Plagiarism seems to be the new nepotism. It has suddenly become a hot topic. From one country blaming another to creators calling out each other. Recently, there were reports circulating that Indian singer Dhvani Bhanushali with her latest track ‘Mehendi’ has heavily copied the classic Pakistani song ‘Maine Tumhari Gagar Se’ by one of the pioneers of pop music in Pakistan, Alamgir. A remake by Umair Jaswal was also released last year for VELO Sound Station. The issue began when none of the Pakistani artists were given credits in the song and Umair Jaswal even called them out for it on his social media. He tagged all the creatives behind the song, including Alamgir.
Several media platforms began reporting about it. Galaxy Lollywood confirmed the news from our sources in the industry and were told that it is a copy. However, turns out it’s far from being true and people are trampling over each other to get undue credit.
Blame Game
It was then thought that the original was actually Indian legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar’s song ‘Mehndi Te Vavi Malve’ from the movie ‘Mehndi Rang Lagyo’ released in the year 1960. Some people were able to spot the error and stated that Alamgir was the one to copy the Indian musician’s song.
Even this is technically incorrect because there’s more to the story.
Plot Twist
However, our curious minds were hell-bent on digging up the whole truth. After Galaxy Lollywood’s immense research, we got to know that nobody has copied anyone. This is a traditional folk song ‘Mehndi te Vavi Malve’ from Gujarati, which doesn’t need to be credited. Folk songs are adapted on a frequent basis and are not credited since they are part of the culture. For example ‘Rind Posh Maal’ from the movie ‘Mission Kashmir’ is also a Kashmiri folk song ‘Bhoomro’, hence they have not given credits to anyone.
Lata Mangeshkar adapted a traditional Gujarati song, similarly, Alamgir also used the same folk song and he didn’t have to give credits to anyone, but only had to mention that it’s a folk song. According to some people on social media, Alamgir must have been aware of it being a folk song since the composer of the song was a Gujarati as well. However, this has not been officially confirmed.
Whereas, Umair Jaswal gave a tribute to Alamgir’s song hence he gave him credits. Dhvani Bhanushali does not need to give anyone credits because she has also used a folk song.
We reached out to a source from Gujarat to confirm that this song has had several renditions over the years, as it is part of their culture. It is technically copied by none of the artists, and it’s important for people to realise that it’s not as simple as calling out plagiarism.
