There are various such professions of love. 'I love you Sayyoni,' like Himesh Reshammiya sang, is one of the most used, direct, no-frills opening lines. If the hero realises that he has not made much headway, he normally sings, 'Love will find a way, Jaaniye.'
Of course it will. And so will Indian-English.
The popularity of rock music and item numbers in discos put the Hindi film song-writer in a bit of a fix. The locale had changed from the municipal park in the corner of town to the hitherto unimaginable undulating landscape of Europe with the Alps, tulips and the slow-moving tram as backdrop. There is no point taking the lead pair all the way to the shadow of the Alps and making him confess his 'mohabbat' to his heroine. The back-up team was also full of foreign dancers and they did not know how to act coy and then glance at the hero fleetingly, with the sari covering the head.
The lyricist had to come up with some lingo that would win the heart of a paan-chewing front-bencher to the post-millennium multi-tasking Indian babe who loves to flaunt her bra strap, uses Bluetooth and pouts a pierced lip.
Image: Shah Rukh Khan woos Preity Zinta with the zany, Indianised version of Pretty Woman in Karan Johar's superhit flick, Kal Ho Naa Ho.
Also read: Think you know India?
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