Bollywood’s music fraternity reacts to Anushka Sharma’s dialogue on Mohd. Rafi in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

By Subhash K. Jha -

November 7, 2016 - 10:44 AM IST

Bollywood’s music fraternity reacts to Anushka Sharma’s dialogue on Mohd. Rafi in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil

Just one throwaway casual line where Anushka Sharma says about the legendary singer Mohd Rafi, ‘Woh gaate kam rotey zyada ttthe’ has triggered off an outbreak of outrage among the singer’s fans, admirers and family members. Is the protest justified?

Amit Trivedi: “Fans, family and admirers are bound to feel hurt with that kind of statement. I guess it’s understandable”

Baabul Supriyo: “No, they are not over-reacting at all. It was absolutely unnecessary to throw in that line in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. Even in Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (again a Karan Johar film) there was a line where Ranbir refers to 'Ek Ladki ko dekha toh aisa laga' from 1942 a Love Story, RD Burman's iconic last film as a 'Woh Cheap Gaana', both are in bad taste and it is supposed to hurt sentiments and therefore avoidable.”

Anoop Jalota: “Rafi Saab is still living in people's hearts. This is one strong emotional connection. They have all the right to react. Dialogue writer and the maker of the film must apologize.”

Prasoon Joshi: “We should always think about the intent before reacting to not just words or sentences. Sometimes people do get carried away. Seen in isolation a sentence or a word can mean anything. I don’t think the intent in this case was to disrespect.”

Talat Aziz: “The thing is, whatever I am hearing is through social media. So I don't know exactly what is in the film. But on matter of principle if there is a line like what I hear, I think that one should not involve iconic figures like Rafi Saheb in such controversial dialogues or whatever we do in our field. Doesn't matter what context it's done with. One might have one's interpretation but others might not... There has to be a line drawn between creative licenses and using iconic personalities like Rafi Saheb to create what many would look at as disrespect.”

Manoj Muntashir: “I have not seen the movie so far. But I am sure about one thing. Karan Johar is a diehard Rafi fan himself. Also, if a character speaks a certain line in a film, it can't be taken as director’s testimony. For example, in Manoj Kumar’s Purab Aur Pachchim if Madan Puri had a dialog like 'Duniya mein India ka contribution kya jai..Sirf Zero' does that mean a patriotic like Manoj Kumar ji had endorsed this nonsense that we have made zero contribution in world history??? Of course not. That’s just a dialogue. Dialogues are written for characters and characters have their own fictitious trajectory of thoughts. We have to grow up and stop over- reacting to such stuff. I am sure if Rafi sahab was alive today, he would never have taken offence to such things.”

Alka Yagnik: “That dialogue actually gave me a jhatka too while watching the film. It should have been avoided.”