Interview : Sudesh Bhosle - Art & Soul

Quite naturally, Sudesh Bhosle's unparallelled expertise at mimicking almost every star and singer of his gender has shackled his growth as a playback singer who also can sing in his own, natural voice. It is 15 years since he made 'Jooma chumma de de...'(Hum) the mantra of the nation's loverboys and roadside Romeos.

As he says,"My success came with a flip-side. Some songs that I sang in my original voice did became popular, no one knows that it was I who was singing them!"

Yet Sudesh is satisfied with his lot. He realizes that his strengths are too unique to be measured by crass yardsticks as chartbusters, or quantity of songs.

Excerpts from an Interview:

You barely sing a few songs every year. Are you happy about this?

Why should I not be? I have my music group and we are performing everywhere around the country and the world. My shows are unique and are tailored to whatever is needed from us - we can do a huge concert tour of Holland, UK or USA or perform at a small corporate gathering in Chennai.

What are the kinds of songs that you sing, or to asked to?

The demands vary according to the audience. This is a must for any music group to be consistently successful - my co-singers and musicians are taiyyar in all senses - we can change our repertoire immediately on sensing or being told what the audience would like to hear from us. We generally sing a combination of old and new songs with a little bit of variety entertainment - the songs may range from K.L.Saigal to Amitabh Bachchan and current hits. As a break from the music, I may do a mimicry turn too.

The stage has been my first love long before I came into films in 1988 with a song in R.D.Burman's Zalzala. I have been used to entertaining the masses from 1982.

Music has undergone a paradigm change in every way since then. What is the kind of demand you get at these shows?

One change that has come in is that audiences then would like to hear a good or a hit song for years. Today the songs that they demand change every 2-3 months, and so we have to keep in step. At the same time, the number of people who actually spend ticket money to watch an orchestra has lessened, because today they do not have the patience needed to sit silently and listen for a few hours. We have to change our orientation to match today's short attention spans.

To what do you attribute this degeneration in musical content and tastes, which are obviously inter-dependent things?

The crucial change that has come in and caused this about 15 years ago is that the future of music has passed on from artistes into the hands of businessman whose first and last bottomline is money. The producers of the past were artistes whose sole quest was excellence. For them that excellence would get in the money, and if it did not in a specific case, it was okay. S.D.Burman, for example, was a music director who would not tolerate any interference in his work. But things started changing in the early '90s in particular. I remember the late Laxmi-ji(Laxmikant of Laxmikant-Pyarelal) signalling us with his eyes to keep our cool when an arrogant young man who emanated wealth threw a cassette on Laxmi-ji's harmonium at a recording and arrogantly told him that he had to remake a Pakistani song that it contained! Art was no longer the domain of the artiste - but at the beck and call of money.

I will give you another example - try coming out with a bhajan album today and you will have a horde of lyricists, singers, music directors and musicians available, but no music company to back you! In fact, I feel extremely sorry for all the musical people active in the field today and admire how they cope with all this!

How do you rate today's music directors?

They are truly very talented and very sharp, and the same is true of most of the leading singers. The problem is that corners are cut at every stage, and art suffers at the altar of Mammon. Was R.D.Burman mad to sideline his pet singer, the phenomenal Kishore (Kumar)-da, and opt for Mukesh-ji in the song 'Jis gali mein tera ghar na ho baalama...' in Kati Patang? He instinctively knew that this composition would best suit Mukesh-ji, and he was not going to compromise by bringing in his favourite singer and spoiling his own creation. But today singers are chosen because A and B charge less than C, who the song actually needs!

In the '80s and '90s you were fairly busy. But the hits eluded you.

They did not! But from whatever I sang, only Amit-ji's songs proved hits, and I sang them all in his voice! As a singer, my maximum songs were for Bappi Lahiri and Laxmikant-Pyarelal and I have sung from Raaj Kumar and Shatrughna Sinha to Govinda and Salman Khan, with Anil Kapoor, Jackie Shroff, Sanjay Dutt, Mithun Chakraborty, Shakti Kapoor, Anupam Kher and others in between.

And apart from hits for Amit-ji in several films, many songs in my own voice did become popular, like 'De de de de de...' from Do Aankhen Barah Haath, 'Bhangra paale...' from Karan Arjun,'Lal dupattewali...' from Aankhen and others, but till now people are not even aware that it is my voice in them!

