Bam Bam Bole

I thought it was just another song to increase the number of songs on the album, when I listened to the song a few months earlier. I had not seen the video of the song. And when I did, I thought it was a song that was put there to attract the children who were getting mad seeing Aamir Khan in his new avatar of a Joker-teacher.

But then I saw the movie. And I was proved dead wrong. And a bad critic, simultaneously.

If you don't yet think Bam-Bam-Bole is a simply great song, read on.

We have a number of songs in the film Industry every year. A number, that I really do not know. But I know that half of them are crap. Or actually a lot more. Many of the songs, or most, actually, are love songs. We listen to hundreds of romantic songs every year, and a bigger number of sad songs. And we love them. What we generally lack in our songs is inspiration.

Still, for a few years, we have been getting better movies, and better music, with slightly better quality of lyrics too, though it falls down badly many times. (Examples may include mom-maani-nahi-dad-naaraz-tha from Jaanemann and the undoubted Dard-e-disco from Om Shanti Om) And so are coming a few good inspirational songs too, like Lakshya to har haal mein paana hai from Lakshya, Aashayen from Iqbal, and Kuchh Kariye from Chak de India. (although we have seen the Indian Hockey team getting disqualified for the Olympics today, no words for that) But the number of such songs stays in single digits strictly.

Now, talking of Bam-Bam-Bole, it's not just an inspirational song. It's much more. Today, where all the inspirational numbers I talk about either talk about do something, never telling what to do, (though it's not bad being general, it leaves a lot of scope), or are too specific to situations that hardly arise at a general level. But Bam-Bam-Bole not only inspires you to achieve something, it specifically tells us that we should dream and imagine, which, I think, is one of the major areas we lack. We, in India, are hard working to the limit that people sitting in far West need to worry about their jobs, still we are behind them. We are followers and not the leaders most of the time because of the lack of imagination and dreams.

But I consider Bam-Bam-Bole great not just because it preaches all the right things. It's great because it reaches all those children who need to understand the power of imagination. On one hand, the songs inspires children saying,

khul ke sochen aao
pankh zara failao
rang naye bikharao,

on the other hand it questions our education system and shows us the defects:

o rat rat ke kyoon tanker full...
tanker full tanker full...
aankhen band to dabba gul...
dabba gul dabba gul...

I hope you agree by now that Bam-Bam-Bole is a great song. In any case, I would like to appreciate Prasoon Joshi for the great lyrics, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy and Aamir Khan for bringing such a thing to us that is reaching its audiences well.

PS: I'm not getting any compensations from Aamir Khan or his associates for writing this. And if still some of thinks so, you have freedom to think anything you like.