Kumar Sanu: The Melody Of His Voice Lingers On

This weekly series on the singers of the 90s will be incomplete without a mention of the name that ruled the roost for the first half of the decade. This week Odisha Bytes pays a tribute to one more legend of Bollywood music, who surpassed the record of legendary Kishore Kumar for most consecutive Filmfare award wins – Kumar San, while discussing his years of struggle.

Kumar Sanu

A voice that is undoubtedly the epitome of 90s male playback singing but has been mysteriously away from the limelight in the past decade. The recent rehashed version of Aankh Maarey from Ranveer Singh’s Simmba in ‘Kumar Sanu ke awaaz mein’ reminded the audience and introduced the present generation to the crowned king of the early 90s Bollywood music, who had made it to the Guinness World Records by recording 28 songs in a day. His back-to-back Filmfare awards from 1991 through 1995 brought home another record of most-consecutive wins, surpassing legendary Kishore Kumar’s four (1983 to 1986). It won’t be wrong to say that Sanu had seen glory like no other singer of the 90s.

Early Days

Born to a vocalist and composer father as Kedarnath Bhattacharya (Sanu was his nickname), Sanu hailed from a family of trained singers and musicians. He grew up listening to khayal, thumri, Baul music and was deeply influenced by the musical culture of Kolkata. He considers his father to be his first guru in music. Trained in classical Hindustani music, Sanu’s musical journey started at the age of 22 in 1979 when he joined as a rhythm (tabla) player with his elder brother and sister in an orchestra, which played in various gatherings in and around Kolkata. During those formative years, in one such gathering, in the absence of the lead singer, he was cajoled by his brother into singing in front of the audience. Being a R D Burman and Kishore Kumar fan, as he nervously started yodelling and singing Kishore songs, the audience applauded and went berserk demanding for more thus building his confidence and making him realize his potential to imitate the legend. This experience paved his career path in Bollywood singing as he gathered popularity in the Kolkata circles singing Kishore Kumar songs. Amid all these, he kept visiting recording studios in Kolkata where maestro R D Burman and the likes would visit and sat through their recording sessions. He eventually started singing in restaurants and also for Dhaka Radio.

The First Break

For the 1984 Jeetendra movie ‘Yeh Desh’, R D Burman picked the struggling Udit Narayan, Shailendra Singh and Kumar Sanu for the song Dekhna Dekhna Dekhte Dekhte. Neither the movie made a mark nor did the song find any audience. In the chronology of songs rendered by Kumar Sanu, this is the first to have received due credit in the album yet this is strangely never mentioned in any of the movie and music databases as his debut nor does he himself ever mention the same in any of his interviews.

Around the same time, he made his solo playback singing debut as Sanu Bhattacharya in the Bangladeshi movie ‘Tin Konya’ released in 1985 where his rendition of the title song Tin Konna Ek Chhabi Chanda Champa Aar Bobby rose high on the popularity charts and still finds audience and relevance in Bangla circles through rehashed versions three decades later.

The Chance Encounter

Being an ardent Bollywood music fan, he wished to venture into playback singing in Hindi movies and thus with support from his brother moved to Mumbai in 1986. There too he started singing in premier hotels and travelled to various recording studios and music directors seeking opportunities with a dummy CD of Kishore Kumar songs that he had recorded in his voice.

Around the same time, a chance visit of Jagjit Singh to a recording studio where Sanu was recording a Kishore Kumar song changed his fortunes. The ghazal maestro was so enamoured by the voice that he instantly asked Sanu to come to his home the next day and offered him a song Karke sagaai, ab karne chale ladaai in a movie ‘Aandhiyan’ starring Shatrughan Sinha that he was composing for. Unfortunately, the movie got shelved but Jagjit Singh introduced Sanu to Kalyanji- Anandji, who were then looking for some singer for their stage shows. The stage shows were trial sessions for the composer duo who frequently introduced new singers. If the audience liked a singer, the duo tried to ensure that they provided him/her the required opportunity in Bollywood and Sanu ensured that his yodelling and renditions of Kishore Kumar songs during the stage shows got the requisite applause.

Kishore Kumar Clone!

In the year 1987, the legendary maverick singer Kishore Kumar passed away leaving many composers, actors, producers and fans distraught. An equally distraught Sanu found his calling through this loss. While search for opportunity continued, one such visit to the T-series office made him realize that Gulshan Kumar was already looking for him having learnt of his ability to clone Kishore Kumar’s voice from various sources. This rendezvous instantly changed his career path as he found himself flying off to Delhi for recording the first volume of the ‘Kishore ki Yaadein’ series for T-series the very next day. The series with the first volume being released in 1988 became so popular that it was followed up by eight more volumes, all of which were crooned by Sanu along with Anuradha Paudwal. Then came the ‘Yaadein’ series where he sang many of the songs of the legend along with Abhijeet and Vinod Rathod.

