The forgotten art of playback singing

Ever heard songs of recent flicks lately? Well I'm sure you would have coz they're all over TV until the film releases and a week after.
Remember any of them two weeks later?
IF AT ALL you do, can you differentiate between two or more songs?
Again, IF AT ALL you do, do you think you'll still remember which song belonged to which movie after, say 2 years (then again, this is if you remember the movie name by then too!)?

Nowadays, all songs sound similar, don't they? Watching the videos of these songs gives you a bigger headache than listening to them!

Gone are the good old days when songs would be refreshing, original, having an Indian feel, soothing, beautiful ... gone are the days where songs fitted the situation to a T in the film scenario ... gone are the days where a LOT of effort went into the lyrics and picturization of the songs once the music was composed - and those videos too would be different and original in each song, in each film. EXTREMELY creative at times, I must say!

While there are many aspects in a song, let's talk about playback singing, shall we?

Now, a playback singer is supposed to sing the song while the artiste lip-syncs to it. Correct? So what are the essential skills one would need to become a playback singer?
He/she should be a very good singer - obviously.
He/she should be able to get into the mood of the song, feel the situation and convey it through singing while the artiste has all the liberty to enact it - tough, but necessary.
Any other you can think of?

Since the playback singer represents the voice of the actor, how about the ability to modify your voice to suit the actor / actress you're going to be singing for? I would say a BIG YES!!!

So let me ask you something now - how long has it been since you heard a good PLAYBACK singer entering the Hindi film industry? You have probably heard a few singers here and there (pretty average ones too!) like Atif Aslam and Himesh Reshammiya who sing as if it's their private album and not a film!
This is where playback singing has taken a back seat. Why, you need to go back only so far as the 90s to find that transition happening. While Udit Narayan, Shaan, Sonu Nigam and Abhijeet could still sound like the actor they 'represented' (Aamir Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Shahrukh Khan twice, respectively), another very famous singer (and a pretty good one too!) - Kumar Sanu sounded like Kumar Sanu all the time. Point number 3 in our list was slowly dying, more so because people still believed good 'playback' singing existed then.

But go back from when music in Hindi cinema began, till say, the 80s and early 90s. Each playback singer of those times would totally devote themselves to the song, and the artiste they represented. There are of course various tales of how Kishore Kumar researched Rajesh Khanna's voice before singing for him in Aradhana. Lata Mangeshkar did the same for Padmini Kolhapuri in Satyam Shivam Sundaram, Mohd. Rafi and Shammi Kapoor practised all their songs and dances together; and I'm sure there must be several other cases as well. The results are out there for all to see.

Even now, we only have to listen to these old songs on radio, sure we can figure out who the singer of that song is; they all had distinct voices then; but also, almost instantly, we can imagine which artiste the song is picturized on. Isn't that speaking a lot about the talent the singers of those times' possessed?

While Mohammed Rafi could be Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Joy Mukherjee, Raj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Jeetendra, Guru Dutt, Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar, he could also be someone so different ... like Johny Walker!
Kishore Kumar was at once Dev Anand, Rajesh Khanna, Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Shashi Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and not to forget, he was sometimes also Kishore Kumar :)
Note the similarities in the two lists - any one actor could be represented by different playback singers depending on the situation. Hats off to the brilliant music directors of those times who never stereotyped any artise with one particular singer!
There were plenty of other singers, like Manna Dey, Mahendra Kapoor , Talat Mahmood and Mukesh who were very adaptible to the actor the song would be shot on.

Female playback singers like Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhonsle could sound exactly like Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh, Vyjanthimala, Saira Banu, Hema Malini, Sharmila Tagore, Jaya Bhaduri, Rekha, Mumtaz, Zeenat Aman, Helen, Nutan, Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Sadhana, Parveen Babi, Poonam Dhillon, Padmini Kolhapure and all the other leading ladies of their times. Geeta Dutt and Shamshad Begum very well represented the heroines of the early and mid 50s, like Madhubala, Meena Kumari (note the repetition of their names), Geeta Bali, Shakiela and Kalpana Karthik.

And mind you, they were no average singers. The pitches and variations they would handle (at a modified voice to suit the actor/actress) was something we can hardlly imagine.
That was REAL playback singing, wasn't it? The ability to at once identify the artiste on whom it is picturized while at the same time, identifying the singer of the song, created timeless gems.
Don't you think this art has somewhere got lost in today's times?
Don't you miss it?
Would you still call today's singers 'playback' singers?

Jaane Kahaan ... gaye ... woh din ...

Just finished watching Kaagaz Ke Phool a short while back. Such a brilliant masterpiece! Finally - a film that has made me really really sad inside. Getting this feeling after a long time. And there is no point in hiding the fact that I might even have shed a tear or two had I been alone at home.

Well, this film got me into thinking quite a bit. Well, actually, a lot about the film and the way the film industry works, but besides that a few other things as well.

Just look at our country and the kind of craze the Indians develop over this current generation of mortals working in the film industry (and I'll strictly stick to Bollywood as that's my area of expertise).

They go mad over some really untalented actors just because they have good bodies. The actresses today are really awful, but even they are projected as being extremely talented and beautiful.

They go mad over some really horrible music directors and singers. And there are no such things as lyricists, directors and scipt-writers remaining in today's era.

Yet, this country completely adores this current batch of stars (both super and not-so-super).

There are a few people who are making outstanding cinema these days, but that's a very small percentage; and they are the sort of film-makers or actors who have a cult following.

