Unconventional Singers

Not very long ago, a friend and I were fighting it out on the state of music in the present day Hindi film industry. The discussion veered towards ‘unconventional’ singers quite quickly, and I remember he jokingly defined an ‘unconventional’ singer for bollywood music scene as ‘someone who hasn’t sung many songs for films because of not having a star-friendly voice’. It left me thinking and here is an attempt to start a discussion on such ' unconventional singers' who have made a mark in the industry and remain etched in our memory.

Reshma 

My earliest memory of coming across an unconventional voice is the iconic song Lambi Judai from ‘Sitara-i-imtiaz’ Reshma. The song owes much of its mellifluous character to a wonderful flute and rubaab as well, but take Reshma’s voice away and you will be left wondering who could have done better than her. The lead characters in the film 'went through' the song but did not lip sync it. Why did we not hear more from her in Hindi films? Pedants, please note: yes, I too learnt with a Google search that she recorded Ashkan Di Gali Vich Mukaam De Gaya, which was apparently used in the film Woh Tera Naam Tha. I will leave that question open for now. 

Narendra Chanchal

A mere mention of his name is enough to begin a medley of countless ‘devi maa jagran’ songs in his signature high pitch in our minds, but before singing devotional songs set to the tune of, say, meraa babu chhail chhabeelaa, he lent his voice to a few high impact songs for hindi films. Take the aching ‘beshaq mandir-masjid dhaa de’ above from Bobby where the leads again 'went through' the song but did not lip sync it, or the beautifully done Yaara o Yaara from Benaam where the song was filmed on Naredra Chanchal playing himself in the film:

And his part in the mehengaii maar gayii from Roti, Kapda aur Makaan, did take the song to its peak, but too, wisely, was not lip- synced on the main leads:

Of course, he also got the inevitable ‘Mata Rani’ songs. Case in point: Tuuney mujhe bulaaya sherawaliye from Aasha  and Chalo bulawa aaya hai from Avtaar, either song not lip- synced on the lead pair. 

On a totally unrelated note, as we have just gone past the recent navratri festivities, I wonder how many of you overheard any of his songs in 'pandaals' which are now dominated by the likes of Yo Yo and Ya ya?

Padma Shri Sharda Sinha

Her beautiful song Kahey tose sajnaa that spoke of hijacking any trouble that sets eyes on her lover in Maine Pyar kiya, didn’t set the music charts on fire when the film was released, but it lingers on even till today, with a good promise of lasting forever. 

We got to hear her again in the earthy Babul jo tunay sikhaya from Hum aapke hain koun:

In both films, her songs remained in the background. Recently, she charmed her way in Taar bijlii se patle, a song that was a satire on the deprived state of the Gangs of Wasseypur 2’s  location in that era:

I am sure music lovers would love to hear more from her. Here, we did see Richa Chadha lip- sync this song in the film owing to the 'joint singing' setting of the song in the film.

Sapna Awasthi

Perhaps the most popular singer of the ‘unconventional lot’, if we go merely by the number of songs she has sung for Hindi films. A complete ‘composer’s singer’, the earliest song that comes to my mind where her voice really stood out was ‘banno teri ankhiyan’ from Dushmani 

Little later in her career, she had the whole country dancing to A.R.Rahman’s Chaiyya Chaiyya, which to my mind is her best song till date: 

To top it all, we saw a young Malaika Arora lip- sync it with Shah Rukh Khan, an image that still hasn't left us since we first encountered it in Chitrahaar

Raghubir Yadav

From singing wonderful ad jingles (Ye Dil Maange More) to enacting Ramleela on the microphone, in the background in Delhi 6 , Raghubir Yadav remains one of the most powerful voices we have in the country today. Always the one to choose songs that leave an impact, my favourite from him till this day remains Hawa hai hawa hai from Hun Hunshi Hunshilal. An almost musically silent song that benefits from the ‘tremor' in Yadav’s voice. While it is impossible to capture all his songs in this column, a mention of mehngai Daayan khaaye jaat hai is well worth it, especially for the way Yadav goes ‘arre saiyyan marr gaye hamare khisiyaye ke’:

Of Course, we also saw him on the screen in both these songs.

Ila Arun 

Such is the body of work of this artist that I already know which song of hers are you thinking about. She has been melodiously active on the private album scene as well as film music. She married the Rajasthani range to present day sensibilities in her hay days and for that, we can never thank her enough. Imagine a morni baagan maa, without Ila Arun and perhaps you will know how important her voice is to this wonderful song. Her voice hasn't been lip- synced on a lead actor in most cases, though.

Sliding towards a naughtier zone, she sprinkled the right amount of ‘spice’ in many a song, but the most prominent of these would surely be choli ke peeche from Khalnayak, a song that, to my mind, does not have any parallel till date in terms of the monumental mounting it gave to the situation.

Deepak Kumar 

He appeared on the scene when he was just a 15-year- old with Gangs of Wasseypur where he sang Humnee ke chhoree ke and Moora. Where the former was more a folk song with a melancholic setting, the later had a serious trace of motivation with innovative words used to keep the overall mood light and the song hummable. Of course, these songs were kept in the background. Here is a singer with a lot of promise and I do hope he gets to sing more for all of us.

Prem Dehati

Yet again a voice which we haven't seen lip- synced on the lead characters, this powerful yet melodious voice was introduced to us in Matru Ki Bijli ka Mandola by Vishal Bhardwaj. Although most of us remember him concluding the romantic khamakha in a divine fashion, there wasn't a better song in 2013 than his soulful Badal Uthiya ri sakhi. Quiet after Matru, I wonder if we will hear him in the film and/or independent fusion space anytime soon.

Mukhtiyar Ali

Known largely for singing Kabir and teaming up with Mathias Duplessy, Mukhtiyar Ali’s music has a good amount of influence from Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali khan. He gave us non filmi gems like tere ishq nachaayaa, we heard him recently singing the title song of Finding Fanny in which he was, well, disappointing. . While the ‘O Fanny re’ hook does work, his work in the antraas of the song left much to be desired. Here is hoping we will hear more from him in the days to come where he manages to capitalise on his range.

As you can see from the above listing, 'unconventional artists' have showcased a variety of genres and successfully added to the 'sound' of Hindi film music over the years. Here's to hoping that the 'unconventional singer' is kept busy by the doyens of Hindi film music scene that gets marred off and on by new trends and shortcuts in a bid to repackage the mundane.

I am sure to have missed many of your favourites, so please do add your picks in the comments section.