Despite vociferous objections, they meet and ultimately, elope. The film follows Raj and Rashmi (Juhi Chawla) whose budding romance is anathema to their warring families. Bollywood has always mined the Romeo-Juliet tragedy ( Kamal Haasan and Rati Agnihotri’s blockbuster Ek Duuje Ke Liye, to cite just one example from the 1980s), but Mansoor Khan’s QSQT was hugely successful in reinventing the genre at a time when action was de rigueur. Those who have seen the film will know its doomed ending. In Raj’s (Aamir Khan) case, the lyrics are prescient. Explaining the song’s appeal to its global readers, Time magazine wrote, “The lyrics, the look and the attitude captured both the aplomb and anxiety of youth, and the fun-loving, fresh-faced actor who embodied those qualities became an instant favourite of millions.” Can you spot her? She’s that shy wallflower sitting next to one of the swooning girls. Khan’s ex-wife Reena Dutta makes a brief appearance. A college anthem, “Papa kehte hain” plays at the campus farewell as students-of-the-year bid adieu to their charmed academic life and fan out into the world that may or may not be waiting to embrace them. What’s more, the title of one Mahesh Bhatt film was also inspired by the song (which some of you might say isn’t a big deal because nearly every Mahesh Bhatt film was inspired). Karan Johar choose to introduce a bare-chested Varun Dhawan with this song in Student of the Year in 2012. Twice, Khan himself has used it for comic effect, most famously in Andaz Apna Apna. If one measure of a hit song is how widely it has been parodied, then “Papa kehte hain” is a legit winner. With melodious music by composers Anand-Milind, the QSQT songs had enthralled listeners of their time, and even today, they have a life of their own. There was no way Sultanpuri would’ve turned down this ambitious family project. Moreover, he shared a great working relationship with Khan’s uncle Nasir Hussain (starting with Tumsa Nahin Dekha) whose son Mansoor Khan was making his directorial debut with QSQT. How could a man who wrote for Dev Anand and Guru Dutt in the 1950s catch a whiff of the changing wind of the ’90s? With the QSQT album, Sultanpuri proved his mettle as a lyricist of extraordinary flexibility and versatility. It’s hard to believe that the youthful lyrics are penned by the great Majrooh Sultanpuri. Unless you are suffering from Ghajini-style amnesia, you might know that the 1980s was not a very exciting decade, but QSQT and “Papa kehte hain” managed to capture the zeitgeist. Some will become engineer and business tycoons, how will the game turn out for Raj (Khan’s lover-boy character)? Well, you could argue on screen at least, in the decades that followed he has fulfilled both those impossible dreams by playing an eccentric engineer in 3 Idiots and business magnate in Dil Chahta Hai and Ghajini. As he himself expressed some anxiety (vocals: Udit Narayan), “Papa kehte hain bada naam karega, beta hamara aisa kaam karega/Magar yeh toh koi na jaane, ki meri manzil hai kahan.” Strumming guitar (a done thing, back in the 1980/’90s), our protagonist is worried about his future.
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