Neeraj Shridhar’s songs re-created
Neeraj Shridhar seems to be back suddenly! Albeit in re-creations! Not only has he sung the sole lingering track of Bhool Chuk Maaf—the re-created ‘Chor bazaari’ from Love Aaj Kal (2007), composed by Pritam, but he is also the main singer of the re-created ‘Papa to band bajaaye’ in the new Housefull 5, composed by Sajid-Wajid. Neeraj is one talented singer who came in like a typhoon in the early millennium and kind of faded out soon. It’s great that a talent is back and will hopefully get new work because of these songs. Because there are so many like him, from that era, before or after that, who are barely heard today, if at all.
Trivia Tunes: When a classical legend took a dig at Mukesh’s talent
Promise versus work!
Among such multiple talents, who are no longer heard, or get work once in a blue moon and not necessarily solo songs, are names like Akriti Kakar, Monali Thakur, Ronkini Gupta, Amrita Kak, Shail Hada and even veterans Kunal Ganjawala and Jaspinder Narula. We do not understand why such talents have been sidelined.
Promise versus work again!
The same holds true for accomplished lyricists like Sandeep Nath, Amitabh Varma, Subrat Sinha, Sayeed Quadri, A.M. Turaz, Neelesh Misra and some others. Yes, we know today is the era when many musicians and songwriters do not need to do only films, but surely film music can be enriched by such talents. We know of something called the ‘Ravages of Time’, but in this era it is really drastic the way film music is shying away from such talents! Irshad Kamil, Amitabh Bhattacharya, Kumaar, Swanand Kirkire, Prasoon Joshi and Manoj Muntashir surely need incentives in the shape of competition!
The Kishore Kumar ban
The dark chapter of Emergency in India and the three-month ban on Kishore Kumar (for refusing to comply with All-India Radio and Doordarshan in presenting songs in praise of the 20-point programme then mooted by the government) remains a dark chapter in Indian music, with his films as singer also facing action! And this unholy event happened all of 50 years ago.
When the ban was lifted, his song, ‘Dukhi man mere’ (Funtoosh) was played! But before that happened, there were ridiculous happenings, like his duet ‘Parbat ke peeche champe da gaon’ (from Mehbooba) having his portion deleted and only Lata Mangeshkar’s part being played! From the same film, ‘Mere naina sawan bhadon’ had two versions and only the Lata one was heard on radio, and not the Kishore one!
Anyway, Kishore Kumar had this amusing habit of telling his composers (mostly friend R.D. Burman) to record the female version of any two-version song first so that he could listen to it and improve his part. The song mentioned above was one of the many such examples! There were some others as well: ‘Jeevan ke rang chhote sahi’ (Bade Dil Wala) with Lata singing the other version, and ‘Kitne bhi tu kar le situm’ (Sanam Teri Kasam) with Asha. Ironically, he could not do this in the case of R.D. Burman’s ‘Hamen tumse pyar kitna’ (Kudrat) with Parveen Sultana singing the other ‘semi-classical’ version with a difference!
Classical singers in cinema
And speaking of Parveen Sultana, we have been having a paucity of such singers too of late. Gone, it seems, are the times when Shobha Gurtu, Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Rajan and Pt. Sajan Mishra, Laxmi Shankar and others made occasional and delightful forays into films, either with their own compositions used or in songs made by film composers. Shubha Mudgal (in a couple of films like Lajja), Ustad Rashid Khan (Jab We Met and a few more) and Ustad Sultan Khan (Jab We Met again) are the less than handful of commendable talents we have heard, all before 2010. Correct me if I am wrong!
The classical legend and playback legend
We all know the limitations of classical singers in cinema, however learned they are. The late Kalyanji (-Anandji) once narrated an amusing tale of a classical legend who was his close friend. One day, while entering Kalyanji’s home, he passed Mukesh, who was leaving after a rehearsal. They exchanged greetings in the corridor and the legend entered and told the maestro composer, “There goes a singer who is not half as learned as I am. He drives an Impala (a luxury sedan) while people like me travel by public transport!”
Kalyanji made him sit down and asked him to sing ‘Chandan sa badan’ (Mukesh’s evergreen from Saraswatichandra) as we all know it. Dismissing it as a very simple melody, the ustad sang the mukhda with all the classical murkis (nuances). After three attempts at making him sing the simple way K-A had composed the song, the late composer smiled gently at him and said, “That is why Mukesh drives in an Impala!”
Truly, a playback singer is miles ahead of a classical vocalist, for simplicity and expression of emotions have to be his core strengths!
More Pages: Bhool Chuk Maaf Box Office Collection , Bhool Chuk Maaf Movie Review
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