My Top 5+5 Telugu Film Singers
Avineny N. Bhaskar
Since there are so many threadds going on the Telugu pronounciation of
the singers I feel it is right time to start something like this. This
will bring out whose voices/pronounciations people like at the most.
Please limit your choices STRICTLY to TELUGU SONGS ONLY.
My List for Female voices(Order is present to past)
1. Shreya Goshal
She is a new singer to Telugu. In recent dasys every alternative
Telugu Albums comes with atleast one song of hers. Her best songs(I
feel are...) నువ్వేం మాయ చేశావోగాని from the movie ఒక్కడు,
చిన్న నాటి చెలికాడే from యగ్నం, తెలిసి తెలిసి from ఆనంద్
2. Usha - అచ్చమైన పదహారనాల తెలుగింటమ్మాయి
There are lots of songs by this young lady. నే తొలిసారిగా... from
the movie సంతోషం
3. Swarnalata - ఈమె కూడా అచ్చమైన పదహారనాల తెలుగింటమ్మాయే
She is not getting lots of opportunities, but she had got few national
awards too. వలపు విరహమా from the movie సఖి, పూదోట
పూచింది from ?
4. Chitra - తెలుగు పాటల్ను తెలుగువారికన్నా బాగ పాడి తెలుగు
వారి మనసుళ్ళో గూడు కట్టుకుంది ఈ మలయాళపు కోకిల.
What more to say about her?
5. S.Janaki - మాటలు రాని మౌనములో ముంచి లాలించుతారు ఈ తెలుగు
తల్లి.
Male voices.
1. Karthik - I do not have any ideas about is nativity.
This young boy is singing lot in telugu, not making any pronounciation
mistakes, I presume. Songs :- ఓ చెలి నీ ఒయ్యారాలే from అర్జున్,
నువ్వెంత అందగత్తె.. from మల్లీశ్వరి, etc.
2. Mallikharjun - I guess he is native telugu person.
It is really a different voice. Manisharma uses him more often. Songs
: చిట్టి నడుమునే... from గుడుంబ శంకర్.
3. Rajesh - ఎటో వెళ్ళి పోయింది మనసు...
4. Baalu
No doubt he is the best Telugu singer for this generation.
5. KJ Jesudas - తెలుగులోకి ఎలా వచ్చారో తెలియదు గాని; చాలా
పాటల్ను కూణి చేశారు అని మాత్రం చెప్పగలను
Apart from his mispronounciation, I like his songs for the melody.
Regards,
Avineny N Bhaskar.
Courtesy: http://www.kanneganti.com/
Narasimha Kumar
This talk of mis-pronunciation etc., brings to mind
an interview with CiNaRe published in 'Haasam' some
months back.
Apparently, the popular Chiranjeevi song "RaaMMa
Chilakamma" (sung by Udit Narayan, I think) was
written by the lyricist as "Rama Chilkamma, Prema
Molakamma...but the singer ended up singing RaaMMa
Chilakamma...:-)And so, it goes..
Incidentally, I have not seen any discussion on the
contribution being made by the Telugu publication
'Haasam'. I have been out of touch with Racchabanda of
late, so may have missed any posts about Haasam. For
people interested in Telugu songs
(film/stage/classical) and healthy humour, its a must
read.
regards,
Kumar
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NaChaKi
<< 1. Shreya Goshal
She is a new singer to Telugu. In recent dasys every alternative
Telugu Albums comes with atleast one song of hers. Her best songs(I
feel are...) నువ్వేం మాయ చేశావోగాని from the movie ఒక్కడు,
చిన్న నాటి చెలికాడే from యగ్నం, తెలిసి తెలిసి from ఆనంద్
<snipped for brevity>
5. KJ Jesudas - తెలుగులోకి ఎలా వచ్చారో తెలియదు గాని; చాలా
పాటల్ను కూణి చేశారు అని మాత్రం చెప్పగలను
Apart from his mispronounciation, I like his songs for the melody. >>
Well, *I* didn't think Shreya Goshal's pronunciation and
sometimes-shrill voice is liked by someone immensely. Also, *I* didn't
think KJY is disliked for "khoonI" of Telugu. Anyway, that could be
just me!
My lists here:
Female:
1. Susheela: Excellent voice modulation based on characters and
aristes. Melodious and sweet always. (Meaning that I might cry if I
hear a pathos number from her voice, but not cry for the pitch or
modulation she chose for such a song.)
