Every time you listen to the ‘80s peppy dancing number “Hawa Hawai”, it’s impossible to not giggle or have a laugh at the gibberish lyrics at the beginning of the Mr India track. If visually, Sridevi’s expressions and dance moves made the song an instant classic, playback singer Kavita Krishnamurthi’s lively rendition add to the amusement. Now decades later, in an interaction, the singer reveals what went into composing and writing the song that involved lots of giggles and laughter.
In an interview with The Lallantop, Kavita was asked about the lyrics of the song written by Javed Akhtar, especially the ones in the beginning of the song. Practicing singing the gibberish words, the singer joked, made her mother feel she has gone “mad”.
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“It was my first major hit. This was the first naughty song, what you would call an item type of a track. This was my life’s first shararati song, later I became an expert in it with songs like ‘Tu cheez badi hai mast’, ‘Mera piya ghar aaya’. A day before singing the track, there was a rehearsal, so I came home and was reading, ‘Pak chiki, laki chiki, chiki laki choom’ so my mother thought I had gone mad. Because I was just continuously saying, ‘rapchiki laki chiki laki chiki.’ This was Javed saab’s (Akhtar) intellectual mamla.
“He would joke and say, ‘Dekho kitne deep words hai, ping pong, King Kong!’ Then when the musicians came. they told Laxmi ji that if there is lassi-pissi in the song, it can also be assi-tussi! So we wrote it down. Later when Javed saab came, he said the best word to end this piece is ‘Mombasa’, a word that came in his dreams,” she said.
During the interview, Kavita Krishnamurthi said the Laxmikant-Pyarelal song was performed by 100 musician and 40 chorus singers, all of whom were being readied by Pyarelal while others were in the music room focusing on getting the gibberish lyrics right. “Then we finally sang the song! It was absolutely crazy.”
The singer also revealed how when she would begin the song with a loud screechy voice, musicians would laugh. Since she was also quite young, Kavita said she would giggle as well.
“So the rehearsal was stopped 2-3 times, after which Pyare bhai said, ‘What are you guys doing? Producers’ money is being wasted. Please don’t joke around, be serious.’ I got so scared after that I started singing it during rehersal like it was a serious song! Finally when I left the hall and went to the singers’ cabin all alone, I realised the song won’t work this way. But Hawa Hawai is extraordinary writing. ‘Main khwabon ki shahzadi, main hoon har dil pe chhayi’. Kya kikha hai unhone!” she added.
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