‘I GOT A TAP ON THE HEAD FROM RAHMAN’
Singer Sukhwinder Singh says the famous composer admonished him as he didn’t know what Tamil meant
For singer Sukhwinder Singh, it is extremely important to get the narration of a song, especially when he is singing in regional films, as he feels it helps with a lot of things. “First, since it is a language that you obviously aren’t aware of, you need to understand the emotion and feelings behind the song. Then, when preparing for it, there are some words which you don’t know how to pronounce or what they mean. So, I write down the lines in Hindi and then I learn to sing,” he says. Sukhwinder recalls an instance where he was scolded by composer A R Rahman for his poor general knowledge.
“I remember when I met S P Balasubramaniam for the first time and I was asked to sing in Tamil. This was long time back. I did not know what is Tamil. Rahman gave me a tap on the back of my head, and said ‘jahan tum khade ho gadhe! So, narration also helps in these things,” he laughs.
Hence, he says getting a narration is the key. “From the minute you start listening to the narration, you get the feel of the song — emotions, the feeling, the situation and everything else,” he adds.
Sukhwinder says he likes to be a part of the narration even when singing in Bollywood, despite singing for Hindi films for over two decades.
“Experience has nothing to do with being part of the narration. It is a very simple process, anyway. For example, when we were recording Kar Har Maidan Fateh (Sanju), Raju (Rajkumar Hirani, film’s director) gave me a four-line narration. He told me, imagine there is a problem in front of you, which you know is impossible to solve. You ignore 90% of it. But the rest which you don’t ignore, you try to find the solution. That’s the spirit you have to use for this song. That was the narration I got from Raju for the song, and that’s why I sang it that way – that what if you can solve things, which are virtually impossible to solve,” he concludes.
From the minute you start listening to the narration, you get the feel of the song — emotions, the situation and everything else. SUKHWINDER
SINGH SINGER