Bollywood Singers in Tamil Cinema

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Topic started by ab_123 on Sat Apr 29 17:17:52 2006.

The examples that come to mind are:

Asha Bhonsle - good
Udit Narayan (I have seen quite an improvement with him)
Sadna Sargam - good

If there are others, please fill me in.

The question I would like to ask the people here is, do you think they have diction issues? And if you think so does it spoil the song for you?

I am not a Tamil expert (it is not my mother-tongue, and my exposure is mainly though movies and songs), so I cannot catch the finer mispronounciations.

(What has led to this question is that Bollywood audience are very picky about diction issues. Especially those of south singers. ) Are we more tolerant? Also, from some of ARR's interviews, I have read that he and the lyricist work closely with the singers to get it right.

Would like to hear your thoughts.

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Responses:

From: Aalavanthan on Sat Apr 29 17:34:39 2006.

Thanks for the thread ab.
Diction issues.. yes... Sadhan still has problems with the unique tamil letter 'Zha'.
Some songs for your reference.

Film: A Aah
Song: Mayiliragae
Singer: Madhusri.. not sure whether she is a Non-Tamilian
Ref: She replaces Kal Ezhuthu as Kal Adithu in the pallavi

Film: Kanda naal mudhal
Song: Merkae Merkae
Singer: Sadhana Sargam
Ref: She replaces the word Ezhundhidum as Elindhidum in the pallavi

Occassion: Andrum Indrum Endrum (Concert of IR)
Singer: Shreya Goshal
Song: Kaatril
Ref: She made a mess of herself by saying "thodudhae" instead of "thedudhae".

Hope this answers your query. BTW; my personal opinion is to call our cinefield as "Tamil Cinema" and not as Kollywood.

thanks..AV
From: Surya on Sat Apr 29 17:37:57 2006.

There are some REALLY NICE songs which have been ruined by Non-tamil singers.

Mayiliragea has already been mentioned.

Film: Godfather
Song: Kaatril
Someone who doesn't know TAMIL!!!!

It's a very good song, but the singer really killed it.
From: ab_123 on Sat Apr 29 17:44:59 2006.

Thanks for your response Aalavanthan, and Surya (BTW, I changed the subject heading).

Yes the 'zha', I would think would be the trickiest. Funny anecdote about Shreya..oops.

But, correct me if I am wrong. I am almost 100% sure that in the song
"Kannum Kannum Nokia" from Anniyan, the male singer says "Aiva ...Alagai va vaa", instead of "Azhagai....". Is this sometimes acceptable, or in spoken tamil, can this be used?

Slight diversion - One person I can really commend is SPB. Until recently, I thought he grew up in Chennai, hence no diction issues. But I came to know that he grew up in Nellore, and in his first film, there were complaints about this problem. The same singer who has produced numerous great songs!!
From: svaisn on Sat Apr 29 20:54:07 2006.

Surya, ab, aalavanthan....

I do accept your points... but IMHO North indian singers give a better feel to most of the songs

Nothing wrong in giving them chances

Listen to Shreya Ghosal Unnai vida and sandiyare....... that is the max whioch u can expect from a northie.....

Sadhana has improved her lot in the last few years..

I am not supporting Udit, Sukh, Madhu shree.....

lets practically think, how many tamizhians born and brought up tamizhnadu pronounce zh correctly so this should not be only criteria to judge a singer....

THis is my opinion........

But shreya and Sadhana... are doing justice to most of the songs.....

Lets give them their credit....

From: ab_123 on Sat Apr 29 21:29:42 2006.

svaisn wrote:

Surya, ab, aalavanthan....

I do accept your points... but IMHO North indian singers give a better feel to most of the songs

Nothing wrong in giving them chances

Listen to Shreya Ghosal Unnai vida and sandiyare....... that is the max whioch u can expect from a northie.....

Sadhana has improved her lot in the last few years..

I am not supporting Udit, Sukh, Madhu shree.....

lets practically think, how many tamizhians born and brought up tamizhnadu pronounce zh correctly Rolling Eyes

so this should not be only criteria to judge a singer....

THis is my opinion........

But shreya and Sadhana... are doing justice to most of the songs.....

Lets give them their credit....

This was my point too in the above post.

I think Sadna and Asha.B. have done really well (considering how different Tamil is from their respective mother-tongues. Slip ups do happen. I don't think we were taking anything away from them as singers. Just wanted to know if diction is as much an issue for us as it is for the Bollywood audience.

From: svaisn on Sat Apr 29 21:41:10 2006.

Have you heard ARR singing in Hindi...

He never pronounces few words correctly

They still enjoy it:-)
From: ab_123 on Sat Apr 29 22:04:18 2006.

svaisn wrote:

Have you heard ARR singing in Hindi...

He never pronounces few words correctly

They still enjoy it:-)

I have not heard -ve comment on ARR, as yet. But a good number (not all, obviously) don't give credit to greats like SPB, and Hariharan (to some extent...I guess his ghazal fans are ok, but there are some who think he has a diction issue).

I think we are more tolerant, otherwise these singers would not be singing as much as they do. We give them credit as singers, and for actually trying. And over the years, I have seen tremendous improvement in all of them.

From: svaisn on Sat Apr 29 23:45:11 2006.

Aalavanthan wrote:

Occassion: Andrum Indrum Endrum (Concert of IR)
Singer: Shreya Goshal
Song: Kaatril
Ref: She made a mess of herself by saying "thodudhae" instead of "thedudhae".
thanks..AV

Other than this...
Did u find any injustice in her rendition...??

She infact Rectified it at the end..

From: Aalavanthan on Sun Apr 30 5:46:58 2006.

svaisn wrote:

Other than this...
Did u find any injustice in her rendition...??

She infact Rectified it at the end..

She got a big applause from a disturbed crowd
But the answer for the question diction is YES. If she had known the meaning of what she sang, she would never have seen the lines while singing. Not just with her but for all those who dont know what they are singing. Thats my point.

BTW, if there is a thread to priase these singers, I will be the first one reply as well. Snegidhanae, Unna vida, Nee paartha - suitable voices but I cant end this quote without saying that all these singers use "ha" for "ga".

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