Feels so sad when we think of Bollywood's past. To think that once upon a time, it was ruled by stars like Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Guru Dutt, Dharmendra, Shammi Kapoor, Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan(of the 70s, not later). There were other famous actors who unfortunately were not HUGE names - Rajendra 'Jubilee' Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Joy Mukherjee, Rajkumar, Sunil Dutt, V.Shantaram, Jeetendra, Vinod Khanna, Sachin, Mithun Chakraborthy, Shatrughan Sinha, Raj Babbar, Navin Nischal, Biswajeet, Farooque Shaikh, Naseerudinn Shah, Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff. We had some of the finest actors ever to embrace the screen - Ashok Kumar and Balraj Sahni.

Let's have a look at the actresses - Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Nargis, Nutan, Vyjanthimala, Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh, Sadhana, Suchitra Sen, Geeta Bali, Mumtaz, Hema Malini, Raakhee, Jaya Bhaduri, Sharmila Tagore, Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit, Sridevi, Rekha, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi, Dipti Naval, Smita Patil, Shabana Azmi, Ranjeeta, Padmini Kolhapuri, Poonam Dhillon, Meenakshi Sheshadri, Reena Roy. We had probably the best ever (and best there ever will be) 'item girl' - Helen.

And the comedians - ah, now there were people who could make us laugh at any situation and most of the times, with their mere presence itself - Johny Walker, Mehmood, Mukhri, I.S.Johar, Dhumal, Mohan Choti, Ram Avtaar, Deven Verma, Tun Tun, Rajendranath, Kishore Kumar, Keshto Mukherjee, Asit Sen, Utpal Dutt, Jagdeep, Amol Palekar, Asrani, Bhagwan Dada, Om Prakash, Rakesh Bedi, Satish Shah, Ravi Baswani.

And last but not the least - one can never forget the immortal character actors in their stereotypical roles - Iftekhar, Pran, Prem Nath, Prem Chopra, Ranjeet, Ajit, Nazir Hussain, Abhi Bhattacharya, K.N.Singh, O.P.Ralhan (and he was a very good director too!), Nirupa Roy, Sulochna, Duga Khote, Shobha Khote, Lalita Powar, Kamini Kaushal, Shree Ram Lagoo, Madan Puri, Rehman, A.K.Hangal, Jagadish Raj, Shetty, D.K.Sapru, Manmohan, Pichhu Kapoor, Motilal, Kishore Sahu, Shivraj, Jalal Agha, Tarun Bose, Ramesh Deo, Danny Denzongpa, Harindranath Chattopadhyay, Dulaari, Bindu, Manmohan Krishna, Satyen Kappu, Dina Pathak, Pearl Padamsee, Leela Chitnis, Leela Mishra, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajan Haksar, Nana Palsikar, Macmohan, Sujit Kumar, Aroona Irani, Kader Khan, David, Jeevan, Paintal, Sunder, Birbal, Ambreesh Puri, Satish Kaushik, Annu Kapoor, Pankaj Kapoor, Om Puri, Rakesh Bedi, K.K.Raina, Alok Nath, Shakti Kapoor, Asha Sachdev and scores of others who I just can't seem to remember while typing this post now.

Seriously, is there anyone today who can match up with any of these names mentioned. I wish Bollywood just stops making new films and starts releasing all these old movies. That way atleast the current generation will get a feel as to who the real stars are and how stupid they have all been to encourage the current directors, music directors and actors/actresses in whatever they are doing.

The inspiration to start this blog

About a month back, I was keenly watching the Star Screen Awards on TV. Everything seemed to be going fine - the awards were fair (until that turning point in the show which has inspired me to express my film views openly to the whole world), Sajid Khan,the anchor, was as usual doing a great job. Then came the Award for Best Screenplay. I was frustrated when this particular movie was even nominated, and I assumed it was only because of the lack of any other better one to fill up the five slots of the nominees (now to always have a fixed number of nominees can be an entirely separate topic itself). But when it won, I was furious! I started pulling my hair, banging the dining table, shouting and what not. I infact, stopped seeing the awards ceremony after that point. The movie in question was Life In A Metro. This movie is a complete rip-off of one of the most popular and acclaimed movies of all-time, The Apartment. There are many storylines in Metro, but the fact is the essence and the real charm (if I can use this word) of the movie was the love triangle between Sharmaan, Kangana and Kay Kay (all other stories were based on this storyline), which is blatantly derived from the extremely wonderful, and a 'perfect' movie,which has mulitiple Oscars to it's credit.

Now, shouldn't the jury have known that? I always thought the jury would be well-versed with the classics, movies which every person who loves movies should have seen before they can have the odacity to go judge the works of others. That decision was probably, one of the most terrible decisions I have ever seen, and I'm not talking of just film award decisions. Giving awards for acting or music is fine when the movie is a remake, but writers, producers and directors should never be encouraged. And of all the awards the film won, it had to win for screenplay!

And the director Anurag Basu, who became famous with a superhit which was also a remake of a Hollywood movie (Murder -> Unfaithful), has the nerves to say this after winning, "Thank you for the award. It only means I have to write a better screenplay next time".

Now what does he mean by that? Is he thinking of remaking Casablanca next? And he's judging young film-makers in Gateway To Hollywood. God bless Hollywood now!

Well, Anurag Basu has definitely shown that he may be wonderful in copying others' painfully thought of, extremely well-written, straight-from-the-heart scripts, but he has also shown that he is a man with no shame and respect. This man (if I can call him that) is one hack and deserves no recognition from anybody. He just does not have any conscience at all!

Mr. Rajeev Masand (shouldn't he know of the existence of this AFI Top 100 movie?) praises Metro even on a New Year's Special on TV, and you know it's time to change the way you choose film critics and jury members!