Tuesday 10 May 2011

Make May Musical #4 - Laung da Lashkara from Patiala House

I've chosen this one because it's a fun, catchy song that holds great memories for me.

I'm just in this for the music, I haven't seen this film, and I had to check various websites about the film, and what the lyrics mean.


The film, which came out this year, is about a second generation Punjabi family living in Southall (although I'm not sure Southall looks anything like this film). Patiala House is the name that they give their home. You wouldn't tell from this song, but actually the film deals with culture clash and racism.

The song has him singing about how beautiful she is, and she is singing that he is saying everything under the influence of his family, and he is never like this when they are alone.

Although I have to state for the record, that English lyrics in Indian songs really bug me. I personally think that, especially in this song, it is unnecessary. So if you want to skip to 16 seconds ahead into the song, then you are free to do so. If you do not, then the woman at the start is saying "something special to all the brothers and sisters-in-law" - it's a shout out to all the extended families! How Asian!
Another slightly annoying thing are the flashing words across the screen.

So why does this song hold memories for me? No it does not remind me of any love stories of mine (I'm lacking in those).
In fact, it reminds me of my recent trip to India earlier this year, where I learned that maybe some Indians do just burst into dance. There was a kite festival, second biggest festival to Diwali in some places, where my family and I were flying kites on the rooftop during the day. Everyone else in the town was doing the same - there were literally thousands of kites up in the air, it was warm, the sun was shining in the clear blue sky and it was such a beautiful sight. They do it for fun, and they have kite fights in the sky where you have to try and cut down another person's kite. Some people write messages on theirs for whoever will find their kite on the ground.
After we had dinner, we all went back to the rooftop, played loud music and started dancing into night. This was one of the songs. 

2 comments:

Saumya said...

Hey Naina! I found your blog from Talli's and am so glad I did. I LOVE all of your May Musical picks and just re-watched Devdas last weekend. I'm also working on a novel that touches on arranged marriages, although yours sounds a lot funnier and more interesting, haha :) Good luck with the book!!

Naina Gupta said...

Thanks Saumya and welcome to my blog! It's nice to meet you. I've followed you back.

I've tried hard to pick all of the great songs that I love. I am trying to get the links from the official youtube pages, but there are so many songs that are missing. I love the soundtrack of Saawariya - the songs are beautiful, and there's a couple of songs from Jab We Met that are fun to listen to. Maybe during this month they will upload it on to their pages - fingers crossed.
I haven't watched Devdas in a while, but I suddenly have an urge to watch Fanaa after writing a post about it.
Dola re Dole will obviously be a post at some point as well.

My book has been a slow work in progress, but I hope to finish it soon. It's been a long journey, but once it's done I will be so relieved.