Page 9 - Seniors Today -Volume no1
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of the compositions by Salilda (Chowdhury), why she was singing the song, etc… Playback
Madan Mohan and Jaidev. Jaidev was the most singing requires tremendous amounts of
challenging among the composers. He had a precision in rendering the lyrics and tune.
sound knowledge of classical music. He would Har cheez sambhaalni padti hai. Maybe
say, ‘I’ve told her what to do. Now I don’t composers felt that Lata could pull it off.
need to worry.’ Once he composed a song he What is your assessment of yourself as
left it to me to worry about it. It became my singer?
responsibility. And I’d be endlessly worried. There have been better singers than me like
I remember he had composed a Nepali song K L Saigal Saab and Noor Jehanji and there
for me written by the King of Nepal, King will be better singers than me in future. I
Birendra (Jun Mato Na Mero in the Nepali always say whatever skills I’ve imbibed are
film Maatighar). It was one of the toughest God’s gift. I’ll also admit that it’s never been
songs of my career. an insurmountable challenge for me to sing
It is often said that composers made you anything. Every artiste has a talent. What the
sing songs at an unnecessarily high pitch artiste does with that talent is up to them.
just because you have the range? Recording songs during your heyday was
This is true. I’ll give you two examples: really tough. It is said you got the echo
Ehsaan tera hoga mujhpar in Junglee and O effect in Pyar kiya toh darna kya by singing
mere shah-e-khuba in Love In Tokyo, both a bit of the song from the bathroom of
composed by Shankar-Jaikishan. Both the the recording studio, and that once while
songs were first sung by Mohd Rafi Saab. recording a song for Salil Choudhury you
Then they decided they wanted the same fainted?
songs sung by me. They came to me after Not true. The echo effect in the Pyar kiya
filming the songs with the leading ladies toh darna kya song was achieved by singing
of the two films Saira Banu in Junglee and away at a distance from the microphone but
Asha Parekh in Love In Tokyo, in the voice of not in the bathroom. Please! And I did faint
Rafi Saab. And I was asked to sing the songs once. But it wasn’t for a song by Salilda. It was
exactly the same way, since it was already a song by Naushad Saab for the film Amar
shot with the heroines in Rafi Saab’s voice. filmed on Madhubala.
This sounds like a form of emotional Your improvisations in the songs, the
blackmail? harkat as it was called, often took songs to
Jee haan. I wasn’t allowed to lower the scale of another level, for example the ‘Oye oye oye’
the original tunes since it was already filmed. in the Bichua number in Madhumati?
So I had no choice but to sing in Rafi Saab’s No that wasn’t mine. That was the composer,
pitch. I remember how difficult it was for me. Salilda’s idea. But yes, I did put in my own
And I was very upset with Shankar-Jaikishan harkat once in a while. Once Rafi Saab and I
for making me do this. were recording a duet for Shankar-Jaikishan.
Don’t you wish you had more time to During rehearsals I decided to improvise at
practise your classical singing? one point in the song. But I didn’t reveal my
Shall I tell you something? It is much more harkat during rehearsals. I kept it to myself
difficult to do playback singing for films and I sang it only during the final take.
than to sing classical vocals. When you You did not????!!!!
are doing classical vocals there is room for (laughs) Yes, I did. When the final take
improvisation. But when you sing playback happened everyone was thrilled by my
you have to go exactly by the requirements improvisation. But Rafi Saab was very upset.
of the character on screen. I used to find out All this was in good spirit. No harm meant.
what the heroine was supposed to be doing,
SENIORS TODAY | Volume 1 | Issue 1