2. Leela: This golden voice still haunts me after listening to her for
a while. Again, it's a gracefully sweet voice.
3. Chitra: Impeccable pronunciation (there are only quite few examples
of mispronunciation that I can think of) from a non-Telugu. (Of course,
this goes with Leela too, and it's surprising that Leela's Telugu is
still a lot accented when she "speaks".)
4. Vani Jayaram: Sweet, melodious, impeccable. Can listen her voice for
hours. Of course, like many, probably, I'd quote ఆనతి నీయరా
హరా... (స్వాతికిరణం) as an example.
5. Sailaja: Some songs really come to life when this "Jr. Susheela"
renders them, I'd dare to say. The song కృష్ణమ్ కలయ సఖీ
సుందరమ్ (పెళ్ళి పుస్తకం) is the only song, I guess, that was
rendered by these two singers together. If one listens to that song,
one can probably understand why I had to call her "Jr. Susheela". (But,
well, these two are as apart as Savitri and so-called "Jr. Savitri"
Vanisree!)
More that I like: Suneetha, Sumangaly, Usha, Swarnalatha
Male:
1. S.P.Balasubrahmanyam: Excellent (but not impeccable) voice
modulation, emotion, expression, and pronunciation. (Now, his శ did
not sound as ష always. He started this in recent times, probably
with the influence of Hindi songs that he sang. I can only think of one
mispronunciation excluding his శ.) Truly represents "variety" in
suitability to artistes & characters of movies and genres of songs and
movies. Is he getting monotonous these days? I wish not!
2. Ghantasala: I'd have been tempted to place Ghantasala on the top of
the list if not for SPB's "variety". Of course, his pronunciation gives
him some minus points too. (ంచ sounding as ల్చ sounds
inappropriate, particularly when singing సిగ్గు తెరలలో కనులు
దిల్చుకొని, తలను వల్చుకొని. ...Well, not quite ల్చ, I agree, but
sounds bad. And, some storywriter said that because of Ghantasala most
people now sing ఏకదంతం ముపాస్మహే instead of ఏకదంత
ముపాస్మహే.) One of his minuses was probably out of his hands - his
breath sounds in most songs, particularly those he sang a few years
before his death, which is quite unsuitable, particularly if the song
is an active one.
3. Mano/Nagur Babu: Initially started off as an "imitation of Balu",
but has a lot of versatility, probably more than SPB himself!
4. Mallikharjun: Starting to show off his talent. Has a good voice
modulation capability. Listen to ఘల్లు ఘల్లుమని
సిరిమువ్వల్లే...(ఇంద్ర), సాహసం శ్వాసగా... (ఒక్కడు), చిట్టి నడుమునే
చూస్తున్నా... (గుడుంబా శంకర్).
5. S.P. Charan: I can say I like his voice - not because he's Balu's
son, but because he can sing well. He's beginning to show all the
versatility of his dad. Genes carry a lot, don't they?
More that I might soon like more: Rajesh, Muralidhar, Parthasarathi,
Gangadhar (I already like these two, but somehow the cinema industry
doesn't turn to them much.)
Now, for a no-explanation-needed list of singers that I don't want to
listen Telugu songs from:
Male: Udit Narayan, Sukhvinder Singh, Kumar Sanu, Sonu Nigam, R.P.
Patnaik
Female: Asha Bhonsle, Shreya Ghosal, Kalpana, (Had enough of her,
thanks to Mani Sarma, though she's good in some songs.) Sadhana Sargam,
Kavitha Krishnamurthy
Enough said,
NaChaKi.
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NaChaKi
<< This talk of mis-pronunciation etc., brings to mind an interview
with CiNaRe published in 'Haasam' some months back.
Apparently, the popular Chiranjeevi song "RaaMMa Chilakamma" (sung by
Udit Narayan, I think) was written by the lyricist as "Rama Chilkamma,
Prema Molakamma...but the singer ended up singing RaaMMa
Chilakamma...:-)And so, it goes.. >>
Two points:
1. The lyricist was Sree Veturi, and not CNR. The singer was Udit, yes.
2. The music director vehemently contradicts this statement
(<http://www.telugucinema.com/c/stars/interview_manisarma_2004.shtml> -
Q. 13 from the top), though I personally heard the same from Sree
Veturi himself. (The music director was not interviewed by me though.)
