The City in the Song part 1: in the Lyrics.

The city of Bombay has played a vital role in the screenplay of many Hindi Movies. Bombay’s character has been portrayed through many songs whose lyrics have usually matched the tempo and pace of the city or its chutzpah or its diversity and chaos.
These songs, many of them containing the word Bombay (or its mutations), are worth listening to, to comprehend how people of those times saw the city.

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Elsewhere, I have already mentioned how Ae dil hai mushkil jeena yahaan zara hatke zara bachke yeh Bombay meri jaan (CID- Mohd. Rafi, Geeta Dutt 1955, lyrics: Jan Nisar Akhtar) remains the quintessential Bombay song.
“Kahin building, kahin tramein, kahin motor, kahin mill
milta hai yahan sab kuchh, ek milta nahi dil…”
“…Beghar ko aawara, yahan kahate hans hans; khud kaate gale sab ke, kahein is ko bizness
Ek cheez ke hain kaee naam yahaan”
Indeed even today many things in the city have multiple names.

Main Bambai ka babu Naam mera mastaana; Englis dhun mein gaoon hindustaani gaana
(Naya Daur- 1957; Mohd. Rafi. lyrics Sahir Ludhianvi) does not really portray much about Bombay. But it seems to be a cleverly veiled attack on "Ae dil hai mushkil"- whose tune was directly lifted from "Oh my Darling Clementine".

As a connection to Urban History, the '50's and '60's saw the influx (yet again) of a new working class into the city. While the song from CID song captures that era, Naya Daur is usually credited as the quintessential cinematic translation of the issues facing Nehruvian India.

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Ek Akela Is Shaher mein, raat mein aur do-pahar mein (Gharonda – Bhupinder 1977, Lyrics Gulzar)
This song on the search for a home is also a euphemism on the hope and the hopelessness of finding one’s personal space in this city. It also remains that rare "arrival song", even though Bombay or its other names doesn't figure in the lyrics

Bambai se aaya mera dost, dost ko salaam karo (Aap ki Khatir- 1977)
Though the song does not describe Bombay in anyway, it can be referred to as a Salute to the appeal of the City. Try singing “Nayee Dilli se aaya mera dost” or “Calcutta se aaya mera dost”, and you will get what I mean. The remaining parts of the song refer to having fun and taking it easy- qualities that have rarely been used to describe Bombay. Still wondering if the lyricist got his cities mixed up. Nevertheless, it remains a great song.

Ei Bambai nagariya tu dekh babua (Don- Kishore Kumar 1978, Lyrics: Javed Akhtar)
Amitabh Bachchan portrays the wonder and amazement of a country bumpkin Tamashawala who finds this city incomprehensible. The lyrics comprise of nuggets like “ Yahan Bandar nahi lekin naam Bandra”, “Bin paani ka Dhobi talao” etc.Though I may be way off mark, this song is possibly the first lyrical reference to Bombay as the City of Gold (Sone chaandi ki dagariya). It celebrates an era when a song had a great impact on the screenplay.

These songs portray the mid and late 70's which saw many areas develop into what are now the suburbs of the city, promising what would become unaffordable "affordable housing" at a time when the work places were beginning to stir under workers' strike and loss of pay issues.It was yet another era of community migrations into the city.

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Yeh Bambai shaher haadson ka shaher hai (Haadsa 1983)
Most people, including myself can’t recollect the picturization or even the hero of this movie. But the song has stayed in the public realm. An internet search has revealed the hero to be Akbar Khan.

Bam bam bam bam Bambai, Bambai humko jam gayee (Swarg 1989)
Personally, I think this a straight lift from the Don song, adapted to the situation where a house-servant (Govinda)comes to Bombay to pursue his ambition of becoming a movie star...and succeeds.

Bom bom bom bom..Bombay meri hai (Rakhwala 1989)
This song had a bus load of kids creating havoc in public places under the patronage of the self styled Bhai character character played by Anil Kapoor.
“jamm ke bajao band-baaja, main toh yaaro Bombay ka raja”

Bombay Bombay (Krodh 1990)
The only noteworthy aspect of this song is its reference to the fast paced city, picturised on Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt.

