SPB: A Music History - Part 11: SPB in Hindi films

 

(SPB with Salman Khan)

(You can read the earlier parts here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6 , Part 7, Part 8, Part 9 & Part 10)

K. Balachander made 'Maro Charitra' in Telugu and it became a super hit, not only in Andhra Pradesh but also in Madras. The songs of MSV were top class. He had used four female singers in it. Susheela, Janaki, Vani Jayaram and L R Eswari. The lone male singer was SPB. Balachander now wanted to remake this in Hindi. Since MSV was not well known in Hindi, he had to chose a popular Hindi music director. He chose Laxmikant Pyarelal as the music director.

Balachander wanted SPB to sing for Kamal in Hindi as well. Balachander had always been a great supporter of SPB. Over and above that since Kamal was playing a role of a Tamil boy who did not know Hindi, he probably felt that SPB would be the apt singer. The only problem was the LP, as Laxmikanth Payarelal were known, were not in favor of SPB. Balachander persisted and won. Thus SPB came to sing for his first Hindi film, 'Ek Duje Ke Liye'. SPB has many time told that LP were initially skeptical about his abilities but were stunned when they heard him sing the song. Later LP used SPB quite often.

Here is a song from 'Ek Duje Ke Liye'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rq021lXIz9w

If you hear the song, you will understand why LP were stunned by SPB. SPB was by then, a fully formed and a confident singer. The song is an example that he was not overawed by the Hindi music directors and was able to imprint his own stamp on the song. The song has the energy of SPB, his 'nakras', style and voice acting. The songs of this movie too became great hits across the country, the song 'tere mere beech mein', based on Sivaranjani ragam, being the most popular of them all. Here is the SPB version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPaGMGHeR_Q

SPB had sung two amazing Sivaranjani based numbers under Ramesh Naidu and so this song too must have been a cakewalk for him. 

Though the songs became big hits, SPB did not really take off in Hindi, just like Kamal, who too got a great start but did not climb the ladder of success in Hindi. One reason could be that SPB was too busy with his commitments down South that he did not concentrate on his Hindi music career. The second could be that his Hindi diction did have a South Indian touch. 

SPB was one of the few male singers, along with P B Srinivas, who could sing without any visible accent of their mother tongue in the other South Indian languages. The other giants of those times like Gantasala, T M Soundarrajan, Seegazhi, Yesudas all had their problems with diction when they sang in a language which was not their mother tongue. (The ladies of the other hand were amazing. Susheela, Janaki, Jikki, Leela, Vani Jayaram, L R Eswari could all sing in any of the South Indian languages as if it were their own mother tongue). While SPB was impeccable in Tamil and Kannada, you could make out that he was a non Malayali when he sang Malayalam songs. Same way, in Hindi he did not sound like a local Hindi speaker. 

The next big hit movie SPB was associated with was 'Saagar', music by R D Burman. It came 4 years after 'Ek Duje Ke Liye'. R D Burman was one of SPB's most favorite music director. In this movie too he sang for Kamal. It was a big budget film by Ramesh Sippy featuring Kamal, Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia. 

The typical Goan celebration and the song for that situation, 'O Maria', sung by SPB, was a major hit. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laHiSZBw-yY

Once again, a song well suited for SPB and he delivers as expected. He keeps the fun and energy intact throughout the song and has Asha with him, who too loves such kinds of songs. ( The more typical RDB melody, 'chehara hi ya' went to Kishore, who sang for Rishi Kapoor)

Another four years later, music director Ram Laxman was contracted by Rajshri films to score for their new film, 'Maine Pyar Kiya'. Rajshri films were big time producers in the 70s producing a lot of nice small budget films. Their influence declined in the 80s and this was an effort by the production house to get back to its feet. The cast was all new. Raam Laxam, though he had done films earlier, was not a well known name. The new hero was the son of the scriptwriter, Salim Khan and went by the name Salman Khan. I have no idea why Raam Laxman chose SPB to be the voice of Salman Khan but it clicked majorly with the audience. The picture went on to become a humongous hit, thus reviving the production house. Salman Khan went on to become one of super stars. One of the main attraction of the movie were its songs.

Here is SPB singing, 'mere rang mein', from this movie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kxd6po6wL4w

At least to my ears, it appears that the South Indian accent is now more pronounced than in the earlier movies. This did not matter to the listeners, who lapped up these songs. You could hear them everywhere when they were released. 

Raam Laxman continued using his services. 'Saajan' though the next movie which was a big musical hit. Nadeem Shravan were then the flavor of Hindi film music, having delivered other hits. Here is SPB with 'bahut pyar karte hai'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3lZvNexPL0

If my memory serves me right, the female version of this song was the bigger hit those days. 

The next big hit was 'Maine Pyar Kiya'. Once again a Rajshri production with music by Raam Laxman. The hero being SPB. This movie, which was an extended wedding video according to critics, went on to become another humongous hit. This song in particular was a major hit. Or to say in Tamil, 'patti thotti' hit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEKi6vnPApI

After this a lot of work that SPB did in Hindi was for dubbing songs. Not many original songs of his became hits. (There were copies like 'sathiya thune kya kiya' as well, which were hits)

Overall, as far as Hindi was concerned, SPB entered that industry when it was in its decline, with respect to quality. Though he did get to sing some nice songs, he couldn't make much impact on Hindi film music. According to me, his foray into Hindi was middling. Again, we can't blame him for that because the music directors then were not of the caliber of Raja, with whom SPB was delivering almost a classic-a-day. 

In the next part we will talk about SPB and Raja of the 80s and we will have lot to talk about.