Chak De Sukhwinder
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In the supremely gifted world of playback singers, Sukhwinder Singh’s success remains a delightful mystery. He has always been someone who could deliver the high octane, rush of adrenalin numbers like his first major hit ‘Chaiya Chaiya’ (Dil Se). Yet in ‘Hauley Hauley’ (Rab ne bana di jodi) he holds himself back remarkably well (hear him end one of the stanzas in the song with ‘doob ke jaana’) to convey the essence of the character. But the reason I use the word mystery to describe Sukhwinder’s success is because in an industry where play back singers have traditionally been used to provide the perfect fit for their onscreen counterparts, Sukhwinder is not a study in convention.
From the initial days of the evolution of the film song, when KL Saigal effortlessly walked the dual role of playback singer and actor along with his female counterparts like Noorjehan and Suraiya, the attempt has always been to minimize the gap between the actor’s supposed rendition of the song on 70mm and the playback singer’s voice. You had a Mukesh consistently singing for Raj Kapoor so that a level of uniformity was created in the mind of the audience. The brilliance of a Rafi came through as he blended his voice to suit the actor for whom he was singing. From the late 1960’s Kishore Kumar’s voice came to be associated with that of Rajesh Khanna’s and later with Amitabh Bachchan’s.
Barring the period of the late 1970’s right up to the early 1990’s where the quality of film music is generally accepted as having gone through a state of decline, the rule of the least possible dissonance between actor and playback singer has always held sway. So we have Udit Narayan being a virtual constant for Aamir Khan from the days of Qayamat se qayamat tak and Sonu Nigam attempting a Rafi of sorts by looking to sound like each of the actors for whom he has to exercise his vocal chords. In this light, what is it that makes Sukhwinder succeed for he certainly does not sound like Saif when he croons ‘Dil haara’ in Tashan and neither does he sound like Bobby Deol in the over the top dance competition version of ‘Jhoom Barabar Jhoom’.
A few months ago I had read an interview of Lalit Pandit’s (of Jatin-Lalit duo fame) that appeared on filmnirvana.com (http://filmnirvana.com/askthespecialist/lalit-pandit-jatin-lalit-duo/21360). During the course of the interview Lalit says that today unlike earlier times, the actors seldom get involved with songs and their choice of singers. And this trend he says, has led to the discovery of many new singers. As a result you may also have many singers singing for the same hero – Om Shanti Om had K K (aankhon mein teri), Sonu Nigam (main agar kahoon), Sukhwinder (dard-e-disco), Shaan (one half of the title song and Dastaan) and Udit Narayan (one half of the title song) singing for Baadshah Khan. Also the aforementioned singers now sing for multiple stars in the same generation without sounding anywhere close to every leading man’s vocal chords.
But this trend alone does not explain for the rise of Sukhwinder as an established playback singer. Sure his voice is ideally suited for the energy packed songs like (‘Marjaani marjaani’ in Billu, ‘Saaki Saaki re’ from Musafir) or the ones which are picturised on characters far removed from urban settings (‘Beedi jalai le’ for Saif Ali Khan and Vivek Oberoi in Omkaara or ‘unkey nashey mein’ on Vivek Oberoi from Shootout at Lokhandwaala or the title track of Bunty aur Babli). He is also best utilised for songs which tend to portray the anthem of the film without being picturised on the leading protagonist (‘Jai Ho’ of Slumdog Millionaire fame).
In this sense, some may believe that Sukhwinder is largely a one dimensional singer, a fate shared (unfairly perhaps) by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan (songs with sufi influences – ‘bol na halke halke’, ‘o re piya’, ‘teri ore’) and Shaan (essentially love ballads, soft, hip hop numbers). But to believe in this theory is akin to having as much faith in the recent rumour that the king of pop is still alive. Roll back the years to 1998 when Sukhwinder sang ‘Raat ki daldal mein’ from the movie Earth or more recently when he sang the title track of Fashion and you have before you a consummate artist. Here is someone who can infuse unmatched verve into a song (a la Kishore perhaps) and can also hit the extreme notes of a composition without any semblance of a struggle.
This is not to suggest that versatility is the sole forte of Sukhwinder. Indeed, Sonu Nigam, KK, Shankar Mahadevan and to some extent Udit Narayan, have given more sustained evidence of being at ease with any kind of musical composition and the character on whom it is to be picturised. The difference however, lies in the inherent nature of Sukhwinder’s voice. Bear in mind that most of our actors don’t have a raucous harsh sounding voice in real life and so even if KK sings for Saif Ali Khan it is not as off the target as when Sukhwinder sings for chottey nawaab. Sukhwinder’s voice, like Mukesh and Kishore much before him, has a distinct feel to it altogether. But unlike both legends, Sukhwinder has sung for multiple actors of the same generation. Mukesh at his peak largely performed only for Raj Kapoor, while Kishore Kumar sang for Dev Ananad, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan in separate distinct periods.
