We have Asha, S Janaki labelled for Sensuous, teasing songs.
Lata, Sadhna Sargam known for singing classical based filmi songs/bhajans.
Poornima, Alka Yagnik for their pure filmi songs.
In
recent times, Sunidhi Chauhan and Shreya Ghoshal are primarily performing the roles of the first two categories respectively. For the third category, I feel it is the male section that is more competitive than the female. A very high level of comparing eras...;-)
Ne ways, lets come back to the person of the review. Recently watched a malayalam movie called Nadodikaattu. Thoroughly enjoyed it even with subtitles.;-). Even renting a decent hindi movie is difficult in the place I stay right now. So keep myself engaged in watching comes my way. This movie can be called the malayali version of Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron except for the positive ending. Got a chance to see why Mohan Lal is admired so much down south. The movie has a beautiful romantic number by K J Yesudas.. ’’Vaishaka Sandhye.....’’.
When I tried to search for this song on raaga.com, came across the female version of the song. It was sung by K S Chithra. Liked Chitra’s version so much that it bagged a place in my favourites playlist. It is one of those beautiful songs which is similar to Yeh Din Kya Aaye, Lage Phool hasne by Mukesh(from rajnigandha ??). By similar, I mean it is not sung by the hero/heroine in the movie but the song goes on in the background while life moves on. Another song that I can think of like this is Tum Jo Mile Tho Laga Hain from Drohi by Suresh Wadkar. you listen once and it will haunt forever like Aayega Aayega Aanewala.. The unique voice to the song makes such songs the unforgettable ones.
The ever fresh voice in the song will haunt once you listen to this song. One singer who stands out in terms of romantic numbers is Chitra. She just takes you into a Romantic mood instantly. Remember Tum Bin Jiya Jaaye Kaise...Kaise Jiya Jaaye Tum Bin from Tum Bin.
There are two voices, Hariharan and Chitra which I think are gifted ones. Hariharan experiments a lot(sometimes vaguely) and hence tend to hate him at times. But Chitra ....Uff Kya Awaaz hain(What a voice!!)..Sweeter than honey. Chitra’s voice and singing from Paayaley Chunmun Chunmun to the recent Dheere Dheere Haule Haule Dil Ko Churaya Tuney have been liked and accpeted by one and all.
Of all the singers that have been popular in Hindi Film industry, Chitra’s voice is the most beautiful......I would say the sweetest of all. Try closing your eyes and listen to any romantic number of hers, be it hindi, malayalam, telugu or tamil, you can imagine as if the song being picturised on a teenage girl like the one in the Piya Basanti Rey song.. Unfortunately, some of her beautiful numbers were picturised on not so fitting Koiralas and Kareenas.;-(..//
Even nearing 40(?), her voice is as fresh as her first Hindi song Saathiya Ye Tune Kya Kiya for ’Maggie’ Revathi or Ninnu Kori Varnam.
She is one of those rare singers from South who in spite of not that fluent Hindi (like ye for yeh ;-)) was able to make a mark in the Bollywood music industry.
In one of her interviews, she had mentioned that she likes to sing in Southern languages more and avoids Bollywood due to the excessive politics. But glad that she did not abandon Bollywood like Yesudas did so suddenly in the 80’s.
She has even cut some albums with Gulzar and Ghulam Ali. Some of the credits that she has to her name are the 5 times National Award and PadmaSri. She has dominated the Southern four states for quite some time and sang for almost every music director. She seems to have sung around 15000 songs in many languages till date.
Considering her age (40+/- 5), a very remarkable achievement.
Before ending the review, would like to list some songs of hers that are simply ..... what adjectives should I use....?
Listen to these songs and I am sure you will find her vocals as mesmerising as ever..
Piya Basanti Re Kaahe Satayee Aaaja..(Piya Basanti Re Album)
Hum Tum Se Na Kuch Keh Paaye (Ziddi)
Yeh Haseen Wadiyaan (Roja)
Chup Tum Raho Chupp Hum Rahe (Is Raat Ki Subah Nahin)
Kehna Hi Kya (Bombay)
Tum Bin Jiya Jaaye (Tum Bin)
Payaley Chunmun Chunmun (Virasat)
Raat Ka Nasha Abhi (Asoka)
Yaaron Sun Lo jara Tum (Rangeela)
........
In fact, this is a review on K S Chitra. Could not find her name and hence placed my content in here.
Thanks for reading. Do not forget to RRC.
What is your favourite number of Chitra?
And who do you think her voice best suited to?
@Sarvesh
Imran Khan’s last Test innings was a duck against Sri Lanka in 1991-92.
Ironically in his previous Test innings he had declared when he was 7 short
of his 7th Test hundred.