Monsoon in Bollywood: Wet and Watch -The Torrent of Rain Songs

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It’s wet – in almost all cases. And yet it’s hot – at the charts. It’s the rain song.

It is never only the farmers and the meteorological pundits that crave for rain—our filmmakers, choreographers, lyricists, composers and even actors would face a creative drought if there was a paucity of rain in our films. Mumbai, the citadel of the Hindi film industry, has a four-month long annual fling with rain – a key reason, perhaps, why showbiz has allowed rain to reign (!) in Hindi cinema.

Here is where we literally see a torrent of melody and words, with of course the entire paraphernalia of studio rains and lightning, wet, clinging sarees, heaving breaths and bosoms and macho men drenched to their six-packs—or whatever.

Rain has been used in more cases than not to denote, connote or symbolize passion, sexual attraction and erotica in Hindi films, one of the many skillfully-developed bypasses our ingenious writers and directors used to circumvent strict norms of censorship in times when even a kiss was taboo.

This ‘cloud’ of official moral mores thus had the dazzling silver lining of giving us classic lyrics, music and even visuals. And the question remains: Would we have got so much musical treasure if our censors had been liberal?

Over the years, even rain songs have lent themselves to classification though! We have songs wherein the heroine and hero are drenched in studio rain so as to leave pretty little to one’s voyeuristic imagination, like a ‘wet and watch’ Haaye haaye yeh majboori from Roti Kapada Aur Makaan (1974), an innocent rain song like Ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi /1958) or songs where only the lyrics have a link to rains, like Sawan ka mahina (Milan / 1967) and Rimjhim gire sawan (Manzil / 1979).

Manoj Kumar’s long affair with wet heroines

Manoj Kumar, a past master at getting heroines soaked, began pretty innocently with the philosophical Santosh Anand song, Pani re pani tera rang kaisa in Shor (1972), but apart from exposing Zeenat Aman in Roti Kapada Aur Makaan, Hema Malini and he rolled over each other amidships in Zindagi ki na toote ladi in Kranti! Even when he was not on screen, he made his son, Kunal Goswami and Manisha Koirala go into hydraulic mode in Pani ho pani in his last directorial, Jai Hind—The Pride (1999).

Yash Chopra and Rain

The late Yash Chopra too loved rain, but for him it was not always about erotica. In Chandni, he used it almost as a metaphor, for the pain of permanent parting with his ex-love Juhi Chawla in the classic, Lagi aaj saawan ki phir woh jhadi hai. In the same film, Rishi Kapoor and Sridevi cavorted to Parbat se kaali ghata takrayee. In Lamhe, Megha re megha had rains only in his lyrics, while in Dil To Pagal Hai, Shah Rukh Khan is smitten by Madhuri Dixit when he watches her dance with kids in Chak dhoom dhoom. Kajol fantasized about a perfect soul-mate in Mere khwabon mein jo aaye (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge). Not to forget Dekho zara dekho barkha ki jhadi in his presentation, Yeh Dillagi.

But Chopra too went on to create one of the most erotic songs in our movies ever—Tu sawan main pyaas piya, between Ramya Krishnan and Vinod Khanna in Parampara. Lata Mangeshkar’s caressing intonations of Anand Bakshi’s lyrics made this high-voltage and uber-hot humdinger the sole saving grace of the multi-star mess the film was.

The Raj Kapoor brand of rain song

Raj Kapoor’s 1949 film was noted for probably the first noteworthy chartbusters in this genre, a fitting happenstance since Barsaat means ‘Rain’. Both Barsaat mein tumse mile hum and Barsaat mein tak dhina dhin signified the coming of the gravy train of monsoon melodies. Pyar hua ikraar hua (Shree 420) and Yeh raat beheegi bheegi (Chori Chori) were Raj’s other experiments with the weight of wet songs.

Jeetendra—and Aamir Khan!

Our Jumping Jack, Jeetendra, has had his share of rain songs too. It all began with Waris (1969), in which Hema Malini and he enacted Kabhi kabhi aisa bhi to hota hai. In his home production Humjoli, we have a voluptuous Leena Chandavarkar and him singing Haaye re haaye neend nahin aaye (Who sleeps while getting drenched in rain?), while the paradox of a rain creating a fire of passion was seen in Ab ke sawan mein jee darey / Rimjhim tan pe paani gire / Man mein lage aag si with Reena Roy in Jaise Ko Taisa. In another home production, Pyaasa Sawan, with Moushumi Chatterjee, it was Megha re megha re, a lovely semi-classical ode to rain.

And even Aamir Khan has had his own trinity—Tip tip tip tip baarish (Afsana Pyar Ka), Ankhon se toone yeh kya keh diya (Ghulam / 1998) and Jo haal dil ka (Sarfarosh / 1999).

Musical Reign of Rain

Among films whose titles directly addressed rain or ‘sawan’ (rainy season), we had the Roshan-Sahir-Rafi all-timer Zindagi bhar nahin bhoolegi woh barsaat ki raat (Barsaat Ki Raat/1960). Visually, the immortal Sawan ka mahina (Milan/1967) was not connected with the rains, but remains an evergreen.

But if rain suggested wild heartbeats, it also represented on the other hand the sheer joy of togetherness on a less physical ‘note’. Thus we also had the naughty, funny but not exactly erotic Ek ladki bheegi bhaagi si (Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi/1958), staid romantic numbers like Rimjhim ke tarane leke (Kala Bazar/1960), Rimjhim ke geet saawan gaaye (Anjaana/1969), O sajana barkha bahar aayi (Parakh), Sun sun sun barsaat ki dhun (Sir/1993) and the completely platonic Barsaat ke mausam mein (Najayaz/1995).

And Mumbai’s unpredictable rain and the similar nature of money were presented philosophically in Bambai ki barsaat ka kya hai aitbaar / Boora paise ka pyar” in Aap Beati (1976).

Tip tip barsa paani (Mohra/1994) was re-created in Sooryavanshi (2021) and the re-creation became almost equally popular. Bheegi bheegi raaton mein (Ajnabee / 1974), Badal yun garajte hain (Betaab / 1983) and Rimjhim rimjhim (1942—A Love Story) were also standout examples.

But perhaps the only known example of welcoming rain as Nature’s bounty for farmers and thus the nation was Ghanan ghanan ghir aaye (Lagaan/2001) in which a drought-struck populace welcomes the first hint of clouds.

Decline

It is perhaps when censor norms eased up a bit that the rain song began to decline as a genre! In 2007, composer Pritam and his ‘Band Metro’ perform in pouring rain in the backdrop in Life In A…Metro as the diverse characters go through varied emotions. But not many decent ‘rain’ songs have come after that song and Bhaage re man (Chameli/2004), in which a streetwalker, Kareena Kapoor Khan, celebrates Mumbai’s downpour as well as a possible romance. Yes, Barso re megha (Guru/2007) was there, and so were songs in films like Barsaat (2005), Fareb (2005) and Fanaa (2006), and a few others, but none of them make it to the classic category.

A storm of prerequisites!

Shooting rain songs also come with their own set of problems, apart from the necessities of arranging all aspects of studio rain (Rohit Shetty had once revealed that more than 20 water tankers had been needed to re-create Tip tip barsa pani in Sooryavanshi). The actors must not slip on wet terrain, and cameras need to capture close-ups and expressions amidst the showers. Waterproof make-up is another must, while fabrics too had to have colors that did not run under water or stain garments or skin. In the 2020s, it is said that the cost of shooting a rain song can go as high as three million.