, Burgess asked the other musicians to stay, to help him come up with a B-side for a record he had previously
recorded. One musician offered a Tex-Mex sax line, another a snappy guitar riff, the drummer played a backbeat on the bell of his cymbal and Burgess plucked the muted strings of his electric
guitar. The song was called "Tequila" and in ten minutes they had a take.
Everyone who heard the tune liked it and Challenge Records decided to release it immediately.
Demo copies were sent to major deejays across the country in late December, 1957. "Tequila" was topping both the "pop" and R&B charts by March 1958 and went on to sell a million copies and win the 1958 Grammy for Best Rhythm and Blues Performance.
41
O priya o priya
[Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye (2000)]
<TC>
Himesh Reshammiyya has so far been a
consistently 'dinchak-jhatak-matak' kind of music director - a dream
come true for someone like David Dhawan who has worked with him in
Dulhan Hum Le Jaayenge and now in Yeh Hai Jalwa. Surprisingly, barring a
few numbers, Himesh hasn't lifted much in his films so far. Hence it
came as a surprise when I heard 'O priya o priya' from the Salman
starrer 'Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye' (2000, the movie itself was a lift of
the Adam Sandler starrer, 'The Wedding Singer'). The song was a direct
lift from Santana's chartbusting 'Maria' (1999
- Featuring The Product G&B, Produced by Wyclef Jean). Even more
surprising is that many online music reviews haven't mentioned this
lift...in fact a Subash K Jha review in Indya.com says this about this
song "...O priya priya with its sing-along chant has a key interlude taken from A R Rahman's Mere paas hai tu in Taal. That apart, Reshammiya has been able to squeeze a semblance of sympathetic melody into O priya"!
(Indya.com -
KPNHJ)
42
Tip tip barsa paani
[Mohra]
Composer: Viju Shah
The prominent interlude/prelude inspired by Dr Alban's 'Roll down di
rubber man'.
Two interesting things to note here....'Cancao do mar' was part of the soundtrack of 'Primal fear' from whose plot Deewangi has been inspired. And second,
'cancao do mar' has already been lifted as-is in
Tamil, for the movie Kushi, with music by Deva! This is probably Ismail Darbar's first blatant lift...I can almost see Director Anees Bazmee and Producer Nitin Manmohan compelling Ismail to lift this number...but you never know...! Also listen to
the Tamil version
Oh Vennila
[Kushi]
44
Aaj ki ladki
[Mujse Dosti Karoge (2002)]
Composer: Rahul Sharma
An interlude sounds exactly similar to a piece from Afro Celt Sound
System's 'Lovers of Light' (1999).
Even though Amar Utpal have used a pretty familiar Bollywood'ish tune
for the actual song, Mother has its stamp all over the Hindi track! An
interesting inspiration! For a song that was voted as the least
favorite of all Police numbers, its quite strange that Amar Utpal
chose it to base his Shahenshah number!
46
Dil Ko
[Rehna Hai Terre Dil Mein (2001)]
<TC>
Composer: Harris Jeyaraj
Inspired by Secret Garden's 'Song from a secret garden'.
'Dil Ko' was supposedly inspired by tracks like 'This is my song' (courtesy: The Music
Magazine)
and Mr Big's Wild World. But the secret garden track is a more direct source of inspiration.
The
chord progressions are exactly lifted, in my opinion, to form a cohesive
Filmi tune!
47
ABCDEFGHI... [Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999)]
<TC>
Composer: Ram Laxman
Inspired by the Spanish track, 'Por que te vas?' by singer Jeanette.
The 1974
Spanish movie 'Cria Cuervos' had the song 'Por que te vas?' sung by
singer Jeanette and composed by Jose Luis Perales. Wonder how on earth
did Ram Laxman think of lifting this song!!
Trivia note on Jeanette:Jeanette was actually an American singer and started recording in the late 60's with the Spanish group Pic-Nic. In the 70's she went solo and her biggest hit to date was 'Por que te vas?', the song that featured in the 1974 film 'Cria cuervos'. The original was composed by Jose Luis
Perales.
48
Aye aye ya ya
[Pran Jaaye Par Shaan Na Jaaye (2003)]
<TC>
Composer: Daboo Malik
Lifted LSB from Los Lobos' 'Cancion del mariachi' from the soundtrack of
the 1995 hit, 'Desperado'
"When did you realise that you had it in you to compose?
