Singin' in the pain

So a friend at work is learning Hindi. I suggested that she listen to slow old Hindi songs to pick up the correct pronunciation of words, and at the same time enjoy some great melodies. I knew because that's where I picked up most of my Hindi pronunciation. Dad got a transfer to Bihar when I was all of six without a clue or a single Hindi word in my head. I grew up in Bihar/Jharkhand, picked up Hindi and spent twelve years of my life there without letting the local dialects mess up my Hindi pronunciation. I learnt to speak Hindi and Urdu primarily through songs and ghazals. Perhaps that's where my obsession with Hindi music stems from. They were not just songs - they were my teachers. Today I am proud of my Hindi. I know my method was effective, and I was willing to share. My friend readily agreed, and I told her I’ll look through my collection and recommend some good ones.

So I was sorting through my 'Nostalgia' folder (a huge database which had made quite a name for itself on the shared drive when I was in university), when I made a beautiful discovery. Re-discovery, rather.

Pukarta chala hoon main
Gali gali bahaar mein
Bas ek chhaon zulf ki
Bas ik nigaah pyaar ki

Oh my. I hadn't heard this song in a long time. It was absolutely mind-blowing. I listened to it on loop a couple of times before going to sleep. The next morning I loaded my ipod with all the songs I wanted her to listen to, and set off for office. I intended to play all of them during my bus journey, but ended up playing this particular song on loop the entire time. When I got to work, I played it the whole day, and I played it in the bus on the way back too. I tend to do this with some of the newer songs but the obsession never lasts. This was different. I was really breathing in the fine details of the song. Each time I listened to it, there was something new, something different I’d absorb.

The beauty of the song is that it's all about Rafi's voice. The song is a very simple one, with simple beats, and simple lyrics - all broken into syllables – deceptively sounding like something anyone can sing. With perhaps four instruments at most, the one thing that rises above everything is Rafi’s voice and the way he sings it. Go on, play the song, and listen - really listen - especially to the part where he sings, "Yehi toh baat ho rahi hai kaam ki". He sounds so amazing in these lines that you would never believe that the guy who looked like a khadoos school teacher could sound so incredibly sexy singing a song which on some levels is basically a song that a roadside lafunga is singing in search of the chick who will be willing to daalo him some ghaas. To turn a song like that into a seductive number, that, I guess, is the mark of a true legend.

And I started to think about legends. Lata, Asha, Kishore, Rafi, and a handful more. That's it? That's it. Oh my goodness, that's it. Some of the singers of today are no doubt, very good -- Sonu Nigam who is perhaps the best (does the fact that he admits to being inspired by Rafi have anything to do with it?), Sunidhi, Shreya, Kay Kay and Shaan. I personally love all of them, and they have very distinct styles, but come to think of it, would you call any of them 'legends'? I wouldn't. I prefer to call them the 'middle band' whose songs will perhaps be listened to as classics a decade later. But anyone newer than this batch just doesn't cut it. The maestros of the past have set the standards so high that anyone who has heard them would never use the term 'legends' for the new breed – especially the ones newer than Sonu, Kay Kay, et al. It's the way they used to sing in the old says - the heart and soul that went into it. The new guys just don't do it the same way. They can barely keep in step with the new songs, and they want to tread on the old ones too. Evident from the example of Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar where a bunch of the so-called very good singers systematically destroyed some beautiful old melodies.

And oh, don't even get me started on remixes, what with their 'Danny feat. Sophie' and what not. Who the heck are Danny and Sophie anyway? Who are these people who think that they’re making music by killing old songs and calling them 'Zubin feat. Zoya'? Who allows them to sing?

It is evident from the singing competitions on TV as well. The audience voting system has taken a toll on the discovery of real talent. Good-looking people make it to the top and even if the lack of talent can’t pull them through, technology makes them become famous singers. And the ones who can actually sing are deemed not pretty enough to make it. I was watching Indian Idol, and I noticed that almost every one of the so called 'awesome' singers falter at time and falter quite badly. And if someone like me who has no training at all in music can “spot the differences”, ah well. Real fans of the song know every bit, every high, every low of the song, and you can't fool us. Okay tell me - how many of the singers on Saregamapa and Indian Idol can you listen to and identify with your eyes closed? How many of them have that unique voice that touches you in a way that you go, "Ah, no one else can sing it this way!"?

And even if some new masterpieces do come about ('Tanhayee' from 'Dil Chahta Hai' would be one, and 'Tadap tadap' from 'Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam' would be another) why aren't they memorable? Why is it that I can sing along when I listen to songs that were created when my parents were babies, but I can't tell you the lyrics of this year's chartbusters three weeks down the lane? Why are the songs so short-term? Whatever happened to evergreen melodies? Did we have a limited pool that got consumed sometime in the 70s and all we can do now is recycle them and come up with utterly forgettable melodies? Why don't we crave good songs anymore? Why don't we demand purity of melodies anymore? Why are we so content with what we have as long as it sells? Whatever happened to music as a beautiful form of art? It's depressing, the way we all go ‘Kaindi ponnnnnnnn!!’ for three minutes and then forget it before moving on to the next song that we can tap our feet to.

Why is it that in the old days, the singers had nothing but their voices and they sounded nothing short of golden, and today, when they have so much digital help, they just sound like something is missing? But then, maybe it's all the technology that's to blame. It has reduced the gap between the great singers and the ordinary mortals. In the old days, the singers had nothing but their voices, and that was a good thing. Today it's not. I read that for 'Kya janoon sajan' (the original from the movie 'Baharon Ke Sapne'), RD Burman made Lata put on headphones and recorded her singing over her own song playing in the recording room, to add the double voice effect. (Those who are familiar with the song will know what I'm talking about.) I have no doubt it was much easier for Kavitha who sang the newer version in Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar.

Looks like technology has made it a piece of cake - anyone can sing. And so everyone does. Annu Malik does. Himesh Reshammiya does. Mika does. Rakhi Sawant does. Oh. Let me say that again. Rakhi Sawant does.

Face it - the way we're headed, there is no stopping us. You and I will soon become great singers too.

God save the music.

Come, let's all bray together.