You were also compelled to imitate R.D.Burman in a few films.

Yes,in Aar Ya Paar and Jhankaar Beats. I also imitated Raaj Kumar in Tirangaa. What was amusing was that I was told that I was singing for Amit-ji in 'Mr Lova Lova...' in Ishq and 'I love you bol daal...' in Haseena Maan Jaayegi and my songs were lip-synched by Johny Lever and Sanjay Dutt respectively!

Mimicry must be a great strain on the voice.

But it's a part of me now and I am comfortable with it. Being famous has its flip-side too. When I sang 'Dil jalta hai to jalne do...' for Jogger's Park Subhash (Ghai)-ji said,"I did not know you could do this so well!" In 1986, even before I came into films, I wanted to stop doing mimicry, but suddenly Sanjeev Kumar died and since I was known to imitate him, I landed up doing his dubbing in some five films that were incomplete!

Is it easy to sing a song in someone else's voice?

Compared to singing in a person's voice, mimicry is very simple. It is quite difficult to maintain the musical requirements of sur, taal and everything else while singing in an alien voice. Besides, mimicry is basically a form of exaggeration, while singing is an art that displays your gaayaki. For example, if 'Jumma chumma...' was a comic song it would have been very easy. But it was a romantic dance number that needed the right intensity!

True. Hard work and practice are essential. You cannot ever imitate well with only your face or mouth - you have got to think that you are Amitabh Bachchan, Asrani or anyone else. If my hands are tied I will not be able to imitate - everything comes in - the body language, the gestures and the facial expressions.

It is a very tangy situation, though - you became a hit singer and got restricted too because you were brilliant at it!

Yes, and it was somehow disturbing till (Kalyanji-) Anandjibhai explained that I was being foolish even to think of derailing a speeding car! "You are unique!" he told me succinctly, adding that I should be proud and happy about it. He mentioned that there were great singing talents who had just not made their marks, and advised me to value and respect the success that I had got. He explained that we were working in a field where no one could ever accurately predict what works and what does not. That opened my eyes. Today, when talent is of no value in the face of changing trends and market forces and no playback singer can survive only on songs, I am happy that I have a constant career and audience.

Do you recollect your first meeting with Amitabh Bachchan?

I had met Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Laxmi-ji knew of my background with the Melody Makers troupe. Kishore (Kumar)-da would regularly sing for Melody Makers and he would keep mentioning me, which made things easier as I was a little more than just another new singer approaching them. Laxmi-ji asked me to mimic Amit-ji as he had heard of this talent too and asked me whether I could sing an entire song like him - the song was 'Ya Ali...' from Shashi Kapoor's Ajooba, with Mohammed Aziz as co-singer. We rehearsed the song both ways, in my normal voice as well as Amit-ji's and Laxmi-ji preferred the latter. He called Shashi Kapoor and the result was that I finally got to sing 3 songs in the film. And then Shashi-saab took me all the way to Film City where Amit-ji was shooting. When I was introduced, Amit-ji remarked,"Yaar, mujhe to pataa hi nahin chalaa maine kab gaayaa!"

'Jumma chumma...' was recorded later, though Hum got released earlier. At the recording, word had spread, and though we were in Mehboob Studios till 2 a.m., apart from Amit-ji, all his producers had come to hear the song. Even before the album was out, the hype was there and the song had become a hit!

The bad points are being harnessed rather than the advantages. Today, a singer who would like to improve upon his recording by doing another 'take' isn't allowed to do so - he is told that he has sung well enough, and that any minor flaws can be digitally corrected! This leaves the true artiste frustrated. I recall travelling 15 kilometres back because I was disturbed by the fact that I had not sung one line of a Marathi song well and the music director had passed it. I had almost reached home when I just could not take it and went back and insisted on a 'retake' and was allowed to sing again. My music director Nandu Honap still mentions this in his interviews! But today, this kind of sincerity would be ridiculed.

We are blindly taking only the bad elements from the West at a time when they are going in for the best from the East - look around and you will find that what we have taken from them are pizzas, burgers and colas, whereas they have chosen to take Yoga and Ayurved!