There’s a Pasoori remake now, and it’s called Pasoori Nu. Of course, this didn’t make people happy, but Bollywood hardly takes the hint. The thing with this specific remake (for Satyaprem Ki Katha), is the fact that there’s no essence of the original left. In layman terms (as I understand), a song creates an effect for its listeners with its music and lyrics. So if Pasoori Nu doesn’t sound like Pasoori and doesn’t even have the same essence, what’s the point of calling it a remake at all?
The lyrics of Pasoori have an altogether different meaning as compared to this remake. The original song is about lamenting distance in love, which expresses a depth in the lyrics. Whereas the new Bollywood song is romanticized into an eventual happy ending – which is fine, but again, that’s not Pasoori. It’s almost like turning a sad song into a forced almost-happy one.
Let’s compare the two.
The lyrics of Pasoori Nu:
Behti hawa hai tu, hai khwab tu
Palkon pe rakhu, sambhalu tujhe
Awaaz du main, pukaru tujhe, tu pass aaye, mana lu tujhe
The meaning:
You’re the wind, you’re the dream
I want to protect you, take care of you
And whenever I call you, you should come to me – so I can persuade you
Whereas, the original song goes something like this.
Aana si oh nahi aaya
Dil baang baang mera takraya
Kaga bol ke das jaavein, pavan gheyo dee choori nu
The meaning:
He said he’d come but he never did
My heart lurched
Let the crow tell me why, and feast
For some reason, the new song starts as the description of the woman, and how the man sees the relationship. The original, however has a different vibe to it – something that speaks of broken promises, and love that doesn’t ‘conquer all’. Pasoori Nu is a mush of different feelings which comes down to how it looks like when it is played – the visual aesthetics of it. The difference in the tone of these lyrics cannot be ignored. Even if we don’t get the exact meaning, just narrating them brings up different feelings.
The sad part is, there’s also very little music that sounds similar, because the lyrics aren’t smooth anymore. This chorus in ‘new’ Pasoori is – Aadhaa hai dil mera, poora tujhse hove. So, it doesn’t even satisfy the meaning of the word “pasoori”, which translates to chaos, dilemma and everything that Pasoori Nu doesn’t stand for. Where’s the rage? Where’s the feeling? And why can’t we acknowledge sadness as an emotion?
Also, the nation loves to hear Arijit Singh, and the lyrics are actually written by Gurpreet Saini and Ali Sethi. So, this is a Bollywood problem.
If there’s a checklist for music videos and songs, the Hindi cinema often puts the meaning in the end. Big words, catchy lines and trendy looks are what it mostly boils down to. And so, recreating something that was already good, and taking away the one thing that made it different is exactly what remakes do these days. How’s that supposed to end well?
For the last time, Pasoori Nu looks like a celebration, when it’s actually not. So the question is – did Bollywood even get the meaning of the two songs?