Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Heeramandi to feature recreation of iconic songs

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s much-anticipated web series Heeramandi features recreations of iconic old melodies including a song from Pakeezah movie.

The music album of Heeramandi includes Phool Gendwa Na Maaro which is a recreation of a song from Dooj Ka Chand movie released in 1964, Pinkvilla reported.

Manna Dey sang the original titled Phool Gendva Na Maro. Bhansali turned the track into a ghazal version for his film only.

While Manna Dey’s song credited Sahir Ludhianvi as the lyricist of this song, Bhansali’s recreation has called it inspired by traditional lyrics.

Another song of Heeramandi titled Nazariya Ki Maari is a revamped version of a track with the same title from 1972’s hit movie Pakeezah.

The movie starred Meena Kumari in the lead and the song was sung by Rajkumari. Bhansali called it a traditional inspiration which was sung by Madhubanti Bagchi.

A melody written by Sufi singer Amir Khusrau was also included in the web series. The song titled Sakal Ban was the first song of Heeramandi.

It is pertinent to mention that Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s hotly-anticipated digital debut ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’, explores the ‘stories of courtesans’ living in the red light district of Lahore, during the pre-independent India.

Speaking about the show, he teased in a recent press conference that despite the digital shift, a cinematic masterpiece awaits the audience in each episode of the series, as he has surprised himself with this one.

“I’ve made big films, I enjoy making those big-scale films, and it comes naturally to me,” the veteran said. “But while shifting to digital with Netflix, I’ve taken it up a notch,” Bhansali said.

The web series starring Manisha Koirala, Sonakshi Sinha, Aditi Rao Hydari, Richa Chadha, Sanjeeda Sheikh and Sharmin Segal in the main roles, along with Farida Jalal, Fardeen Khan, Shekhar and Adhyayan Suman, and Taha Shah, is scheduled to premiere on the streaming giant Netflix on May 1.