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The theme of the week was 'playback singing' but the concept of playback singing itself is going through an existential crisis. Earlier, there was a firm division between true blue playback singers on one hand and pop/sufi/rock/folk singers on the other hand. But now, especially in terms of male singers, this division is blurring...
- Sreeram sang 'Tere Mast Mast Do Nain' from Dabangg, a superhit originally sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan. RFAK is a great singer and he has the great qawwali legacy of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. But even though he is very successful in film music now, you wouldn't say he has that classic playback singing style, would you? He made his name in the path of qawwali, sufi and techno-infused traditional tracks, in the footsteps of his legendary uncle.
- Sharib sang 'Dhinka Chika', another Salman superhit, originally sung by Mika. Ten years ago, singers with Mika's unique nasal voice and tapori style would have no place in the film industry, except for the odd novelty song.
- Shivam sang 'Sadda Haq', originally sung by Mohit Chauhan, who made his name outside films, just like MIka and RFAK and was brought into Bollywood simply because of his unique, untypical voice and style.
So even though Mandira said Alka and Shaan are two of the best playback singers of India, nobody sang their songs?
The traditional playback singing paradigm has changed. Earlier, the male playback singer had to have a typical heroic voice fit for the big screen. Consequently, Bollywood was dominated by Rafi and Kishore, who were succeeded by their followers Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Abhijeet, Sonu Nigam, Shaan and KK. These singers would sing all kinds of songs in films. And non-playback voices like Daler Mehndi, Bali Brahmbhatt, Parveen Sultana, Jagjit Singh would sing for films rarely, only to add novelty.
Today, if a film has a sufi song, it will be sung by a sufi singer, no need for a 'playback' singer to come and sing in sufi style (. If it's a rock song, get a rock singer, not Sonu or Shaan singing in a rock tone (Kurbaan Hua). If it's got a Western feel, then just get an actual Western singer (Te Amo).The same goes for semiclassical (Saans Albeli).
I'm asking, is there a separate category of 'playback singing' left any more? Is there such a thing has a playback style or a playback voice any more, especially for male singers? Because if you ask me, RFAK, Mika, Mohit Chauhan, Vishal Dadlani are not classic playback singers - they're all singers of different genres who happen to sing for films.
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