And, now for more,
Anyway, whoever this lyricist was, the question posed by the famous
film critic and journalist Sree Gudipoodi Sreehari a few years back is
still fresh in my mind - Why do our film-makers go for Udit paying
about 64K rupees per song (the then-remuneration, which could be
nearing a 100K now, if not more) when they get a better pronunciation
and expressive voice of SPB for 25% of the same remuneration?!
Actually, this question became more of a puzzle to me when I saw that
Udit and other N. Indian singers were listed on the inlay cards for
albums of low-budget movies such as జల ఆకర్షణ. (I am almost
positive that not more than a handful of RB members would have heard
the title of the movie - it's such a low-budget movie, and I am not
even sure if it was released in other places... I think I saw, not the
movie, but at least the posters, in Hyderabad.)
On a related note, also read this interview of (music) director S.V.
Krishna Reddy (done by yours truly) -
<http://www.telugucinema.com/c/stars/svk.shtml> (Q. 16 through Q. 22) -
where he tries to reason the choice of non-Telugu singers as much as
possible. I was not able to express all my anguish at that time, as he
was too tired, but a few others around us were not really so soft about
it. (I had to present it with lower tone of voice and lesser emotion,
of course.)
NaChaKi.
P.S: The theory "Like father, like son" is, apparently, disproved in
Udit's case. His son Aditya Narayan had an almost impeccable Telugu
pronunciation when he sang in Telugu while he was still a kid aged less
than ten years. (ఆకతాయి ఒక్కడంట, రాలుగాయి ఒక్కడంట... - doMga
doMga, and కూచి కూచి కూనమ్మా... & నవ్వితేనే దీవానా... -
boMbaayi) He did not sing in Telugu of late, and I do not know of any
recent Hindi songs either.
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Narasimha Kumar
NaChaki garu,
"1. The lyricist was Sree Veturi, and not CNR."
I did not say the lyricist was CNR. CNR simply talked
about it in an interview.
As for Mani Sharma defending it, yes, I read the
interview too. However, I do not agree with MS that
"Rama Chilakamma" does not fit the tune well. The 'm'
could have been pronounced with out the stress (othu)
by a native singer or a careful non-native singer.
As for the larger issue of non-telugu performers in
Telugu cinema: Leave alone singers, we have non-Telugu
dubbing artistes for non-Telgu heroines in Telugu
films :-)
Some of them really dub so well for the Mumbai-based
heoirnes that one is surprised to learn that they are
non-Telugus (Tamil).
I wonder: how come our film makers have to depend on
Tamil dubbing artists for telugu dubbing? Cann't they
find a single good female telugu voice that would suit
these non-Telugu actresses? Okay, Roja Ramani and
Sarita may no longer sound like a 18-year old, but
surely there would be a lot of young talent?
regards,
Kumar
--- NaChaKi <nachakigroups@y...> wrote:
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Uday Bhaskar
> P.S: The theory "Like father, like son" is, apparently, disproved in
> Udit's case. His son Aditya Narayan had an almost impeccable Telugu
> pronunciation when he sang in Telugu while he was still a kid aged
less
> than ten years. (ఆకతాయి ఒక్కడంట, రాలుగాయి ఒక్కడంట... -
doMga
> doMga, and కూచి కూచి కూనమ్మా... & నవ్వితేనే దీవానా... -
> boMbaayi) He did not sing in Telugu of late, and I do not know of
any
> recent Hindi songs either.
>
Interesting. I didnt know that was Udit's son. Yes, I agree that his
diction is much better, and I believe even in Tamil he sang very well.
As long as we are discussing non Telugu singers in Telugu Cinema,
does any one remember the fast paced కంటి చూపు చెబుతోంది కొంటె
నవ్వు చెబుతోంది మూగమనసులో మాట ఓ పిల్లా song from జీవిత చక్రం?
the female singer in that song was SAradA, a regular singer for music
directors Shankar Jaikishen in those days. I dont remember if she
sang any more Telugu songs, but in this song her pronunciation wasn't
too bad. Looks like non Telugu music directors paid more attention to
diction and clarity than today's Telugu music directors.
