Then there’s the indignant ‘ Toota hai toh juda hai kyun / Meri taraf tu muda hai kyun / Haq nahi tu yeh kahe ki yaar ab hum na rahe’ from 'Tera Yaar Hoon Main' ( Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety). So many lines pop out, and stand apart as favourites, like ‘ Raas hai raat mein / Teri har baat mein / Bol main kya karu / Aise haalaat mein’ from the atmospheric ' Ang Laga De' ( Goliyon Ki Ras-Leela: Ram Leela). I often sit down with a song on loop on my laptop, looking up the meaning, and going through each word and line. Several of these song lyrics are also cute and cheeky, or intense and brooding, bringing with them different moods and tones. These songs remind me of the grandness of love as an emotion, how it encourages people to cross boundaries and come together, fight oppression, unite, and find an ocean of strength in themselves to tackle all that love brings with it. In its own way, each song explores love, and finds its own words to make sense of it. The lyrics are like short bursts of feeling, exploring all the grand emotions we feel, like love, joy, and pain, and mimicking the promises we make and break. It started with looking up translations of songs heavy in languages other than Hindi, like ' Jugni' (Cocktail), ' Ambarsariya' ( Fukrey), 'Din Shagna Da' ( Phillauri), and ' Mera Ranjha' ( Queen). Then there’re also songs that require multiple listens to really grasp what’s being alluded to, like ' Aaj Din Chadheya' ( Love Aaj Kal), 'Kun Faya Kun' ( Rockstar), ' Laal Ishq' ( Goliyon Ki Rasleela: Ram-Leela), and ' Channa Mereya' (Ae Dil Hai Mushkil). There’re also lighter but meaningful songs like ' Jashn-e-Bahaaraa' ( Jodhaa Akbar), ' Samjhawan' ( Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania), ' Humsafar' (Badrinath Ki Dulhania), ' Nazm Nazm' ( Bareilly Ki Barfi), and most recently ' Ranjha' ( Shershaah). So it wasn’t long before I started extending the same treatment to several slow, often romantic, Bollywood songs. I pore over these texts, marvelling at the perfect choice of words and startling metaphors that stick with a reader.
From populars like Keats and Kabir to younger poets like Sarah Kay and Urvashi Bahuguna, I enjoy immersing myself in a world of verses. Taking a piece of writing that requires dissecting, looking up words and phrases, and finding layers of meaning in those words is an immensely enjoyable experience for me.
But when entertainment is concerned, is there even any guilt to what gives one pleasure? In our new series Pleasure Without Guilt, we look at pop offerings that have been dissed by the culture police but continue to endure as beacons of unadulterated pleasure.
When the going gets tough, we turn to our favourite guilty pleasures.