What makes Himesh Reshammiya Click? OR Himesh Reshammiya The Success Story
Yesterday I was traveling, I got to listen to “Dil Vich“ a good song that was being aired by a FM station. The beats were so catchy that I picked up the song so fast it stuck in my mouth. Instantly I could identify it was Himesh Reshammiya’s composition from the film Chup Chup Ke.
Himesh Reshammiya is the hit machine now a days, people say anything he touches turns into gold. He is one of the most demanded artists in bollywood. He and his songs are so popular that producers make him appear in their film’s music videos, mainly promotional. Before doing music he had produced nearly 15 hundred hours of programs for Zee TV. His music career began about a decade ago in 1998 when he composed the title song for “Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya” which was a hit then. Two years later he got his first solo film “Dulhan Hum le Jayenge” and he caught the fancy of the industry. With “Humraaz” and “Kya Dil Ne Kahaa” in 2002 he gained some popularity as the songs of the two movies climbed the charts quite fast. Recently it is reported that he has given twenty five straight hits, he has around fifty films under his belt till date.
Be it FM stations, be it TV charts both pop and film song his compositions appear at the top spot. He is enjoying maximum air play in FM stations. A small child to an old man everyone is humming his songs. I want to ask WHY? The answer is quite simple; the man himself admits that he puts lots of effort to make his compositions catchy, which easily stick to the listener’s brain by listening to it once. His instrumentation is also very unique and easily liked by an average listener. His mesmerizing beats make almost all his compositions mass appealing and captivate the audience. For instance in “Jhalak Dikhlaja” from Aksar the tune of shehnai is very well supported by the rhythmic beats.
Not only as a composer and music director Reshammiya has grown to be a very good singer, let’s rephrase it as very popular. He shocked everyone by singing the biggest single of 2005 the title track of “Aashiq Banaya Aapne”. He was able to bag best playback singer Filmfare award for that song. Many people argue that his nasal twang is edgy to the ear drums, but he defended himself in an interview that even the great Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali had a nasal voice but people liked him. He even stressed, it is all due to his overwhelming success he has got. But he expressed all this in a polite manner. Though some people have even termed him as noise pollution I don’t agree with that statement.
After a rocking year 2005, this year’s first two quarter have been icing on the cake for Himesh. In January this firm believer of god released his solo pop album named “Aap Ka Suroor” with two cds one the album other it’s remix and unplugged versions. It became a massive hit as his films. From the starting of 2006 he has been single handedly ruling both the film songs and the pop charts with hit after hit. A fact I want to put light on is that Reshammiya is a big hit not only by himself. He has a great DJ by his side named Akbar Sami. Another man he treats as his brother is his music video director Prashant Chadda, who makes great videos for Himesh. Akbar Sami is the man behind almost all the remixes of Himesh’s tunes that have topped the charts and have made people dance in pubs and dance clubs. Be it “Aashiq Banaya Aapne Remix”, many songs of his album “Aap Ka Suroor- Remix and Unplugged” or the recent “Dil Vich Remix” or “Shabe Firaq Remix” DJ Akbar Sami has uplifted the place of Himesh Reshammiya from a hit music director to a super duper hit music director. Himesh can skillfully calculate the need and the demands of the masses so he is able to provide great songs and in my analysis even greater remixes are provided by the DJ which makes the songs bigger hits. Short, fast, with loud dancing beats and packed with even more craving official remixes are great. The trend now in his albums is that he has just 6 songs, remix of all songs and even some unplugged versions in some albums.
Another point people pick out from Reshammiya’s songs is that all of them sound very same. He can only give youthful songs with rocking beats that last for a month and they are forgotten. His nasal twang is unbearable with always sufi type singing at high scale. Some people even criticize on his dressing style. For these people I would like to point out that Himesh gave the music of Tere Naam which is the best seller in ten years breaking all records. With soulful songs like “Kitna Pyar” in Banaras and the controversially popular “Tum Sanson Mein” of Humko Deewana Kargaye he has proved his singing is versatile, he can sing other genres than sufi. He has proved his versatility as a music director with films like “Banaras” and “Tere Naam”. He always tells that he is a music composer first then only a singer. Exclusively singing to his tunes he once stated that Himesh the music director decides if Himesh the singer should be used or not. As for his dressing sense, its not required to wear a jeans jacket, or coat in this hot season. It will be a treat to watch when he takes his cap off.
With upbeat, musical maestro we have more to satisfy our ears with this year and coming year as well. The man is amongst the busiest music composes in Bollywood today, who has given a string of hit albums not only songs. In 2006 we can listen to “Aahista Aahista” whose promos have started airing from May end, “Benaam”, ‘Milenge Milenge”, “Good Boy, Bad Boy”, “Apne”, “Dil Diya Hai”, “Rocky” and others. In 2007 we will get a chance to enchant our ears with films like “Dharam-Veer”, “Anamika” and others by Himesh’s music and may be his voice as well. Everyone has his or her taste of music, if you don’t like Resammiya, his music or his style I have no negative response for that. But let’s all pray that Himesh will remain the untouchable king of bollywood’s music scene and give us more beautiful and foot tapping numbers to hum to.
By Geshan Manandhar