Monday, October 20, 2008

Alka Yagnik - the most consistent female singer after Lata Mangeshkar.

Alka Yagnik – the most consistent female singer after Lata Mangeshkar.

Alka Yagnik had been the most consistent female playback singer of bollywood films after Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar. Born in a Gujarati family who settled in Kolkata, Alka got decent background of music in her family as her mother Shubha Yagnik was a classical singer. At ten years of age her mother took her to Bombay to establish her as a child singer and thereafter a playback singer.

Her Calcutta distributor even got her a letter which she produced before Raj Kapoor who send her to Laxmikant Pyarellal. She got a scope of singing in the film Payal Ki Jhankar, but impressed the viewers with the song “mere anganeme” in the film Lawaarish. LP gave her the biggest break with the song “ek do teen” in the film Tezaab, picturised on Madhuri Dixit.

From that time she never had to look back. She got the filmfare award for the best female playback singer for Tezaab, an became the leading singer in the 90s. She sang hit songs for Juhi Chawla in the film Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, including “akele hai”, “aye mere humsafar”, composed by Anand Milind.

She also sang hit songs one after the other for Nadeem Shravan including “tumse milne ko dil karta hai”, “dheere dheere pyar ko”, etc., and her songs in the film Phool Aur Kaante became record hit. She continued her successful journey with the song “dekha hai pehli baar” for Madhuri Dixit in the film Saajan. After singing hit songs one after the other she got filmfare award for the best singer again for the song “choli ke peeche” in the film Khalnayak, picturised on Madhuri Dixit and directed by Subhash Ghai.

Her other hit songs included “raja ko raani se” in the film Akele Hum Akele Tum, “yeh bandhan to pyar ka bandhan hai” in the film Karan Arjun, “kuch kuch hota hai” in the film Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, etc. She dominated the world of female playback singing just like Lataji’s domination for the 30 years of golden age of Indian cinema.

She even got national award for the best singer for her performance in the songs “ghoonghat ke aar me” in Hum Hai Rahi Pyar Ke and “kuch Kuch hota hai” in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. Her other filmfare awards included the one for “zara tasveer se tu” for the film Pardes in 1997, “taal se taal” for the film Taal in 1999, “dil ne yeh kaha hai dil se” for the film Dhadkan in 2000, “o re chori” for the film Lagaan in 2001 and “hum tum” for the film Hum Tum in 2004.

Although the world of female playback singing in bollywood films had got serious competition during the last 5 years with Shreya Ghoshal, Alisha Chinoy, Sunidhi Chauhan, Kavita Krishnamurthy making serious contribution Alka Yagnik is still continuing her good work with hit songs like “kabhi alvida na kehna” for the film Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna. He viewers expect her to do even well in the films to come in future.

No comments: