Almost every music director has plagiarised, lifted or been inspired by foreign tunes and songs and even Laxmikant Pyarelal was no exception. Even Salilda and Shankar Jaikishen have lifted tunes in their hey-days. If the fans of LP feel that he is ‘dudh ka dhula’ and has never lifted any tune, then they are sadly mistaken or are turning a blind eye to their favourite composer’s song-lifting antics. Here are a few songs that were lifted by LP
‘ Jhumma Chumma dede’ from ‘Hum’. Lifted from Mori’s ‘Yeke Yeke’. Unfortunately, even Bhappida got inspired by the same tune almost at the same time for his ‘Tamma Tamma loge’
‘Ek doosre se karte hai pyaar hum’ from ‘Hum’ again. The opening lines of this delightful tune was inspired by Mory Kante’s “Inch Allah”
‘Ek rasta aha aha’ from ‘Ram Balram’. Inspired by ‘That’s the way, I like it’ by KC and the Sunshine Band.
‘Yaar ki khabar mil gayee’ from ‘Ram Balaram’. Opening lifted from Kung-fu fighting.
‘Tere naam ke hum diwane hai’ from Judaai. Who has not heard of BoneyM’s ‘Brown girl in the ring”?
‘Saamne aa ‘from ‘Judaai’. This time LP got inspired from Abba’s ‘Voulez Vous’
‘Kisi ki haath na ayegi ye ladki, from ‘Chaalbaaz’. Inspired by Stevie Wonder’s ‘Part time lover’
‘Ek haseena thi’ from ‘Karz’. One of my absolutely favourite songs but unfortunately lifted blatantly from George Benson’s “We as love’. Thanks to LP’s repackaging, we Indian music lovers were made aware of this amazing creation.
‘Om shanti om’ from ‘Karz’ was inspired by ‘Shanti Om’ by Lord Shorty.
‘Likhe wale ne likh dale’ from ‘Arpan’ inspired by a Pakistani song.
There may be many more such songs which we are not aware of, because our talented music directors are very clever when it comes to copying.Well, this is not to run down or undermine LP’s genius but just to make his fans aware that even he had his spells of inspiration. He has a large number of amazing original creations to his credit and I acknowledge his greatness for them. Finally, there is nothing wrong in getting inspired by certain tunes or lifting some musical snatches partially