Year 2010……….morning assembly time in a school in Mumbai……….
“Tanhaiyaan, Tanhaiiiiyaan, Tanhaiiiiiiiiiyaaaan……Sara Alam, Sare Mausam, Sari Khushiyan, Sari Duniya……..Tere Wagair……..Tanhaiyaan, Tanhaiiiiyaan, Tanhaiiiiiiiiiyaaaan”
There is no more any invoking the Gods before start of the academic day or a hymn in praise of the motherland. It starts with a Himesh Reshammiya song.
Maybe my extrapolation of the situation is a bit too far fetched. But there is no denying the iconic status that this person has come to enjoy in today’s India. Tune in to any FM channel, and its his songs that are playing, tune in to any entertainment channel and there is that person with a cap on his head and holding the mic at an angle of 45 degrees in front of his mouth, tune in to any news channel and there is a trade analysis about the number of hits he has delivered in one calendar year and how many million records he is selling. The truth really is – Himesh is everywhere. Maybe there was only one medium that had escaped. But now, even that is slated for invasion. We are going to witness H on the silver screen. (Of course, the fact/fiction whether the film is based on the real life of H has been the topic of much debate and discussion and a lot of additional airtime has been devoted to it). Before going any further, I think I need to mention very specifically that I am neither a fan of his, nor do I like the music he is making. I just felt that he is something that I should write about.
Notwithstanding my own personal opinion about his music, it has to be accepted that he has given one chartbusting hit after the other. And there are no signs of his slowing down. Just when u think that he has reached his saturation point, he comes up with yet another surprise. It takes me back to the year 1998-1999. Something very similar happened to Jatin-Lalit. Whatever they touched that year got translated into success. They had 6 straight hit scores that year – Ghulam, Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Khubsoorat, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha, and Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya (whose title song “Odhli Chunariya Tere Pyar Mein” incidentally was by Himesh). The first film whose credits had him as a music director was Bandhan (in which he collaborated with Anand Raj Anand). That was in 1998. In the next few years, he gave music to quite a few films (most of them being Salman Khan starrers) but without much success or acclaim. Then came that one film that was to become a craze and change his destiny for ever – Tere Naam. It was released in 2003 and I was in engineering college then. My college was in Silchar and my hometown Guwahati is a 10 hours bus journey away. I remember very clearly that there was not a single bus which did not have a audio cassette of Tere Naam (some even had two, lest one got damaged). In the coming 2 years in which I must have taken that 10 hour journey atleast 10 times, I never failed to hear a Tere Naam song atleast once. When you are desperately trying to somehow get some sleep in that uncomfortable seat of the Capital Travels bus and suddenly at 1 AM at night, the sound box above your head starts blurting out “Tauba ye tajgi, chehre se sadgi, ye bat us me kaha”, there is nothing u can do other than start hating that person who has made this kind of music.
His next big hit came in the form of “Aashiq Banaya Aapne” and thereafter there has been no looking back. He has leapt from one hit to the other. But his success (like any other success story) has not been without controversy. Industry insiders and a fraction of the music loving public have severely criticized him for his style of music, the same kind of songs that he keeps on making, his’ singing most of the songs himself, his nasal voice etc etc. Also, his wearing a cap everywhere he goes and his unique style of holding the mic has been a source of much ridicule and mockery in the media. His arrogant attitude (much displayed in the talent hunt show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, although u never know whether what is being shown is truly what is taking place or the whole thing is just orchestrated) has also come for much censure.
Despite all these, his popularity has not dampened. On the contrary, maybe its all these that keeps him in the public eye at all times. Nowadays, its very necessary to be in the news for the wrong reasons more than the right ones. But to be fair to him, I think he has given some decent music in a couple of his films, especially Namastey London in which a few tracks are more than just hummable.
The present belongs to Himesh Reshammiya. Only time will tell whether he can maintain his success and constantly keep re-inventing himself and his music in the years to come to deliver more and more countdown hits………………or become just another Anu Malik.
