‘Chalte Chalte’ 20th Anniversary: Lalit Pandit Recalls MEMORABLE Song Journey With Shah Rukh Khan And Javed Akhtar!
The songs from the movie ‘Chalte Chalte’, which came out 20 years ago, is still known. Lalit Pandit, one-half of the famous composing team Jatin-Lalit, says that the success of the music in the movie is due to its star, Shah Rukh Khan. Lalit thinks that Shah Rukh Khan is a legend whose pictures will always be remembered for the music in them. He feels lucky to have worked with great artists like Shah Rukh, Juhi Chawla, and Rani Mukerji, which led to some of their best work.
‘Chalte Chalte’ was the fourth time that Lalit Pandit, Jatin Pandit, and Aziz Mirza worked together. It was made by Juhi and Shah Rukh and was directed by Aziz Mirza. The three had worked together before on three films with great music: ‘Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman’, ‘Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani’, and ‘Yes Boss’. People had come to expect great songs from this group because of how well they had done in the past.
But it wasn't easy to make music for an SRK movie. When Shah Rukh was in the movie, Lalit and Jatin knew it was their job to make a great and memorable score. One of the reasons they chose to take on fewer projects was because they needed a lot of time to work on SRK films. They would spend at least three to four months on a single film to make sure the music was up to the high standards of Shah Rukh's films.
Lalit is happy that people still love the music from ‘Chalte Chalte’ after all these years. He has happy memories of the lively and fun music sessions that Shah Rukh and Juhi often came to in their studio. Having Javed Akhtar as the poet made it more fun, and his sense of humour and presence made the mood lighter. But Lalit says that even though there were fun times, the attention was always on the work and keeping its quality.
Lalit remembers an interesting thing that happened with the song ‘Tauba Tumhare Yeh Ishare’. He, Jatin, and Javed Akhtar came up with the first word for the song on the way to an awards show. After thinking about different choices, Javed saab sang ‘Tauba’ on the spot, and everyone thought it was perfect. Javed Akhtar used that one word as a starting point and went on to write the rest of the song. The song ‘Tauba Tumhare Yeh Ishare’ became a huge hit and the film's best song.
Lalit talks about how much he loves the sad theme song when he talks about it. He likes Abhijeet Bhattacharya's performance and how well the song is pictured. The song was very important to the emotional ending of the movie, and it was hard to find the right mix of speed and intensity. Lalit thinks the music was great, but Javed Akhtar's words are what really made it come to life.
Also in ‘Chalte Chalte’ was the song ‘Lai Vi Na Gayi’, which was written by Lalit and Jatin's brother-in-law, Aadesh Shrivastava. Lalit likes the song's unique touch, which gives the whole record a different colour. As the 20th anniversary of 'Chalte Chalte' comes up, Lalit thanks the audience for liking the music in the movie. He thinks about all the hard work that went into making such memorable songs, and he's proud of how they've stuck with people.
