In the middle of the controversy in which AARAKSHAN has been caught, where not a day passes by, where bytes are offered about the content, the nation seems to have forgotten, more so the classical musical aficionados that it is for the first time that one of the biggest living doyens of classical music belonging to Banaras Gharana, Pandit Channu Lal Mishra has condescended to do voice over for two songs. It is pertinent to mention here that Panditji is one of the rare singers who believes in singing or rendering voice over to songs which are shot through and through with pure and classical Hindi.
So, for the lyricist Prasoon Joshi it indeed has been a challenging job to give Panditji lyrics to which he can give his voice over, and 'Saans Albeli' is going to emerge as one of the most emphatic songs of the album, as it grows upon you. The more you hear, the more you understand the virtues of classical music, and classical instruments, which have become a discounted commodity.
Indeed, for Shankar, Ehsan and Loy it has been a big challenge to reconstruct themselves, through AARAKSHAN, as they rely on the western acoustic instruments to give their music, but with AARAKSHAN they have returned back to Indian classical music with a bang, and have revealed to the public this hitherto unexplored side in their repertoire. Incidentally, 'Saans Albeli' has also been co-composed by Prasoon Joshi and Shreya Ghoshal getting an opportunity to share a space with Pandit Channu Lal Mishra, an opportunity that singers could aspire for, has done an accomplished job as a female singer along with Panditji.
'Saans Albeli' has the same potential to attain the iconic status of a classical song in Hindi films, as it had happened when Ustad Sultan Khan had sung 'Piya Basanti Re' more than a decade ago. The only stumbling block would be that henceforth when Panditji would perform in a concert, there would be a demand from the audience to sing the songs from AARAKSHAN, which a classic aficionado may not like. It has been seen by this writer in case of Sultan Khan. It is a pointer, also to the fact that may be the classical singers and music directors ought to associate themselves with the mainstream cinema as well, so that the horizon of the classic music also expands, and the audience also is able to understand finer nuances of classical music. Shankar Ehsan and Loy have done a monumental contribution with AARAKSHAN and it is hoped that they would follow it up with more such offerings.
