/> Do me a favour let's NOT play holi. Holi songs and film revolving around the festival are as passé as Mala Sinha's falsies and Sadhana's fringe cut.

There was a time when Holi provided not only an occasion for outstanding song situations but also a pretext for great drama.In the early 1970s Mala Sinha got pregnant in Holi Aaee Re while playing Holi. By the 1980s Holi was a time of stress and hooliganism.

Both in and out of the movies.In Rajkumar Santoshi's Damini the maid of the house gets raped by the employer's drunken son on Holi.

Ouch.

Move forward to the new millennium and we see the Holi song growing almost defunct.In Vipul Shah's Waqt in 2005 the lead pair Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar played Holi while she was pregnant.The pair got the yelling of their lives from papa Amitabh Bachchan.

The Big B in his own time not only participated in some spectacular Holi songs in films, he also sang one of the most enduring Holi songs—and one of the last really remarkabe Holi songs. Rang barse in Silsila was a number that the Big B had picked up from his father.

Said the Big B, "That's a legacy of my father. I came to know of this song through him. I used to sing Rang barse and Mere angnein mein at all the Holi get-togethers in our house. That's where Yashji and Prakashji heard these songs, got them into Silsila and Lawaaris and asked me to sing them. So I'm in no way instrumental in getting these songs into the movies."

Is it any wonder then that Yash Chopra insisted that the Big B sing the song in Silsila himself?Some years later the Big B again sang another enduring Holi song Holi khele raghuveera awadh mein in the film Baghban, a folk song from Uttar Pradesh that composer Aadesh Shrivastava had heard both the Big B and his father Harivanshrai Bachchan sing on Holi occasions.

Says Aadesh, "I had heard Amitji and his father sing this traditional Holi song.So when the situation for a Holi number arose in Baghban I immediately suggested we do a new version of Holi khele raghuveera and I insisted that Amitji sing it."

Aadesh feels that the traditional Holi number has lost its relevance and resonance in present times. "I heard a very odd Holi song in a film a few years ago with some strange lyrics in English. I feel today's generation lacks a connectivity with our culture and roots. They don't know what the Holi signifies.

This inability to understand what our culture is all about is reflected in our cinema.Holi songs are as irrelevant today as Holi itself. If you see, the number of Holi celebrations in the film industry have gone down drastically.

Where are all the grand Holi celebrations in those film empires hosted by the Movie Moghuls? The whole concept of Holi has been subverted. When we decided to do a Holi song in Baghban we wanted to make it acceptable to the younger audiences.

So I changed the traditional number to a 'rave' composition. I worked, But I don't see myself composing another Holi number in the near future.There are no takers."

Vipul Shah wanted a really young peppy Holi number in Waqt. He got Anu Malik to composer Do me a favour let's play holi.

Explains Vipul, "It was the only way I could get the younger audiences interested in a Holi song.We can't have Holi aaee re kanhayee in today's day and age.

Holi songs have a curiously long and chequered history in Hindi cinema. Says Sanjay Leela Bhansali, "I loved the sounds of those Holi songs. I loved Holi aae re kanhaiayee from Mother India and Mohe panghat pe nandlal in Mughal-e-Azam.

When I made Devdas I so badly wanted to include a Holi song. But I couldn't. But if you see I've used the colours of Holi and the abeer and gulaal motifs throughout."

Holi used to be a wonderful triggering point for movies in the past. Rajinder Singh Bedi's Phagun in 1973 centred on the theme of Holi. In the film Waheeda Rehman's husband played by Dharmendra leaves forever after a conflict of interest during Holi.

In Kati Patang and Sholay directors Shakti Samanta and Ramesh Sippy made fabulous use of the colours of Holi to create a contrast between the spotless white of the widow and the rainbowy colours of Holi.

Says filmmaker Rohit Jugraj. "The colours of Holi lend themselves to great drama in our cinema.I remember being fascinated by Ketan Mehta's Holi thinking it was a take on the festival.Later I discovered Ketan making use of the splashy colours of Holi in Mirch Masala. In one way or another our cinema is indebted to the festival of Holi."

5 Favourite Holi Songs

Holi aae re kanhai: Mother India
Holi ki din dil khil jaate hain: Sholay
Rang barse: Silsila
Aaj na chodenge bas humjoli: Kati Patang
Holi khele raghuveera awadh mein: Baghban