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3.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful orchestration, good vocals, but with flaws - Sonu is no Rafi, January 13, 2009
This review is from: Sonu Nigam - Rafi Resurrected - A Tribute to Mohd. Rafi (2008) Cd
Sonu Nigam is perhaps the most talented and versatile Hindi playback singer today. This collection of songs is Sonu Nigam's tribute to Mohd Rafi, the leading male playback singer in Hindi and other Indian movies in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Sonu Nigam was accompanied by the 75-piece symphony orchestra of the City Of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, at the London Coliseum.
Some excellent songs of Rafi have been included in this collection, though the bent is towards the popular songs, not necessarily the best. The collection, 20 songs in all, is skewed towards songs from the late 1960s and 1970s. So, there is only one ghazal in this set, from Laila Majnu (1976). There is no classical song here. The quite plebian 'gulabi ankhen', and the unremarkable 'aane se uske aaye bahaar' is included. The evergreen Dharmendra song, 'aaj mausam', is there, as is the famous 'teri galiyon mein'.
The orchestration is quite 'symphonic', and the effect is incredible in some songs, especially 'tum jo mil gaye ho', and 'gulabi ankhen'. The Madan Mohan gem, 'tum jo mil gaye ho', shines for its orchestration, in both the original and the new rendition. However, in the song 'dil ke jharoke mei', the opening solo piano piece is missing. This piece, performed by composer Shankar himself, is what gives the song a very lonesome and haunting feel to the entire song. The orchestration in this CD however makes it sound almost like a carnival song.
Sonu Nigam has done perhaps the best job among singers today. Certainly, you cannot imagine Kumar Sanu, Shaan, KK, Abhijeet, or Udit Narayan pulling this off, talented though they are. Maybe Shankar Mahadevan. Certainly Suresh Wadekar, who is perhaps the most talented yet most under-appreciated playback singer in the last 30 years. But, good though Sonu Nigam is, the more you listen to the songs the more you realize that he is no Rafi. Try though he does, he is unable to match Rafi's versatility and magic in many songs.
There are several flaws you can spot, if you have heard the originals, i.e. For example, the Rafi solo 'Hum tumse juda hoke' is an emotional love song (a 'birah' geet), but with a masculine feel that Rafi manages. Sonu Nigam's version comes across as plaintive and almost effeminate. In the 'teri galiyon mein', an award winning song, Sonu Nigam hurries over some of the words, and does not place enough emphasis on some other words, with the result that you feel like he is going over the motions rather than singing the song with feeling. Even the Shammi Kapoor song 'tareef karoon kya uski', from 'Kashmir Ki Kali', an almost arrogant yet youthfully innocent serenade, that Rafi brought to life with his inflections, sometimes drunken tone, sometimes flirtatious, sometimes madly eccentric, Sonu Nigam struggles to recreate the magic. The best, and the truest rendition, is perhaps the Rajendra Kumar classic, 'baharon phool barsao'.
Perhaps what irritates you the most, more if you are a Rafi fan, perhaps less so if you are a Sonu Nigam fan, is the slightly nasal, slightly breathless effect that Sonu Nigam brings to many songs - this is a 'style' that he employs in many of his other recordings too, with some sort of success, but when used here it simply jars too much.
Get this if you are a Sonu Nigam fan. Else invest some money in buying the original recordings.
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