So High Solo

Published in Screen many years ago:

So high Solo

Our present singers have been quite unlucky in one respect - theyhave musically grown up in the era of duets. And however good a duet may be compositionally, it cannot match the solo in the challenges it offers to the singer. In a solo, good, bad or indifferent, it is the singer who has to shoulder the complete responsibility for the eventual calibre and appeal of the song.

Among the male singers of the au courant generation, only Abhijeet has been lucky enough to get a consistent series of solos. But the other Bhattacharya - Kumar Sanu - has been at his best in solos too, even if attention has been invariably focussed on his duets.

After all, the song for which Sanu swept every award in showbiz was Ek ladki do dekha to aisa lagaa (1942-A Love Story/1994), with which R.D.Burman, while mentally composing for Kishore Kumar, paradoxically made Sanu evolve beyond the frontiers of a Kishore clone! The same film had Sanu also radiate excellence in Kuchh na kaho (his version proving more evocative than even Lata's) and Rooth na jaana.

The year in which Sanu made his first impact - 1990 - was also marked by three stand-out solos - the sad, solo version of the Rajesh Roshan ace Jab koi baat bigad jaaye (Jurm) and the twin Aashiqui numbers, Ab tere bin jee lenge hum and Ek sanam chahiye aashiqui ke liye.

In the pre- 1942-A Love Story phase, he delivered a cavalcade of hits with Nadeem-Shravan, with very few noteworthy solos like Sochenge tumhein pyar (Deewana) and Aashiqui mein har aashiq (Dil Ka Kya Kasoor), but it was with Bappi Lahiri and Jatin-Lalit that he was at his best even then, for these composers made him open up and sing full-throatedly even before he evolved his throw with that Pancham swar song, something at which he is unequalled among today's male singers.
I remember hearing Sanu vocalize Bahut kathin hai dagar panghat ki, a typical Prakash Mehra song, in Bappi's Zindagi Ek Juaa, in which Sanu sounded almost as rich and vibrant as Kishore Kumar - and uncannily like him, even granting the clone factor. In the remaining songs of that 1992 film, Sanu was in superb form too, singing Kabhi kuchh khoya, Dil to dil hai and the title song with a wealth of feeling and depth. In the same year, Jatin Lalit made him exude sweetness in Dil hai mera deewana (Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman) and Hridaynath Mangeshkar's Ek haseen nigaah ka (Maya Memsaab) was yet another feather in his pack, though heaven alone knows why he was made (or allowed) to pronounce haseen with the full `n' sound at the end.

Anu Malik slambanged into the reckoning in 1993, and at intervals, he has given Kumar Sanu some wonderful solos, like Band hothon se, Yeh ujli chandni and Jis din suraj ki pehli kiran (Sir), Tere dar par and Aanewala pal ek sapna hai (Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayi), Do baatein ho sakti hai (Imtihaan), Dil mera churaaya kyoon (Akele Hum Akele Tum) and Haan judaai se dartaa hai dil (Kareeb).

Sanu's solo innings in the Jatin-Lalit ambit has always been something special. From Ae kaash ke hum hosh mein (Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa) and Aankhon mein kya (Khamoshi) to Kehta hai yeh safar (Bada Din, Jab kisiki taraf dil jhukne lage (Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha), Dil hai aisa raahi (Dillagi) and Naraaz savera hai (Sangharsh) has been a singularly melodious lone journey. These J-L songs all rank among the best songs of Kumar Sanu.

Add Nadeem-Shravan's Do dil mil rahe hai (Pardes), which is among the best solos Sanu has ever sung, Viju Shah's Ae kaash kabhi aisa hota (Mohra) and Rajesh Roshan's soulful Yeh jo thode se hai paise (Papa Kahte Hain) and the exhilarating Chand sitaren phool aur khushboo (Kaho Naa… Pyaar Hai) and you know why Sanu should be given more solos to sing with that wonderful vocal punch and emotional expression of his. As he says, "Other singers may be concerned with their own gaayaki. I am concerned with putting the correct emotion." This explains why many a Sanu duet - like the duet version of the Jurm song , or Chhudake daaman (Imtihaan) - is remembered as a solo, till you refresh memory by reading the inlay or discover the female singer while hearing it again! With Sanu, it's always a case of solo, so high.

Rajiv Vijayakar

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