Kumar Sanu on Bollywood music now: Sometimes, I feel singers are shouting out loud

Singer Kumar Sanu, who ruled the Bollywood charts for the best part of three decades, feels that the Hindi film industry isn’t making appealing tracks any more, which is why the songs fizzle out soon.

Singer Kumar Sanu isn’t happy with the kind of songs being churned out by Bollywood these days. He feels that they mostly lack melody and poetry and, therefore, they’re forgotten soon after their release.

Kumar Sanu says that many Bollywood songs these days are weak in both lyrics and melody, and even the tunes are repetitive.

The singer should know something about memorable songs — his songs have ruled Bollywood music charts through the Eighties, Nineties, and the early Noughties, and people still hum numbers such as Bas Ek Sanam Chahiye (Aashiqui, 1990); Ek Ladki Ko Dekha To (1942 - A Love Story, 1994); Tujhe Dekha To Yeh Jaana Sanam (from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, 1995); and Ek Dil Hai (Ek Rishtaa, 2001).

Sanu says that “melodious tracks are being made these days”, but adds, “there are not many” that can fit the description. “Hindi film songs lack poetry, and even musically, they aren’t appealing at times. Their lyrical qualities aren’t strong. I sometimes feel that singers aren’t singing, but shouting out loud. Where’s the melody? Why will the listeners accept such songs? You can’t make just foot-tapping numbers or take inspiration from Western music. Such songs won’t work,” says Sanu.

Besides lacking melody, today’s Bollywood composition lacks variety, feels Sanu. “Sometimes, [several] songs by one composer sound similar — that’s one of the reasons why listeners lose interest and forget those songs a few days after they’re released. Why do you think people still listen to old songs? It’s obvious that those tracks have everything that the current songs don’t have,” says the veteran singer, whose voice, in the initial days of his career, was considered to be similar to that of the legendary Kishore Kumar.

Sanu is also against the practice where more than one singer records a song and then only one of the voices gets retained. “Every singer has his or her uniqueness. It’s really painful when four singers are asked to sing one track, and in the end, only one of them is kept. What about the other three artists?” asks Sanu. “This happened with one of my songs recently, and after my voice was retained, [other] two singers called me up, saying they didn’t know I sang the track, too. I don’t think this trend will do any good to the industry.”

Follow @htshowbiz for more