Prasoon Joshi is certainly not a man of few words. The writer of the some of the most popular Bollywood lyrics<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Buzz/Filmi_lyrics_Audience_Prasoon_hui/articleshow/3747749.cms#>in the recent past, Prasoon just <javascript:openslideshownew('/slideshow/3748108.cms?imw=460','541')>
prefers to let his work do the talking. Maybe that's why this adman-cum-lyricist manages to juggle his multiple professions with ease. He might soon have more to manage, though – he could find himself behind the mike singing to AR Rahman's tunes. "It's been quite some time that Rahman has been telling me, 'Mr Joshi, we must get you to sing,' and I keep telling him, 'I'll sing for you the day you start speaking Hindi fluently!' Let's see when that happens," he laughs. Of course, Prasoon isn't new to music<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Buzz/Filmi_lyrics_Audience_Prasoon_hui/articleshow/3747749.cms#>. He's been trained in classical music by Ustad Hafeez Ahmed Khan, who wanted him to be a thumri singer. He laughs recalling how he'd find time to do his riyaaz. "Often, while driving back home on my bike, I'd be practising, and the helmet I wore helped create the acoustics. I wonder what people at the traffic signal thought when they saw me tapping away on the bike!" Prasoon, however, did not take up music as a career, since his father wanted him to be a bureaucrat. "I knew I didn't have the temperament to be one. I was more keen on being part of the people's thought process... Eventually, I ended up doing an MBA, something that made my father quite happy," he smiles. Although it was advertising that he finally settled for, he continued to pursue music and wrote poetry as well. Says he, "Right from childhood, I was fascinated by Hindi and Urdu poetry. I grew up in Rampur, which has an amazing library, and that's where I encountered some of the most beautiful Urdu poets." It was this exposure that made him publish his first book at the age of 17. "Poetry is therapeutic for me. In fact, if I wasn't writing for films<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Buzz/Filmi_lyrics_Audience_Prasoon_hui/articleshow/3747749.cms#>, I'd still be writing poetry." Ask him about Hindi film music and he says, "Well, if there's one department in which our film music is world class, it's the lyrics. In fact, right from the '50s till today, our lyricists have consistently done memorable work," he says. "But the same cannot be said for the music department that has seen both class and crass." Having bagged three Filmfare awards – for Hum Tum, Fanaa and more recently, Taare Zameen Par, Prasoon says, "I believe in natural writing. Borrow from life itself and share a part of yourself with the world." And his lyrics, especially for TZP, seem to have struck a chord with most. "I've dedicated all my songs<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Buzz/Filmi_lyrics_Audience_Prasoon_hui/articleshow/3747749.cms#>from the film to my daughter Aishaaniya. Had it not been for her, I don't think the lyrics would've turned out the way they did," he smiles, recalling how an 80-year-old man once told him that he'd cried after hearing the song Maa. "He had obviously lost his mother long ago and said the lyrics took him back to the time he was a kid. It was so touching." And now, with the film headed for the Academy Awards, do we see him in Los Angeles too? "If I have the time, I'll go. Meanwhile, from what I'm hearing, the film is garnering very positive reactions. That makes all of us associated with it feel so proud." http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/India_Buzz/Filmi_lyrics_Audience_Prasoon_hui/articleshow/3747749.cms -- regards, Vithur