This is the beauty behind Sukhwinder’s success. Even while he is not conventionally suited to sing for leading actors, music directors are queuing up to have their songs sung by him. Since Omkaara released in 2006, no male playback singer has enjoyed as many hits as A R Rahman’s protégé. He has climbed the ladder of success while parting ways with tradition, purely on the basis of his immense talent. In an industry where people are given opportunities either because of their grounding (like Rahat Fateh Ali Khan for Sufi compositions) or their success in a particular genre (like Shaan for soft hip hop numbers) or because they conform to convention (Sonu Nigam’s voice suited for any actor), Sukhwinder’s success is an antithesis, one which rides on his talent alone.
Truly, Chak De Sukhwinder!!!
Tags: Abhijit, AR Rahman, K L Saigal, KK, Mukesh, Noorjahan, Rafi, Sonu Nigam, Sukhwinder Singh, Suraiya, udit narayan
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
It also helps that the likes of Rahman, Vishal, and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy are getting to do good work for interesting stories rather than the mindless slot-filling song situations of the past, which demand more conventional voices. Sukhwinder fits in very well for some of these experiments.
A less heralded aspect are his lyric writing skills – were reasonably good in ‘Water’.
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sukhwinder singh is a brilliant singer, period.
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the trend of singers not matching voices of actors was started from early 80’s where we had a host of singers singing for bigB…anu malik, mohd aziz etc
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in ‘abhimaan’ movie we had kishore kumar, rafi and manhar udhas sing for the same lead
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rd burman chose the singers who suited the song, as in ‘tujhse naraaz nahi zindagi’, ‘ye safar bahut hai’ etc
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kumar sanu’s voice does not match any actor’s voice, not even rahul roy in ashiqui, so forget sukhi not matching anyone
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much after all this came sukhwinder singh
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suresh wadkar and others like him fall in the same bracket as sukhiwnder, who have sung for various actors without becoming associated with any of the recognized actor’s voice
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ar rahman has revived many a singer’s career and brought back lots of singers to light…like hema sardesai, hariharan etc
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i am not sure if what jatin-lait have said is true, because if actors had a say then shaan would not have sung ‘chaand sifarish’ for aamir, kumar sanu would not have sung for aamir in AHAT, mohd aziz and kumar sanu would not have sung for bigB, manna dey would not have sung for raj kapoor etc
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finally, sukhiwnder singh is a brilliant singer and he was destined to come to the fore sooner or later
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@Akshay: I so enjoyed reading this! Sukhwinder is brilliant! Really! And yes, he does not have a ‘hero’ type of a voice and has still given more hits than many of his counterparts. Sukhwinder and Sonu are my two most favorite singers of Hindi film songs.. What Lalit said is indeed true.. But you know what? That lack of interest holds true for singers too. I was at a song recoring once, with a very popular female singer.. She sang the entire song with instructions from the music director. She finished in about 3.5 hours… And you know what she asked when she received her cheque before leaving?? “Vaise… yeh kaunsi film ka gaana hai aur heroine kaun hai?” I swear! My jaws were on the floor as I thought these would have been her first questions when the music director asked her to come for a recording! She didnt know for whom she was singing!! Leave alone the name of the movie!!
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So I guess this lack of interest is a two-way affair.. Or maybe even a 3-way affair – if we include the music directors !
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Nice post Akshay.
Sukhwinder is an awesomely talented singer who deserves every bit of praise being showered on him and more…
Also, wud like to mention the contribution of music directors like Rahman, Shankar-Ehasaan-Loy and the likes in providing singers like Sukhwinder with amazing opportunities.
Infact, Sukhwinder himself is a talented music director evident in the song Nasha hi Nasha Hai from one of his private albums.
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Akshay this was a good post on a very talented singer- Sukhwinder is certainly not as uni dimensional as people think he is.Of course like most of his peers he has a USP too i.e singing high decibel energy packed songs.But with Haule Haule in RNBDJ he proved that he can sing with subtlety too when required.A very big thanks to ARR for unleashing & encouraging this talent.
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Sukhi is a damn good singer, he’s got a rough but a great voice. Everytime he performs LIVE on stage, he sounds EXACTLY the same as on the recorded version. Sukhi is a treat to listen, he’s done a very good job at Composing music for Black & White.
Everyone should listen to ‘Dolna’ from ‘Thakshak’. Sums up what I said above.
