The time of remix of old songs is back again, and every major Bollywood movie has made it a point to come up with a revised version of a classic part song. Whether it is Humma Humma in OK Jaanu or the most recent Hawa Hawa song from the movie Mubarakan, touching the classic party numbers and adding rap to it is bound to be a cringy experience, especially for those who have loved in the originals. While the idea of the remix has been in the industry for quite some time, the pop culture in 90’s let artists come up with remix versions of the old songs, the addition of raps that have the classic cheesy lines has been degrading the quality of music and songs in Bollywood movies.
Hawa Hawa’s revised version was previewed in the trailer as well, and the full version of this song that was released a while ago proved once again how classic songs are being transformed with the addition of cheap lyrics as well as the random addition of peppy music and cheesy raps. While the classic Hawa Hawa Aye Hawa, sung by Hassan Jahangir gave us some fresh music with lighthearted lyrics, Arjun Kapoor uses the classic and modifies it to propose to a clearly disinterested Ileana D’Cruz with lyrics like “Boyfriend Bana Le, Kisi aur ko pata le.” While this song has already made us regret the making of this movie, the lyrics continue to give way for the mandatory rap that came out of nowhere and murdered the music of the classic song that was used.
Here is the video of Hawa Hawa song from Mubarakan
While we have now become accustomed to the idea of Bollywood men chasing women who show no interest and luring them into falling in love with them, the increased use of beautiful songs as cheesy numbers just for the sake of promotion and publicity has become a trend that has gone out of hand and needs to be stopped. This movie is clearly not the first to chose an old song and brutally smother it to death and even as we discuss this, we are bound to come across many more songs like this in the future. However, here is a list of all the “Bollywood remake” of classic songs that ruined them with rap, just in this year!
1. Humma Humma – Ok Jaanu
Very rarely have we seen the sight of a music director choosing to recreate his old super hit song to give it a modern twist. But music maestro AR Rahman chose to do exactly that for his composition in the 2017 release, OK Jaanu. The talented music director tried to bring back the craze of Humma Humma and added the same old lyrical rap by Badhshah that revolved around the topic that majority of Indian rappers enjoy writing on sex and intimacy. While many may have hoped that AR Rahman’s magic would save the song, the Humma Humma song was ruined all for a movie which clearly did not deserve it.
2. Haseeno Ka Deewana – Kaabil
Kaabil managed to bring back the beautiful composition of Sara Zamana Haseeno Ka Deewana back to life, and the makers made two important decisions, to add random EDM between the song and of course add some rap that teased the woman on whom the item number was picturised. Apart from the music video which was nowhere near the mark, the music and the “remix” that was added made the song more torturous than enjoyable. And so sadly Rajesh Roshan and his team were not ‘Kaabil’ of making a notable remix.
3. Tamma Tamma Again – Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya
Badrinath Ki Dulhaniya brought back the cute couple of Alia Bhatt and Varun Dhawan and tried to revive the 90’s with their song Tamma Tamma Again. Even as the queen of dancing, Madhuri Dixit joined their promotional strategy and helped them learn the original steps the makers could not refrain from using unnecessary rap that often becomes a turn off for the rap songs. When compared with the other disasters that are already a part of the list, Tamma Tamma managed to impress us just a little but not enough to keep it off the list of dreadful decisions made by music directors.
4. Cheez Badi Hai Mast Mast – Machine
An Abbas–Mustan movie was released earlier this year and was comparatively unnoticed. But the only aroundthe movie was when they chose the classic Udit Narayan song, Cheez Badi and tried to recreate it with additional lyrics and ruthlessly murdered the beautiful number. Machine movie gave us a cringy music video for the movie. The remix of Cheez Badi was far from mast, and the additional lyrics and robotic noises that were added failed to make a connection, much like the movie.
5. Oh Ho Ho Ho – Hindi Medium
Sukhbir’s Oh Ho Ho Ho has many names like Ishq, Tare Gin Gin and others but one emotion and a compelling desire to Bhangra on the beats. While the new remixe version of the song continued to have the energy of the song, many fans were left disappointed with the addition of the ‘trendy’ rap by Ikka. Can Bollywood ever get over its obsession with rap music on every single movie and every dance number, please?
6. Raabta – Raabta
Seldom is a movie named after a song, but leave it to Bollywood to name a movie Raabta (a word that became increasingly famous after the song from Saif Ali Khan’s 2012 release, Agent Vinod). Pritam tried his level best to bring back the obsession with the Raabta song and came up with a toned down slower version of the superhit song for this 2017 release. However, while the original Raabta song managed to leave people yearning for more, the remix can put anyone to sleep. The only positive about this new remix of Raabta has to be Deepika Padukone who looked ravishing in the video, but other than that; we would much prefer going back to the breathtaking original song, thank you very much.
It is important to understand that the criticism that all these movies and the ‘remix’ version of the songs are getting is not plain hate but frustration with Bollywood’s efforts to make rap music popular and a part of every single movie. While we all enjoy a rap song now and then, adding this genre to every single song and party number not only makes the playlist monotonous but also boring. Moreover, it would be easier to digest these ‘rap songs’ if only the lyricist decided to write something refreshing and different from the clichéd topics of girls, drug, cars and parties.
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