I don’t know when exactly, but its been a little while now. For me composing songs started like a sudden eruption of a volcano. All of a sudden my head was filled with tunes, which kept coming just like that. So much so that I used to carry a walkman with me wherever I went, in the bathroom, in the lift, so that I could record the tune immediately. I didn’t quite understand what struck me. In six months’ time I was ready with more than 400 melodies. And what spurred me further was the acceptability by the industry. If I had one sitting with a filmmaker, I would immediately get a reaction in the form of praise, or a film offer came to me."
-- Daboo Malik, brother of Anu Malik, in a recent interview with
Screen Magazine.
Looks like these 'tunes' in Daboo's head have already visited Los Lobos'
head before landing up in his!
49
Hum Pyaar Tera Jo [Market (2003)]
<TC>
Composer: Altaf Raja
Direct rip-off of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's 'Yeh Shaam Phir Nahi Aayegi'
(1996, from the album 'Sangam' which had lyrics by Javed Akhtar).
Strangely enough, the uncle-nephew duo of Sonik Omi decided not the lift the main tune of the original, and instead created their tune out of the prelude. However, this prelude is a bit too common in terms of its progression.
51
Dil
Ke Badle [Zameer (2003)]
<TC>
Composer: Nikhil
Vinay
DIRECT lift of
the track by the same wordings, from the Pakistani film, 'Ghar
kab aao ge' (2000)
The original
Pakistani film, 'Ghar Kab Aao Ge' was released in 2000, with
music by Amjad Bobby and lyrics by Qateel Shifai. Wonder why
Nikhil Vinay have been credited with this 'so-called' Hindi
version while everything, from lyrics, to tune are lifted.
Also wonder who actually got the credit for the lyrics for
the 'Zameer' version....if its anybody else other than
Qateel Shifai, I'm sure its a joke!
52
Koyi
aayega [Asambhav (2004)]
Composer: Viju
Shah
Partly inspired
by the 60s Noor Jehan track, 'Mahi aave ga' that was remixed
and resung by Shazia Manzoor in 2000.
The slower
passages in the middle of the song that goes, 'Delha tenu
pehli pehli...' is a direct lift from Shazia Manzoor's track
'Batiyan bujaye rakhdi'..
Shazia's original
track was part of her 1999 album, 'Chan Makhna'. The
original is a super energetic track while Aadesh has used it
for what Bollywood calls, 'Pathos' mood :-)
R Kelly's track
was part of his 2003 album, 'Chocolate Factory'
57
Nimbuda Nimbuda [Hum Dil De
Chuke Sanam (1999)] <TC>
Composer: Ismail
Darbar
Inspired by
Ghazni Khan Manganiyar's Rajasthani Folk song, 'Nimbuda'
Listen to
Nimbuda [Hum
Dil De Chuke Sanam] |
Nimbuda
[Original]
If you'd like to listen to the full version of the folk song,
click
here
(check out 'Nimbuda Nimbuda'!)
Take a look at
these 2 (out of many other sites) sites that talk of this
song being a lift from a Rajasthani Manganiyar folk song!
Diverse Strains |
Sunday Tribune
I completely agree with Shuba Mudgal (who has penned the write-up in
Diverse Strains) when she asks, "If we can listen to a folk song in a
blockbuster movie, why can we not give an occasional patient hearing to
the original?" Ismail Darbar had a wonderful chance to handle this
in the right way, but I wonder why he messed it up and ended with a
'plagiarist' tag - that too in his much-celebrated debut. All he had to
do was to add a note of credit to the original composer of the song,
Rajasthani folk singer Ghazni Khan Manganiyar, so that people can
differentiate between the original and the Bollywood version - when you
listen to the two you'd understand the kind of work that Ismail has put
in, in his version and made a simple,
'otherwise-restricted-to-a-few-discerning-listeners' track into an
ultra-catchy dance number! Its a pity that decided to pass it as his
original composition.
58
Daud Title Song [Daud (1999)]
Composer: A R
Rahman
A piece towards
the end of the song sounds like 'If I were a rich man' from
Fiddler on the Roof.
The tune heard (for a fleeting few seconds,
in the beginning of the advt. when the girl opens a Pepsi
bottle) in the
Pepsi advt. is a track called
'Rich Girl' by Gwen Stefani. Gwen's 'Rich Girl' itself
borrows heavily from the track, 'If I were a rich man' from
the famous play/ movie, 'Fiddler on the roof' (1951 Broadway
version, 1971 Movie version) and I believe this is credited
too. Rahman's Daud title song (that has 2 versions - by Usha
Uthup and Remo Fernandes) uses the main part of this tune
right towards the end of the song and sounds more like a
tribute to 'Fiddler...'. Did Rahman use it as a tribute
fully knowing that he's using so-and-so? Only he could
answer!