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Totally disagree with crazyrals comment “kumar sanu’s voice does not match any actor’s voice, not even rahul roy in ashiqui, so forget sukhi not matching anyone” Kumar Sanu’s voice suited most actors that he sang for (Ajay – Lal Lal Hoton Pe – Naajayaz, Phool Aur Kaante, Vijaypath), Saif (Imtihaan), Arshad (Aankh maare), Sanjay Dutt (Saajan, sadak) and suited the best for Shahrukh. Go watch songs of Chamatkar, Tujhe dekha To, Zara Tasveer Se and his best song for Shahrukh “Yeh Kaali Kaali Aankhen” where he sings with some real intensity and passion just as the character in the movie. Go watch him sing for “Hum hai Seedhe saadhe akshay” Kumar Sanu did sing all songs for Aamir for both DHMN and HHRPK.
He does’nt suit Aamir when he goes nasal but he did sing “Chikni Surat” very well for Aamir and Aamir sings some parts of it too. The only thing in the song is though Kumar Sanu’s voice suits Aamir the lip syncing is out of sync. Aamir closes his mouth before Kumar Sanu says the words.
Udit Narayan may have sung a lot of Aamir songs but his voice does’nt match Aamir’s either but the lip movement is in sync. Just because he sang for QSQT he kept getting Aamir songs. Watch QSQT songs and you can see that Aamir had a very young and soft voice and Udit has a more husky and older voice. In fact Udit’s voice doesn’t suit many actors because he sings in his trademark voice but he does suit some like Akshay kumar and Akshay Khanna.
Sonu tries to sing like Rafi but he seems like he just woke up and sings like he is yawning. His voice doesn’t suit a single actor and yet he gets to sing for all of them. He is a good singer but I think he should be a pop singer (he is good looking too and his pop song Tu was very good).
There is a difference between regular singing and playback singing. A Playback singer’s voice should suit the actor that the song is being sung for. Why not have a female singer sing for a male actor and vice versa if suiting the actor is not important. This has also been done with Adnan Sami singing and lip syncing by Jesse Randhawa in No Smoking. If the song is there in a movie in the background any singer can sing it. That’s how it should be.
But hindi movies have played hard and fast with rules on playback singing. S D Burman always tried to be loyal to both Rafi and Kishore and hence Rafi would get a couple of songs even if Kishore suited the actor better. But that Abhimaan songs are ridiculous as Amitabh plays a singer and Rafi and Kishore sing for him. Even if you choose a singer who is not associated with a particular actor let him sing all the songs from one movie so that its assumed that this is his voice when he sings in the movie.
Shabbir Kumar, Mohd Aziz sang for Amitabh in the mid and late 80s because Kishore refused to sing for Amitabh. The mid and late 80s had some really bad singers and bad songs.
In the early 90s MD’s like NS and JL had all songs sung by one singer for one actor in a movie. They used SPB for Salman in Saajan. This whole stupid trend of not suiting an actor was restarted by Rahman. He gave a lot of new singers the chance but if someone is really talented they should be allowed to sing for all the songs in the movie. Go watch Shabba Shabba and Ranu Mukherjee suits Urmila brilliantly but she never got any songs even from Rahman. Rahman has sukhvinder, himself, udit and sonu sing for shahrukh in Dil Se which is ridiculous. Nowadays anyone can sing with the help of technology and every person’s voice is a bit different. You see little regard to suiting an actor and the lip syncing does’nt match.
If someone wants to sing in their own voice without trying to suit the actor then they should do regular singing and sell their private albums.
And anyways is playback singing and lip syncing still needed when many movies have started having no songs. Even actors like Amitabh, Sanjay, Shahrukh, Abhishek, farhan have all sung pretty well and with the advent of technology do we even need these playback singers. There is a video on youtube where Amitabh, Shahrukh, Sanjay and Hrithik are singing and they are all singing pretty well without the use of any recording technology.
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I think the trend of different singers singing for same actor is a healthy one..Let new singers get an oppurtunity..I think this is due to MDs having more influence than before..
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you can also check out some songs of Sukhwinder before he had entered the big league…..there are some amazing songs he did during that period as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpcDEU-SVAw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BTJy2xpIX4
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@sputnik: for most part of your comments you have explained the same thing that i said in one line … that the age of singers voice suiting actors was dead long back.
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coming to your waxing eloquent about kumar sanu, all i can say is that if u really believe that sanu’s voice suited ajay devgan in those movies[listen to his voice when he is delivering those heavyweight dialogues], sanu’s voice suited aamir[hear aamir speak] and everybody else …then u are entitled to your opinion. lets just agree to disagree
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Nice post Sukhi is class apart. A.R.Rehman once said on interview that there is some devine connection with Sukhi singing… The exact line used by ARR were: jub yeh gaata hai to aisa lagta hai jaise kisi peer ka saya eske uper aa jaata hai… During the composing of Ramata jogi from Taal, after the song was over Sukhi keep on singing ramta jogi for long time and no body stopped him in the recording room, becoz they all were watching some devine connection there. including ARR. Sukhi has one hillarious video under his name, even here his voice is great have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HV0neDmDBjA
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