Composers strike a double role

More and more music composers today are doubling up as playback singers, writes Ritujaay Ghosh.

Two new singers made their playback debut this month in Life In A Metro and The Train. What’s so unusual about that?

Well, the two singers in question are music directors Mithoon and Pritam Chakroborty. While music director Pritam goes behind the mike in Life In A Metro, composer Mithoon sings three songs in The Train.

Though composers singing songs for their own films is not a new concept it seems to have become a trend of late with more and more music directors taking the mike.

Past matters
However, composers doubling up as singers is a thing of the past. Earlier Bollywood has seen music directors like SD Burman and RD Burman crooning special songs for their films. Remember Mehbooba Mehbooba and O re maajhi from the films Sholay and Bandini.

In the 80s, Bappi Lahiri's unorthodox voice was a hit with the music lovers and he went to give many chart bursting numbers like I am a Disco Dancer, Koi yahaan nache nache and many more such hits. Then came AR Rahmann, who doubled up as a singer for many of his films and gave some ecelctic numbers in the films Dil Se, Roja, Rang De Basanti and the very recent Guru.

But it was the advent of Himesh Reshamiya that's led to the current change after his Aashiq banaya Apne became a rage.

Variety works
Music director Pritam Chakroborty feels that cinema today is all about experimentation. He says, "The industry is more open to experimentation these days. A composer might be looking for a particular punch in one song but is unable to explain it to the singer. So the best thing to do is sing it it himself."

“I am a composer but I sang in The Train because I just wanted to sing. I thought I could give a particular feel to the songs for which I wasn’t getting the right voice,” says composer Mithoon Sharma of Tere bin and Maula mera fame.

Vishal Dadlani, who recently sang for Ta Ra Rum Pum and Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd, corroborates, "Even film directors give a lot of liberty to music directors. Siddharth Anand had a lot of involvement during the making of the music of Ta Ra Rum Pum. He wanted me to sing the song Ek Banjara as he felt that my voice suited the song."

However Vishal says that its more to do with satisfaction than a career move.

“I have been singing a lot over the last one year but that’s to meet the requirement for a particular song. It gives me satisfaction but I have no intentions of becoming a full-fledged singer,” he says.

Anything for a hit
However, singer-composer Himesh Reshamiya says that alls fair if the audience loves your songs. Says he, “The crowd wants something fresh and new. I understood it when my first song in Aashiq Banaya Aapne was a hit.”

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