The ‘Sound’ Take Off

1988 was the year when Sanu’s career got the push. He sang his Hindi solo song Jashna Hai Mohabbat Ka for Hridaynath Mangeshkar for the Naseeruddin-starrer ‘Hero Hiralal’, which released in 1989. Kalyanji-Anandji were also looking for a suitable replacement for Kishore Kumar to sing songs for the legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan in his upcoming movie Jaadugar (which released in 1989). They offered him the title song of the movie and rechristened him as ‘Kumar’ Sanu. When Amitabh heard the rendition, he instantly asked Kalyanji Anandji to have Sanu sing all his songs in the movie. While the movie bombed at the box office, the fact that a novice singer was singing for Amitabh Bachchan grabbed headlines opening new avenues for Sanu. Rajesh Roshan offered him Jiya Pyar Mange Jiya  for the Jeetendra, Govinda-starrer ‘Aasman Se Ooncha’, Aaja Aa Khele Game Koi for the Govinda-starrer ‘Jaisi Karni Waisi Bharni’ and Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye in the Vinod Khanna-starrer Jurm.

Some of these songs got their dues only a year later. The song that actually made people to sit up and take notice was from an unexpected quarter – the Babul Bose-composed Tere Hum Aye Sanam for the T-series movie ‘Jeena Teri Gali Mein’. The smartly-marketed low budget straight-to-video movies of T-series were targeted more at music listeners than movie-goers to boost audio cassette sales.

The ‘Aashiqui’ Magic

The other T-series album that was being recorded by Nadeem Shravan with 28 songs for T-series brought home success, fame and his first Filmfare award. While Gulshan Kumar was convinced to make an album using the songs, Mahesh Bhatt felt that these songs were movie material and so Gulshan Kumar agreed to produce the movies if Mahesh Bhatt wrote and directed them. The first pick from the lot were used for the movie ‘Aashiqui’, which was literally written by Bhatt keeping the songs in mind. The rest, as they say, is history. The soundtrack album sold 20 million units, making it the best-selling Bollywood soundtrack album of all time, placing the composer Nadeem Shravan, lyricist Sameer, and singers Kumar Sanu and Anuradha Paudwal on their pinnacle of success, and re-establishing T-series as a reliable music brand as it surpassed its own record sales for ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’. The music of the album won Filmfare awards in all major categories – best composer, best lyricist, best male playback (for Ab Tere Bin Jee Lenge Hum) and female playback singer in 1991.

Sanu, who was till then busy cloning Kishore Kumar’s voice in a chain of T-Series’ compilations, finally discovered his own voice. He had declared his arrival in the Bollywood music scene! Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye and Aasman Se Ooncha which had not received their dues during their release had a new found recognition after the success of ‘Aashiqui’ as his fans rediscovered these songs.

The second lot picked from the Nadeem Shravan compilations by Mahesh Bhatt for ‘Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin’ furthered Sanu’s fame. From then on Sanu’s crooning escapades in ‘Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin’, ‘Sadak’, ‘Saajan’, ‘Deewana’, ‘Dil Ka Kya Kasoor’, ‘Damini’, ‘Raja Hindustani’, ‘Pardes’ and ‘Andaaz’ (1991 -2003), to name a few, became the toast of Baraats, parties, restaurants and were played in every nook and corner of the country.  Mera Dil Bhi Kitna Pagal Hai for ‘Saajan’, Sochenge Tumhe Pyar for ‘Deewana’ , Yeh Kali Kali Aankhen for ‘Baazigar’ and  Ek Ladki Ko Dekha for ‘1942: A love story’ brought home the remaining Filmfare awards in consecutive years.

Ominous Signs

Sanu became one of the busiest singers in the industry and his strong association with Nadeem Shravan ensured that the escalation to higher peaks of success continued.

Be it arrogance as a result of the success or be it naivety, his announcement after fifth consecutive Filmfare award that he would like to see other singers also win the award proved ominous and put brakes on his award-winning spree after 1995. Such was the turn of events that though the ever-lasting melody Tujhe Dekha Toh Yeh from the superhit ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge’ made it to the nomination, it did not win him the award next year. Instead Mehndi Lagake Rakhna from the same movie won Udit Narayan his second Filmfare award in 1996 and had his award ball rolling. The crown had now shifted to his close competitor Udit!

Later in 1997, Sanu’s mentors Nadeem Shravan got embroiled in the murder case of Gulshan Kumar and it proved to be a nemesis for Sanu’s career.

Nevertheless, Sanu remains popular among the listeners of 90s music. His popularity across continents can be gauged from the fact that Mayor of Dayton, Ohio in the USA, declared March 31 as Kumar Sanu day, a first such honour for an Indian singer.

Songs from Kumar Sanu’s struggling years (1984-90) that you might have missed and are worth revisiting:

1. Aaj Is Rut Mein Man Hua Chanchal (With Anuradha Paudwal) from ‘Jeena Teri Gali Mein’ (1988/ video released in 1991)
2. Tere Hum Ae Sanam (With Anuradha Paudwal) from ‘Jeena Teri Gali Mein’ (1988)
3. Jiya Pyar Mange Jiya (with Sadhana Sargam) from ‘Aasman Se Ooncha’ (1989)
4. Jab Koi Baat Bigad Jaaye (with Sadhana Sargam) from ‘Jurm’ (1989)
5. Sochna Kya (with Shabbir Kumar & Asha Bhosle) from ‘Ghayal’ (1990)

(The writer is a doctor and public health specialist by profession but a passionate music enthusiast with special liking for Bollywood music from 80s and 90s. The views are personal)