How would our great singers have fared today?
After several years of not having subscriptions to any Hindi channels, we recently got our own subscription to “Zee TV”. My lack of knowledge about all things “modern” in the movie world must have been seen by several of my observant readers, and now they know how I jealously guarded my ignorance all these years. Although practically all of my friends had a Hindi channel on their televisions when we visited, I stayed away.
With this almost Rip-van-Winkle backdrop, imagine me sitting comfortably in front of my television and changing the channel on my newly purchased Z television. Luckily, “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa – Ek Main aur Ek Tu” was playing. AHA! An opportunity to see talented young men and women sing. I perked up in my seat. Suffering from numerous C grade ads promoting Ajmeri baba, I sat through the entire show. Well, imagine my total surprise when I learned of the stupendous amounts of prizes and contracts awaiting the winner of the contest. 50 lakhs! Boy, had things changed! And somewhere on that show, I found my thoughts drifting, even as I listened to these very talented young men do their thing. Replace this with any other talent show like Indian Idol, and my point will still stand.
This was no longer the old “Sa Re Ga Ma” that I remember seeing before leaving the shores of India. Then it was about the singing, the quality of the voice, the training. Now, it’s all of that AND the ability to perform, sing AND dance, be an “entertainer”, not just a singer. Perhaps the bar has been raised in one way, but perhaps it has been lowered in others. Then, of course, there is this ridiculous, ubiquitous text message that determines the winner, and not the panel of judges, who, at least supposedly, are there for their knowledge and expertise. Supposedly democracy at work, where the voting-cell-phone-masses decide whether a singer (umm … performer) makes the cut or not.
I was thinking about the old brigade of our great singers and wondering how they would have fared in the current context. Imagine a young Lata Mangeshkar, singing in her same heavenly voice, but not receiving SMS messages from the masses because she just stood there and did not dance on stage with a joyous smile on her face. (Not to mention the fact that Maharashtra residents wouldn’t bother to send SMS messages to get selected, but let it slide.)
Manna De, of the golden voice, classically accurate, even if she had sung with her usual warm perfection, would she have gotten votes? Face it, while singing fantastically, he was never known for his ability to dance on stage.
Mohammed Rafi: The smile would be just as soft to match his incomparable voice, but “Aapne aaj achha performance diya, lekin aapne stage ka upyog theek tarah se nahi kiya” would have been the only comment, berating him for his inappropriate use of the stage.
Same with Talat Mehmood – a great look (he got into movies as an actor after all, and actually starred in Sone ki Chidiya alongside Nutan), but could the audience handle his sensitive voice when they searched for “masti bhare? Gaane?” “?
Perhaps the survivors of the old guard would have been Asha Bhosale and Kishore Kumar. Ashaji has an incredible stage presence and has the courage to meet the requirements, whatever the cost. Kishore Kumar was always an over the top performer and could sing and dance with the best. And just in case, he also used to make jokes and jokes.
Runa Laila comes to mind as someone who could have passed the exam even in today’s world. A crystal clear voice, a fantastic stage presence, the ability to “move” with your own music naturally, and a sultry, sultry gaze. (Remember we are talking about when they were YOUNG).
Mukesh – Great looks and winning smile again (I thought he looked better than Raj Kapoor in the song Chhotisi yeh zindagani re from the movie Aah that was performed in him), but would he have made the cut with the SMS generation? I’m not sure.
All the new generation of superbly talented young people must have that extra presentation skills, if they have any hope of succeeding in this industry. And that means, by its very nature, that we must be missing some Cans, some Mohammed Rafis, some Talats, and some Manna Des.
Well, our loss. But life goes on. And what we don’t know doesn’t bother us. Who knows, there might be someone (dare I suggest?) Better than Lata and Mohammed Rafi, whom we just never listened to and therefore just didn’t know any better.
For my part, I would have been poorer if I had gone through life without hearing a Rafi or Lata just because people who understand talent didn’t watch that particular channel, or they didn’t have a cell phone on hand, or they couldn’t. or they didn’t want to text their options.
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