The Score Magazine July 2019 issue | Page 31

KADAMBARI SRIVASTAVA Nostalgic Notes : When ‘Hum Tum’ went the ‘Fanaa’ way Kunal Kohli may have started off with the starry debacle of Mujhse Dosti Karoge, but he eventually went on to win hearts with his stroke of brilliance at directing two brilliant Yash Raj romances; Hum Tum and Fanaa. Starring Rani Mukerji and Saif Ali Khan in the lead roles, Hum Tum reintroduced a charming Saif Ali Khan as the imperfect, boyish hero – a fresh respite from his earlier roles of a sidekick or supporting actor. That was the time when YRF was at its peak of churning out love sagas. Surely enough, two years after Hum Tum, the breezy unofficial remake of Hollywood’s sweetheart When Harry Met Sally, Yash Raj gave us Fanaa, which too was directed by Kunal Kohli, and was based unofficially on Hollywood movie Eye of the Needle, based on the novel of the same name, by Ken Follet. However, them being unofficial yet amazing adaptations directed by Kunal Kohli were not the only factors which bound Hum Tum and Fanaa. There is an interesting musical anecdote here as well, which connects these beautiful romances. The music of Hum Tum and Fanaa both was composed by Jatin-Lalit, the duo who were behind the superhit romantic albums of almost every Yash Raj movie. Interestingly, Fanaa was their last movie together. Fanaa was beautiful in many ways; the debut of Aamir Khan and Kajol’s beautiful chemistry, a tragic love arc, and Prasoon Joshi’s lyrical phrases binding all of it, with Jatin-Lalit’s music. Its theme still echoes into our hearts whenever we hear the movie’s name. The theme of Fanaa was used as a whistle in Aamir’s introductory song and later on as a full-fledged number Chanda Chamke. But wait. If you are a hardcore fan of Jatin- Lalit’s albums it would sound familiar; and the connection would take you straight to the album of Hum Tum. Yes, back in the days when cassettes existed and digital media was zilch and nada, we all craved for some crazy connections and felt amazing at having discovered something new. And that was the feeling which persisted when many pointed that the song Yaara Yaara in the Hum Tum album, which did not make it to the movie’s final cut, was the tune used to bind Fanaa. The original version was sung by Alka Yagnik and Udit Narayan, and seems like it wasn’t even filmed, for we never got to see a deleted video of it. Nevertheless, we found our newfound love of the tune two years later in Fanaa and loved it. While many fans noticed it at that time itself, it was only on the tenth anniversary of Fanaa, that director Kunal Kohli chose to divulge the same officially. As he shared a lot of interesting trivia from the sets, he also stated that since they were not able to use Yaara Yaara, they thought of using the tune as a theme for Fanaa. Guess that worked out perfectly. The fans were not deluded, after all. We bet you’ll be going back to both the albums now. The Score Magazine highonscore.com 29