Regards,
Uday
Courtesy: http://www.kanneganti.com/
Avineny N. Bhaskar
--- In racch...@yahoogroups.com, Narasimha Kumar <naraskumar@y...>
wrote:
>
> Apparently, the popular Chiranjeevi song "RaaMMa
> Chilakamma" (sung by Udit Narayan, I think) was
> written by the lyricist as "Rama Chilkamma, Prema
> Molakamma...but the singer ended up singing RaaMMa
> Chilakamma...:-)And so, it goes..
Please Read the below(portion of) interview by Manisharma, the music
director of this songs "raam(m)aa chilakammaa...".
Sri: Now, back to your blockbuster film chooDaalani undi. The hearsay
is that you changed the lyric to the tune, as Udit cannot sing it
properly? (raamachilakammaa became raammaa chilakammaa)
ManiSharma: That's absolutely baseless. See, first I gave the tune
(hummed me the tune). And then, Veturi gaaru wrote the song. How can
raamachilakammaa fit into this tune. So I asked him. and he said he
does not have any problems if I tweak the lyric. This sort of things
does happen in the cine field all the time. Why blame me alone?
Sri: Well, it's partly because there are some people like me who feel
that Udit kills the lyrics with his mispronunciations. There're, of
course, people who enjoy his songs.
ManiSharma: I always take care that he does not mispronounce in my
films, but I cannot say about others' films.
Sri: But, most of the blame goes to you as you are the one that, we
feel, gave him a great importance, saying that every film of yours
would have him compulsorily, and Udit also said in one of the
interviews that you feel him to be a lucky mascot?
ManiSharma: That's absolutely baseless and wrong. I never pressurized
my producers to bring him into a film. Why, there are many flop films
in which he sang in my music direction, iddaru mitrulu is an example.
See I am not responsible for what people think. I never put a pressure
on my producers to book a certain singer, not just Udit. If the song
required a different voice, I opted for him. I do agree some singers I
brought are not good for Telugu, like Sukhvinder Singh's song in
raavOyi chandamamaa (guDuguncham gurtunnadaa...) but not all are bad.
So don't blame me. You can see in the recent songs like Sree
aanjanEyam, there is fresh talent. I always look for freshness in the
voices and I hence encourage them. My forthcoming film Arjun also has
one song by Unni Krishnan. He is a good singer, but I used him after a
long time.
**********
For the full interview, please catch up the link below.
http://www.telugucinema.com/c/stars/interview_manisarma_2004.shtml
Regards,
Avineny N Bhaskar.
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From: "J. K. Mohana Rao" <jkmrao@y...>
Subject: Re: [racchabanda] My Top 5+5 Telugu Film Singers
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--- NaChaKi <nachakigroups@y...> wrote:
> 3. Chitra: Impeccable pronunciation (there are only quite few examples
> of mispronunciation that I can think of) from a non-Telugu.
>
I am not so sure about chitrA's pronunciation.
I like her voice very much. She has an album called
Krishnagaanam. This has Sanskrit, Tamil and Kannada
songs. Some of the glorious songs were sung by chitrA
in a very melodious voice. Alas, at some places,
she distorts the words so badly, that you begin to laugh
in the middle of profound feelings.
> 4. Vani Jayaram: Sweet, melodious, impeccable. Can listen her voice for
> hours. Of course, like many, probably, I'd quote ఆనతి నీయరా
> హరా... (స్వాతికిరణం) as an example.
>
She makes a very good attempt at pronouncing the
words. But in telugu, she has troubles with
daMtya ca and ja. She perhaps makes at least
an attempt to pronounce correctly as she is
also a poet and wrote and tuned some Tamil
songs. She is also very good in her Sanskrit
pronunciation. Her madhurAshTaka version
as well as gItagOviMda are some of the best
I ever heard.
Regards! - mOhana
Srinivas Ganti
Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi isn't a Telugu. I am not sure if Sharada is
a Telugu.Both are from Hyderabad though.
Ganti.
--- In racch...@yahoogroups.com, KCR <kcrupa@y...> wrote:
>
> Though Sankar (Singh) is from Hyderabad, he is not a Telugu (?).
> http://music.indya.com/biographies/ind/shankar_jaikishan.html
>
>
>
> "V. Chowdary Jampala" <cjampala@g...> wrote:
>
> I believe both the music director (Sankar) and the singer (Sarada)
> were of Telugu origin. The song itself is a Telugu version of
> "tittili uDe.." from the same singer/MD combo from the Hindi film
> Suraj.
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