BENGALURU: Sometime in 1988, Anand Bakshi was asked by a friend when and how he had developed his skills as a copywriter. He said: “My love for movie songs began with my passion for singing and playing the banjo. Writing texts cannot be taught. Over time, you can improve this skill. However, the talent that they now call creativity must be innate. In retrospect, my development as a writer and singer began in my childhood in Pindi. Mera gaon, meri maa, meri mitti thi wo (It was my village, my mother, my soil). I loved singing movie songs and playing the banjo.
I effortlessly wrote dialogues and verses for Ram Nela, Sohni-Mahiwal, Laila-Majnu Nautankis / dramas that were regularly held in our neighborhood on festive occasions. I would sing the verses I wrote on the street in front of my house and even perform them on the stage. You wouldn’t get good roles back then if you couldn’t sing too. The dramas of Agha Kashmiri and Munshi Premchand were modern and very popular; The fables Laila-Majnu, Heer-Ranjha, Shireen-Farhad, Sohni-Mahiwal attracted hundreds. I’ve played in almost all of the roles.
Actor, director and producer Sunil Dutt was my relative of Mohyal, and we sang together and played dramas during weddings in our close community. “Suhe ve cheere waleya main kehni aan” was a very popular wedding song that I loved to sing and dance to. Performing as women was common as few Punjabi girls dared to act or sing. “We went to the Pindi market with friends to buy fresh sugar cane and crush it with our teeth without using a knife. We took pride in the fact that macho could do it. A man selling patte wali (sheet) ice cream arrived on our street every day, rang a bell to announce his arrival, and wore a taraazu to measure his weight.
Camels walked through town on market days and it was a fascinating sight for us children. We would follow them until we reached a mohalla we were not familiar with. The game of dice was called charter and it was our favorite pastime and before we got home. We bathed in a friend’s field on the outskirts of Pindi with water drawn from a well with oxen. Stealing fruit from strange trees was our favorite pastime and Chori Ke (stolen) fruit always tasted best. “In today’s cities, we don’t know the names of our immediate neighbors.
When I was a kid, we knew all of our Mohalla. And everyone knew us. Papaji and Bauji would hit me with a stick if someone told them they had seen me or performed a piece. Bauji’s blows with his walking stick were so severe that I shudder when I remember them today. They became even stricter with me after Maaji died because they feared that a motherless child would very easily become unpredictable. They called me Kanjar – it’s the name of a nomad tribe, but it was sometimes used as a derogatory word for film and theater artists back then.
Films and theater were severely discouraged in our household, although we had a gramophone and Papaji liked to listen to devotional and saigal’s songs. We Mohyals should be part of the armed forces, banking; We should be professionals. Naukri Pesha. Running a business was also not taken into account. “Humare khoon mein nahi hai (It is not in our blood).” “I loved MUSIC! Musically recited Ramayana and Gita, the Guru Granth Sahib Paths and the melodic Azan could be heard all day in our neighborhood. (Excerpt from Nagme, Kisse, Baatein, Yaadein by Rakesh Anand Bakshi, with permission from Penguin Random House)