59
Didi Tera Devar [Hum Aapke Hain
Kaun (1994)] <TC>
Composer: Ram
Laxman
Inspired by
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's 'Saare Nabian'
This theme that borrows generously from Pet Shop
Boys' 1984 track (also famously voted as one of PSB's
worst songs!). I still remember the kind of euphoria Tridev (and other
soundtracks like QSQT, Dil etc.) generated back in the end of 80s.
Almost every home had the sad looking audio tape played many times over
in family dos! I was completely zapped by Tridev's techno [ :-) ] theme
when I heard it first. Now I know who the credit should go to!
61
62
'Kaisi paheli hai yeh' and 'Soona
man ka' [Parineeta (2005)] <TC>
Composer:
Shantanu Moitra
'Kaisi...' lifted
straight off Louis Armstrong's 1951 track 'A Kiss To Build A
Dream On' while a line in 'Soona...' is lifted from Tagore's
'Phoole phoole'!
'A Kiss To Build A Dream On' is from the
soundtrack of the 1951 film 'The Strip', written and composed by Bert
Kalmar; Harry Ruby; Oscar Hammerstein II. For a 'considered-talented'
newcomer this is disastrous and rather shameful.
63
64
'Dillagi' and 'Marjawan' [Aashiq
Banaya Aapne (2005)] <TC>
Composer:
Himesh Reshamiyya
Lifted off Ali
Zafar's Rangeen and Faakhir's Marjawan, respectively!
The film's soundtrack has 6 composers and
this one is by Guru Sharma. Turns out that he didn't actually compose it
either. He merely added Hindi lyrics to it since it is originally by
Modern Talking...a track called 'No face, no name, no number' (2000,
album: Year of the dragon - not to be confused with Traffic's 1967 track
of the same name from the album 'Mr Fantasy').
69
Pal pal [Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006)] <TC>
Composer:
Shantanu Moitra
Inspired by
Cliff Richard's evergreen 'Theme for a dream' (1961)
Almost every review of the soundtrack
noticed the lift from Cliff Richard's 'Theme for a dream' (1961). But
what intrigues me is another popular 80s track, 'When you're in love
with a beautiful woman' by Dr Hook sounds very similar to Cliff
Richard's track and subsequently, to the one by Shantanu. Its worth
noting here that Dr Hok's track has already inspired 2 other direct
Hindi tracks - Bappi Lahiri's 'Mere jaisi haseena' (Armaan) and Anu
Malik's 'O mere neend churane waale' (Chamatkar)! So, what's the story
behind Dr Hook now?
Listen to
Mere jaisi haseena
|
O mere neend churane waale
70
Mele chaliyan [Yahaan (2005)] <TC>
Composer:
Shantanu Moitra
Lifted directly
off a traditional Punjabi wedding track with the same
lyrics, made famous by Musarrat Nazir.
There's absolutely no mention of any such
thing in the CD of Yahaan and worse, Gulzar is credited for the lyrics.
Check out Musarrat's version...doesn't seem to be very different in
terms of lyrics!
71
Kaun Aaya...meri Neeta
[Dil deke dekho (1959)] <TC>
The overall feel is mildly tweaked, but basic tune is a rather direct
lift.
Trivia on Paul Anka's
Diana: Diana refers to Paul Anka's neighbor, Diana Ayoub on whom Paul
had a crush when he was 15. Paul recorded the song at the same age, in
1956. The music was based on a popular Latin rhythm called cha-lypso, a
modified cha-cha done to a calypso beat. Cha-lypso had been invented a
only a few months earlier. It has been reported that "Diana" has been
recorded over three hundred times in sixteen countries between 1957 and
1963. Worldwide Anka's version reportedly has sold more then nine
million copies.
73
Subah subah
[Yash (1996)] <TC>
Composer:
Tabun Sutradhar
Racy version of a Bengali folk
track, 'Boli o nonodi'
I usually stay away from intra-Indian lifts, but chose to add this since
it was a fairly big hit for a struggling composer, back
in 1996! Sung by Jojo, this track made quite a splash in 1996 through the ratings it
notched up in Superhit Muqabla. Tabun is still struggling, but this
track, which gave him recognition seems to be ripped straight of a
Bengali folk track, 'Boli o nonodi'. One
of the best known versions of the original folk happens to be by singer
Sapna (Swapna) Chakraborty that is supposed to have released in 1978.
74
Title Song [Life mein kabhi kabhi (2007)] <TC>
Composer:
Lalit Pandit
Lifted from Amr Diab's 2000
track 'Eni alem allah'.
