Bollywood’s newest favourite trend (along with sports biopics and major actor transformations) seems to be taking old classic songs and revamping them for newer films. Usually, the results are pretty hit-or-miss, although most of them end up becoming pretty popular either way (granted we do get to see a lot of upturned noses from the grown-ups in the family). Keeping up with that trend, on Monday, Saregama Music released the widely anticipated ‘Lag Ja Gale’ cover from Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3. This rendition of the song is by Jonita Gandhi of ‘The Breakup Song’ fame from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. The original was sung by Lata Mangeshkar, from 1964's Woh Kaun Thi, starring Manoj Kumar, Sadhana, Helen and Prem Chopra.
‘Lag Ja Gale’ would seem like a favourite for most cover artists or karaoke singers, but, in reality, it is a pretty hard song to croon. Which is why Jonita Gandhi deserves mad props for stepping into the legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar’s shoes and creating a good modern version of the song. Now ‘modern’ is a key word here, because the song now sounds instantly current. For a remix, that’s a good thing, although we're not sure how many points that gives the song for ‘faithfulness to the original’. Still, Jonita’s voice is the highlight of the song, and hopefully it gets people to forget the campiness of ‘The Breakup Song’.
Now the one thing people resonate most with as far as music is concerned is the ‘feel’. The original rendition felt instantly iconic and beautiful, and gave the sort of vibe that whoever sang it (in their heart, of course) was somewhere on a lonely island, lost in wishful thinking. The new one feels more like that same person doing the wishful thinking, but rather while walking down a crowded street. That may not make much sense to the less visually inclined, but what it essentially means is that the newer version loses the sense of intimacy that the original has, and seems more like someone singing it in remembrance.
A lot of that also figures in the clear difference in instrumentation, with the revamp using more strings as compared to the original, and the different key. It sounds more ‘atmospheric’, which is a word most music critics use to sound smart, but really doesn’t mean much. Here, it means deep but empty, that when you hear it, you can essentially picture the room filled with smoke and a beautiful woman with a dupatta flying about, which sounds mighty similar to the song’s video.
Speaking of which, the song’s video is pretty simple. It features interspersed scenes of Gandhi with the movie’s leading ladies, Mahie Gill and Chitrangda Singh. All three take turns at the mic, though Gandhi is the only one who actually sings. The video does look a lot like what you’d expect from the characters of the two actresses in the film, lively, beautiful yet wrought with complex emotions. It’s very…well, atmospheric, for lack of a better word.
All in all, it’s a good song. It loses some of the feeling that the original gave us, however, which is why it may not necessarily be a ‘good cover’. But, hey, to each his own, right?
Listen to ‘Lag Ja Gale’ from Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3 here:
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And here's the original 'Lag Ja Gale', in case you were feeling nostalgic:
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Tigmanshu Dhulia's Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster 3, starring Sanjay Dutt, Jimmy Shergill, Mahie Gill, Chitrangda Singh and Soha Ali Khan, releases in theatres this Friday, July 27, 2018.
