/> The versatile Javed Akhtar is never short of surprises.

He now shocks by saying that the seemingly modern lyrics for his son's directorial debut Dil Chahta Hai were really not the modern.

"The language in Dil Chahta Hai was that of traditional lyrics....zamana, dewaana....In Rock On where Farhan makes his debut as an actor I've moved completely away from the traditional lyrics completely.

Bollywood's most prolific wordsmith Javed Saab who has just written the lyrics for the rock album.

"When they came to me to write lyrics for my son Farhan in Rock On I wasn't really sure I could pull it off. I had never done a rock album before and I'm not familiar wth the genre. In India rock music is a very shallow and superficial genre.

They dress and style themselves like American rockers but the words and lyrics are archaic and obsolete. The words in an average Indi-Rock number revert to trite filmy clichés like balma, baliye and mahiya.

In Rock On I wanted to create a new idiom which I don't think I had been able to do in my son's Dil Chahta Hai in spite of its modern context and characters. There I was still falling back on traditional thoughts and rhymes.

In Rock On I've experimented with words and thoughts. For example songs about dreamers have been done to death. I've used the parallel of Sinbad The Sailor to bring out the theme of derring-do.

Then I was asked to write a song about an individual's losses in a week. Writing about a laundary bill, denim jacket, chandi ka ring...you can't use 'angoothee' for 'ring'....This is the lingo of rock. Let's hope how it works."

Ask the ever-forthright Javed Saab to comment on the quality of his son's acting and singing performance, and Javed Saab is equivocal. "I can't separate the father from the critic. But yes Farhan has acted very well. As for his singing, I leave that to the audience to decide."