Was just listening to this song by Shubha Mudgal from Raincoat: Akele Hum Nadiya Kinare. It's about the lament of a rural woman waiting/pining for her lover. There's a distinct feeling of loneliness, helplessness and pain emanating from the voice. It made me think over the suitability of voice and its correspondence with the type of feeling expressed. Shubha Mudgal has a very deep throaty voice with a certain earthliness and rustic charm, which is quite different from the melliflous, almost perfect voices of Lata & Asha, the stalwarts of female playback singing in Bollywood films. I do wonder whether Lata could have conveyed the feeling of heartache in the aforementioned song in a more convincing & effective way. If you have watched Raincoat, you will agree that it blends with the rustic and earthly image (of characters, situation, etc.) portrayed in the movie.
Also, is it that, to convey the same feeling of genuineness, female folk singers are preferred to have that throaty and rustic voice? Examples may be Sapna Awasthi, Shubha Mudgal, etc. If this is actually true, I can also think of examples of male playback singers in films. S.D. Burman's voice in the song Mere Sajan Hain Us Paar from Bandini as well as Kahe Ko Roye from Aradhana, and more recently Bhupen Hazarika in Dil Huum Huum Kare from Rudali; in all of them the feeling of sadness comes out very genuinely and evocatively.
There can be counter examples- like Lata's Aye Dil-e-Nadan from Razia Sultan or Asha's Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Dsoton from Umarao Jaan, but then it can also be argued that a princess' (in the former case) or a famous courtesan's (in the latter case) voice cannot be expected to be rustic, even to convey pain; they ought to possess that edge of unattainable honeyed smoothness even in their suffering!
Would the opposite of this hypothesis also hold true i.e. voices that are not very throaty and rustic/earthy wouldn't be most effective in conveying feelings of joy/happiness?
Does the voice goes better with image(e.g. rural/peasant like = rustic/throaty) or with feelings(e.g. throaty/rustic = suffering, heartbreak) or is it that there's no pattern/link at all? Is there a psychological connection? If yes, can it be exploited to obtain a mapping for predicting psychological behaviour depending upon input voice?
Perhaps it may sound absurd, perhaps thought provoking but at this point of time I can't help being swayed by a train of thought!
1 comment:
Beautiful idea.
Was listening to Shubha Mudgal when i chanced across Ur place here.
Yeah, i guess it's kinda true that our own preconceptions often colour our worldviews, like the sweet-voiced/'sweet character' vs rustic/'dark character' dichotomy earlier..
but don't you think there are versatile singers who can easily transcend these preconceived categories.. i'd thought kavita subramaniam's voice (in Maar daala, e.g.) was a beautiful fit, tho' she sounds just as sweet in other songs too..
Do take care & Wishes, Minerva*
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