Films no longer have songs which are part of story: Amit Khanna

Filmmaker-lyricist-writer Amit Khanna, whose lyrics in songs like “Chalte chalte mere ye geet” and “Uthe sabke kadam” continue to tug at music lovers’ heartstrings even over three decades since they were first heard, says nowadays Hindi movies lack songs which are part of the story.
Khanna, a media expert, was in conversation with Akshay Munwani at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival here, Sunday. He discussed his poetry, songs, films and more, apart from mulling over the state of songs in present-day Hindi cinema.
“The difference today with the song writing is that films are created and marke-ted in such that every song has become an item song. Yes, there are some excep-tions, but the other people who write songs they neit-her know English, nor Hindi or Urdu.”Having said that, there are some good writers like Prasoon Joshi and Irshad Kamil,” Khanna said during the conversation.
“The talent is there… there is some real good talent. It’s just that most of the films don’t have songs which are part of the story, so you just cut away and come back and to the narrative. That’s not a conducive way of writing,” added the media expert, who is a former chairman of the Anil Ambani-led Relia-nce Entertainment Limited.
Apart from writing songs, Khanna has also penned dialogues of movies, including Mahesh Bhatt’s landmark film “Saaransh”. A small clipping of the film was also played during the session here.(IANS)