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Please note the following article is not original. I found it while searching for information about Bhupinder. It was a good
article so it seemed better to give them credit and make it available to people here. You can find the original article at
the following site:
http://www.the-south-asian.com/Bhupinder.htm
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| Mitali & Bhupinder Singh |
About Bhupinder Singh:
Bhupinder started out as an assistant to R.D. Burman, playing the guitar for him, and later with his stylised singing
in Gulzar's films carved a niche for himself with songs like Dil dhoondta hai, Naam gum jayega and Ek akela ek shaher mein.
Bhupinder may have stopped singing for movies, but his name still brings back memories of the years when melody and lyrics
were the essence of Hindi films. Most music lovers know Bhupinder the singer but few know that he is also a guitarist who
has given background score for Hindi films. According to veteran music director Naushad, when it came to the guitar, no one
could match up to Bhupinder.
For most of his three decades as a singer, he may have teetered on the side of classicism, yet he has assiduously cultivated
his popular appeal. Which is why the easy laid-back charm that he exudes is deceptive. Bhupinder Singh personifies melody.
And the songs he sings never go out of fashion.
Haqueeqat's vintage Ho Ke Majboor Mujhe Us Ne Bhulaya Hoga or the hummable Dil Dhoondhta Hai Phir Wohi Fursat Ke Raat
Din, or Ek Akela Is Shahar Mein, the music still haunts so also the voice that made these songs immortal.
Most music lovers know Bhupinder the singer. But very few people know that he is also perhaps the greatest guitarist ever
to give background score for Hindi films. Working with music directors like R.D.Burman, Khayyam, Laxmikant Pyarelal and others
he has played the guitar for songs, like Dum maro dum (Hare Rama Hare Krishna), Chura liya hai (Yaadon Ki Baraat), Chalte
Chalte (Pakeezah), Mehbooba O Mehbooba (Sholay) and many more.
According to veteran music director Naushad, when it comes to the guitar, no one can match up to Bhupinder. He considers
Ambar ki ek paak surahi from Kadambari as one of his best creations. The music director was Ustad Vilayat Khan---the first
and the last time when the guru provided music for a film. Another of Bhupinder's great guitar renditions is in Tum jo mil
gaye ho from Hanste Zakhm with music by Madan Mohan.
It was Madan Mohan who invited Bhupinder to Mumbai in 1963 to sing for Haqeeqat. Though Ho ke majboor was a runaway hit,
he didn't get offers. " Don't forget," he reminds you, "I had to compete with the likes of Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh,
Talat Mahmood, Kishore Kumar and Manna Dey. I realized the going would be very tough."
Instead of seeking singing assignments, he began learning the guitar and met R.D. Burman." In the early sixties both
of us had very little work. So we would just hang out together," he reminisces. It was this strong bond of friendship
that was later to transform into a working relationship that resulted in some of the most popular songs of Bollywood.
Today, Bhupinder may have virtually stopped singing for movies, but his name still brings back memories of those years
when melody and lyrics were the essence of Hindi films. Back in the seventies Amol Palekar's brilliant acting and Bhupinder's
mellifluous voice mesmerized audiences cutting across all class and language barriers.
As all good things must come to an end, so did the celluloid partnership of Bhupinder and Palekar and the golden voice
went into oblivion. It reluctantly re-surfaced for a one-off song in Ramgopal Verma's Satya but that's all and no more.
Bollywood's loss has surely been a gain for ghazal lovers. In the mid eighties Bhupinder married Bangladeshi singer Mitali
and switched from Hindi films to the genre of ghazals which he says have been his childhood obsession.
"I didn't leave Hindi film music because I wasn't getting offers. The truth is that the kind of music they wanted
me do did not suit my style or my temperament. In the eighties songs lost their relevance and just became one more part of
a Hindi film. And for me a song without the depth of lyrics is a song without soul. That's why I have distanced myself from
Hindi films," says Bhupinder.
Through most of the nineties his gradual foray into ghazal singing with wife Mitali marked the beginning of another new
phase in Bhupinder's life. " It's a very decisive step and there's no looking back. When you give a live show the response
of the audience is instant and so is the gratification for an artist. It's like making magic on-stage."
For a man who brought orchestration and instrumentation into Hindi film music along with his one time mentor R.D.Burman
this transition from film songs to classical based ghazals has indeed been a giant step. But, he says, even when he was singing
he never compromised with the basic Indian-ness of the songs.
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