As Yesudas turns 84 on January 10, Subhash K Jha salutes the legend.

IMAGE: Amol Palekar and Vidya Sinha in Chhoti Si Baat.

Composer Ravindra Jain had once said, ‘If God had a voice, it would be that of Yesudas. Sometimes I wish I could get my eyesight back, just so that I could see what Yesudas looked like.’

Ravindra Jain brought Yesudas to Mumbai to sing the songs of Basu Chatterjee’s Chitchor. Jain was looking for a new voice for Amol Palekar.

“I have never sought singing opportunities. They have come to me. Right from the song Aliyambal Kadavil in the film Rosi, I have believed what is mine will come to me,” Yesudas once told Subhash K Jha.

Interestingly, K P Udayabhanu was supposed to sing Aliyambal Kadavil. He fell ill and when the director asked Yesudas to sing, he very reluctantly agreed.

Only after Udayabhanu gave his consent did Yesudas step in.

 

IMAGE: Amol Palekar and Zarina Wahab in Chitchor.

In Hindi cinema, most of Yesudas’ hit songs were for Ravindra Jain.

But it was Salil Chowdhary who gave Yesudas his first big break with the breezy blockbuster duet Jaan-e-Man Jaan-e-Man Tere Do Nayan with Asha Bhosle in Basu Chatterjee’s Chhoti Si Baat.

Strangely, he hardly sang for big-budgeted Hindi films, except Yash Chopra’s Trishul.

According to a leading composer of the 1980s, :Yesudas was not considered the voice of the leading man in Hindi cinema. Voices with a strong classical base were never favoured in Hindi cinema, be it Suresh Wadkar or Yesudas.”

In Hindi, Yesudas sang largely for small-budgeted Rajshri Productions where his partnership with Ravindra Jain was hugely fruitful.

Although the duo’s most successful songs were for Chitchor (Tu Jo Mere Sur Mein, Aaj Se Pehle, Gori Tera Gaon Bada Pyara, Jab Deep Jale Aana are hummed to this day), it was the song Shadjane Paaya Yeh Vardaan from the unreleased film Tansen of which Jain and Yesudas were the proudest.

In the nine-minute classical masterpiece, Yesudas holds court in true Tansen tradition. Jain composed this masterpiece for a bio-pic on the legendary singer Tansen, which never got made. But the song survived.

IMAGE: Yesudas. Photograph: Kind courtesy Vijay Yesudas/Instagram

When Ravindra Jain composed the music for Tansen, there was one particular song that he offered Mohammed Rafi, who was at his peak then. But Rafi apparently declined saying, it was beyond his range. It was finally sung by Yesudas.

Both Jain and Yesudas worked on that song for two days without taking any break. At the end of the recording, both fell ill.

When I recounted this incident to Lata Mangeshkarji, she had commented, “It is in character with the artiste that he is. Yesudas is one of the rare breed that won’t breathe easily until attaining perfection. His has the voice of a prophet, a saint. I have sung a handful of songs with him in Trishul, Jeena Yahan and Mera Rakshak.”

“We also sang a beautiful duet for an unreleased film for Khayyam (Yeh Haseen Raat for Kamal Amrohi’s shelved film Majnoon). It was a pleasure to share the mike with someone so knowledgeable and accomplished.”



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