“Tanhaiyaan, Tanhaiiiiyaan, Tanhaiiiiiiiiiyaaaan……Sara Alam, Sare Mausam, Sari Khushiyan, Sari Duniya……..Tere Wagair……..Tanhaiyaan, Tanhaiiiiyaan, Tanhaiiiiiiiiiyaaaan”
There is no more any invoking the Gods before start of the academic day or a hymn in praise of the motherland. It starts with a Himesh Reshammiya song.
Maybe my extrapolation of the situation is a bit too far fetched. But there is no denying the iconic status that this person has come to enjoy in today’s India. Tune in to any FM channel, and its his songs that are playing, tune in to any entertainment channel and there is that person with a cap on his head and holding the mic at an angle of 45 degrees in front of his mouth, tune in to any news channel and there is a trade analysis about the number of hits he has delivered in one calendar year and how many million records he is selling. The truth really is – Himesh is everywhere. Maybe there was only one medium that had escaped. But now, even that is slated for invasion. We are going to witness H on the silver screen. (Of course, the fact/fiction whether the film is based on the real life of H has been the topic of much debate and discussion and a lot of additional airtime has been devoted to it). Before going any further, I think I need to mention very specifically that I am neither a fan of his, nor do I like the music he is making. I just felt that he is something that I should write about.
Notwithstanding my own personal opinion about his music, it has to be accepted that he has given one chartbusting hit after the other. And there are no signs of his slowing down. Just when u think that he has reached his saturation point, he comes up with yet another surprise. It takes me back to the year 1998-1999. Something very similar happened to Jatin-Lalit. Whatever they touched that year got translated into success. They had 6 straight hit scores that year – Ghulam, Jab Pyar Kisise Hota Hai, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Khubsoorat, Pyar To Hona Hi Tha, and Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya (whose title song “Odhli Chunariya Tere Pyar Mein” incidentally was by Himesh). The first film whose credits had him as a music director was Bandhan (in which he collaborated with Anand Raj Anand). That was in 1998. In the next few years, he gave music to quite a few films (most of them being Salman Khan starrers) but without much success or acclaim. Then came that one film that was to become a craze and change his destiny for ever – Tere Naam. It was released in 2003 and I was in engineering college then. My college was in Silchar and my hometown Guwahati is a 10 hours bus journey away. I remember very clearly that there was not a single bus which did not have a audio cassette of Tere Naam (some even had two, lest one got damaged). In the coming 2 years in which I must have taken that 10 hour journey atleast 10 times, I never failed to hear a Tere Naam song atleast once. When you are desperately trying to somehow get some sleep in that uncomfortable seat of the Capital Travels bus and suddenly at 1 AM at night, the sound box above your head starts blurting out “Tauba ye tajgi, chehre se sadgi, ye bat us me kaha”, there is nothing u can do other than start hating that person who has made this kind of music.
His next big hit came in the form of “Aashiq Banaya Aapne” and thereafter there has been no looking back. He has leapt from one hit to the other. But his success (like any other success story) has not been without controversy. Industry insiders and a fraction of the music loving public have severely criticized him for his style of music, the same kind of songs that he keeps on making, his’ singing most of the songs himself, his nasal voice etc etc. Also, his wearing a cap everywhere he goes and his unique style of holding the mic has been a source of much ridicule and mockery in the media. His arrogant attitude (much displayed in the talent hunt show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, although u never know whether what is being shown is truly what is taking place or the whole thing is just orchestrated) has also come for much censure.
Despite all these, his popularity has not dampened. On the contrary, maybe its all these that keeps him in the public eye at all times. Nowadays, its very necessary to be in the news for the wrong reasons more than the right ones. But to be fair to him, I think he has given some decent music in a couple of his films, especially Namastey London in which a few tracks are more than just hummable.
The present belongs to Himesh Reshammiya. Only time will tell whether he can maintain his success and constantly keep re-inventing himself and his music in the years to come to deliver more and more countdown hits………………or become just another Anu Malik.