Tumse jo dekhte hi pyaar hua (Patthar ke Phool 1991)
With Salman Khan and Raveena Tandon cavorting all around, this is one of the quirkiest songs on the city. Its lyrics largely comprise of names of the city's streets/ roads, rendered by SP Balasubramaniam. Sample this:

Tum intey din thi kahan...main dhoondhta hi raha...(Kahan?) Kabhi Linking Road kabhi Warden Road kabhi Cadell Road kabhi Arthur Road.

“Ganpat chal daaru laa” (Shootout at Lokhandwala- 2007, Mika) is an aberration in this time line narrative. But vital as a reconstruction of the city's history.Attempting to be the authentic Gangsta Rap of Hindi cinema, this song uses the metaphor of Bombay being the World and Gangsters the Kings of the World.\
“In the Mumbai, All over India we are the Bhais”, is simply bombastic, in keep with the gangster characters of the movie and is about an era (late eighties early nineties) of the city’s recent history when the underworld had captured the imagination of the city dweller through sheer intimidation.

These songs are representative of the the long period between the early eighties and early nineties which was akin to creative Dark Ages. The cinema of this era true to its role as a mirror of society's taste, remained largely nondescript with the occasional flutter, very much like the growth of the city. Notably, there was much representation on the individual's ability to impact society. Gangsters like Maya Dolas courted headlines regularly. In the entertainment business, this era heralded the arrival of actors without industry godfathers (Shahrukh Khan, Akshay Kumar etc) while the Construction industry saw the rise of individuals like Hafeez Contractor. True life examples of "I believe I can".

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I am MumBHAI (Bombay Boyz 1998)
Aaneka Jaaneka; naachneka gaaneka
nahaneka dhoneka; hasneka roneka
bohm nahi maarneka; bhai se poochneka
Kasa-kai bara-aahe I am Mumbhai

This Gangsta rap with Bombaiyya street lingo saw Javed Jaffri resurrect his mimicry acts of “Abdul Cutpiece”, “Future Furtado” , “Kamala” etc from his VJ-ing days at Channel V. Nothing matches this song for its sheer bravado. Many of its dialogues became cult “one liners” in college campuses at the time.

Abe aasmani kabootar balcony se nikal kar ishtoll mein aa ishtoll mein Khopche mein leke deun kya kharcha pani ?

Yeh Shaher (Shanti Shanti) (Raaz 2002, Bali Bharmbhatt, Jolly Mukerjee; Lyrics: Sameer)
Yeh Shaher hai Aman ka
Yahaan ki Fiza-en nirali
Yahaan pe sab Shaanti Shaanti hai
This is another song whose visuals are lost on me. But it seems to be a Bombay Song.

The Nineties saw the period of civic disharmony, terrorism, the rise of the underworld, the reconcilliations between fractured communities. There was a pressing need for the city to heal itself and move on.The city's Diversity, heterogeneity and multi-culturalism came to aid.The whole process took about 15 years, with undercurrents still visible.

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“Boom-bai nagariya”- the crownstone song from the movie Taxi No 9211 (2006, Bhappi Lahiri, lyrics-Vishal Dadlani), is one of the latest entrants with an ode to the City of Dreams.
The opening lines aptly reflect the city’s obsession and impatience on matters of Time.
"yeh bombay hai yaha time ka matlab hai paisa samjhe? mujhe tees minute ki journey teen minute mein puri karni hai"
The epithets of City of Gold and City of Dreams make their comeback.

laakh laakh roz aake bas jaate hain
iss sheher is dil laga ke phas jaate hain
sone ki raahon mein so-ney ko jaaga nahi
shola hai ya hai bijuriya dil ki bajariya boom-bai nagariya

A representative of the Mumbai attitude c.2000, which has seen the city at the forefront of fast paced growth at the individual and collective levels and yet another migrant influx.

Wonder if all this is remarkable enough to be regarded as “urban poetry “ - these vignettes of popular media.

Looking forward to discover more.