Chhaayaageet #104 - “HMV doesn’t like your playback singers.”
All the work on the film has been completed. It is practically ready for release. The music has been well liked by everyone involved in the making of the film. The poet lyricist and his friend, the music composer, have yet again hit it out of the ball park, with sensitive lyrics and immensely hummable tunes.
There is one issue, and a big one. An executive from HMV, the record company, is in a meeting with the filmmaker, to discuss the release of the music album.
“We are not very happy about the soundtrack”, the executive remarks.
“What is not to like? It has beautiful lyrics and music. The songs are sure to become very popular”, the filmmaker replies. This is the filmmaker’s first ever foray as a director. He is in completely foreign territory with this conversation.
“Look at the singers”, the executive continues. “Aarti Mukherjee, Suresh Wadkar, Bhupinder Singh, Anup Ghoshal, Vanita Mishra, Gauri Bapat, Gurpreet Kaur. I don’t even know most of these names. None of them can sell the album.”
“The lyricist and composer are the most popular names in the industry and have a strong fan base. You are well aware of that”, the filmmaker continues to make the case for the film’s music.
“Yes, but why is there no Lata Mangeshkar singing in this film?”, the executive is all business.
Now what to tell this person? The music composer is very particular about who should sing a song. He has selected some of the most highly regarded singers of Bengali films, classically trained singers. He wants to give them inroads into the Hindi film industry. The songs are beautiful.
As the filmmaker is pondering where this is going, his thoughts are interrupted by the music executive. “You need to record another song sung by a popular singer”.
The filmmaker’s inner dialog continues. Do these bean counters in a record company know anything about music? All their ears are accustomed to hearing is ka-ching. And the audacity to tell me how I should make my film. Unbelievable.
The filmmaker leaves the meeting without another word. Grappling with the challenging situation on hand, he gets together with the lyricist and composer.
“HMV doesn’t like your playback singers. They want us to record another song, preferably with Lata Mangeshkar singing it”, the filmmaker explains the outcome of his meeting with HMV.
“HMV wants Lata Mangeshkar? No problem. We will give them Lata Mangeshkar”, the composer says confidently.
“But there is no production budget left to come up with the situation for another song, record it, shoot it, re-edit the film to insert it in the right place, let alone pay a singer the stature of Lata Mangeshkar to sing it”, laments the first time filmmaker.
Necessity is the mother of invention. They come upon an idea. Instead of writing a new song, why not just take one of the already composed songs and request Lata ji to sing it? They select a male solo, for Lata ji to sing the female version. They approach the veteran singer. She readily agrees to help them out.
The filmmaker comes up with another idea. “We have some unused scenes left over that we can cut in. We can just overlay the song on top of that footage.”
Anup Ghoshal sang the male version of Tujhse naraz nahin zindagi for Masoom (1983), directed by Shekhar Kapur; story, screenplay and lyrics by Gulzar; and music by RD Burman. Lata Mangeshkar’s version was later added in.
The entire Masoom soundtrack became extremely popular, and the movie also was very well received. Shekhar Kapur won the Filmfare for Best Film (Critics) award. Naseeruddin Shah won Best Actor. Gulzar won Best Lyricist and RD Burman won Best Music awards for “Tujhse naraz nahin zindagi”. Aarti Mukherjee won Best Female Playback Singer award for “Do naina ek kahani”.
Anup Ghoshal’s male version is equally as well liked as Lata Mangeshkar’s version. Ghoshal’s voice carries a unique blend of the lightness of Kishore Kumar, and the depth of Hemant Kumar. However, Anup Ghoshal’s popularity and stint in the Hindi film industry was a brief flash.
Lata ji’s version is below.
Singer: Anup Ghoshal, Lata Mangeshkar
Lyrics: Gulzar
Music: RD Burman
*ing: Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Jugal Hansraj
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Film: Masoom (1983)