Singers From India

"And when I joined politics people told me it wasn’t the same as the Independence era, so you can imagine how it has become now. It’s such a sad thing. Instead of taking to the country to a higher level we are going downwards."

"I don’t know if I am wrong, but singing slightly out of sur is also in vogue these days. And these pelvic movements and gestures are too much for me."

"Today’s dancers are not dignified. There’s a lot of talent but they are getting ample help. In our time you had to get the steps right, the words right and the movement right. Otherwise you had to start all over again. Today even if they miss a step it can be adjusted at the editing."

"My dances were not like today’s, which have progressed with an Indian and Western combination or fusion which has become repetitive. You cannot tell one dance from the other. Everyone wants to be Michael Jackson. But I like some of them like that ‘Radha kaise na jale’ from Lagaan. I like classical stuff."

"My first colour sequence was in what was then called ‘Geva Colour’ for the dream sequence in Nagin."

"Raj Kapoor was a true showman. He knew exactly what he wanted from me and [[w:Rajendra Kumar|Rajendra Kumar in Sangam, whereas Devsaab (Anand) had his own style his own mannerisms. I learnt so much from Dilipsaab especially mannerisms, like the way of delivering my Bhojpuri lines."

"Sangam had many firsts. The first technicolour film, the first film to have two intervals — in a way I was a part of history."

"As it is, being a South Indian I used to say my own lines and everybody marveled at it, and then to learn Bhojpuri... Dilipsaab was very helpful."

"There were so many different characters that I have played. Radha in Sangam was a very sophisticated woman and the setting was very refined, while in Dhanno in Gunga Jumna was rustic, a village belle. Even the language was different."

"If Bharatanatyam helped my movies, I cannot say the same about films helping my Bharatanatyam."

"There were no acting schools or workshops then. What came naturally to you, is all you had. But Bharata Natyam taught me everything."

"She says she was the only south Indian actress who could speak Hindi without a South Indian accent, at the time."

"I was cast as a college girl and that wasn’t really hard to play as I was very young then. I was treated as a child on the sets. When the movies finally hit the theatres, all the newspapers carried reviews that said, ‘What natural acting.'"

"We came from a conservative family, many of whom had never even gone to school. But I was sent to a convent and everyone was very proud that I was educated. So once while I was performing in Madras, a director from AVM studios spotted me. They were looking for a fresh face and they immediately wanted to cast me, and my grandmother grudgingly accepted."

"I was surrounded by dance, music and religious chants, so it was that kind of a mood. Our family was very culturally-minded, especially my grandmother. She was also quite the disciplinarian. She made sure I practiced daily for hours."

"But first I was made to learn music, because music and dance go together. You can sing, but you can’t dance without music..."

"I think I was born to dance. That’s what my grandmother told me. So it was always in my system."

"I always cribbed about having such a long name and my grandmother would say that nobody else will be called ‘Vyjayanthimala'."

"Danseuse extraordinaire, Vyjayanthimala's greatest legacy to cinema is that today it is de rigeur for every girl who enters the Hindi film industry to be an accomplished dancer. Yet there was more to light-footed Vyjayanthi than magical moves."

"If any screen actress of recent times had ruled the film scene with the sway and swagger of a fabled queen it was surely Vyjayanthimala, the volatile, vibrant and the most gorgeous star of Hindi screen."

"Vyjayanthimala Bali has been in the forefront of those responsible for the renaissance of Bharatanatyam for three or four decades."

"Of course, there's also politics — "though far less so than before," admitted the three-time MP, who now is a member of the BJP."

"The need of the hour is to get people to talk to each other and to clear the air. I don't approve of fusion in art, but I definitely approve of it in the field of politics."

"aAs a creative artiste dedicated to a spiritual art form I was deeply pained by the communal violence in Gujarat."

"That's because I simply carried on dancing, [she said]. It was my first love, and thanks to my taskmaster of a grandmother (Yadugiri Devi), I had never stopped my Bharata Natyam."

"I poured my heart and soul into the role of Chandramukhi. In my view, hers was the greater character (compared with Paro's). One scene that will forever be etched in my memory is the one in which Devdas takes leave of Chandramukhi, saying that he hopes he will meet her again, 'if not in this lifetime, then in the next'."

"In those days, dances were dances and songs were songs. Film dances always had a semi-classical or folk element to them and songs were all about soul-stirring lyrics and haunting music. These days, they are more about technique and technology, often it's the camera that's dancing, the synthesiser that's singing. Not my cup of tea."

"...her taseer (soulful sound) was the result of years of loneliness, pain, suppression and silence."

"Begum Akhtar is a classic example of how personal tragedy is often that differentiating edge between a great performer and a truly exceptional one."

"A striking example [Poetry and Music] is Begum Akhtar who used sounds borrowed from language with such amazing skill. In her utterance the flowing lines of the vowel became graceful arches, and the hard consonants, supporting pillars. The edifice is then animated by vast range of hard, soft, nasal, throaty, sibilant and breathy sounds which became an integral part of her musical calligraphy. She is commonly thought of a ghazal singer,..."

"We live in an age where people are constantly trying to find remedies for pain, instead of learning how to sublimate it into divine music, the way Begum Akhtar did. For, the mercurial diva from Lucknow sang the poetry of Ghalib and many others in a manner that would make even pain seem desirable."

"Today it's a challenge for me to sing with her portrait looking at me. Begum Akhtar's voice was a blessing and would touch the hearts of all."

"Akhtar was gripped by constant melancholia. “Ya Allah, ab kya hoga?” was her constant refrain through her life that made her pour her heart and soul into couplets like “Mere Humnafas, Mere Humnawa, Mujhe Dost Ban ke Daga Na De, Mujhe Zindagi ki Dua Na De”."

"Begum Akhtar's life perhaps mirrors an image where we too may briefly perceive ourselves and question the veracity of our own lives."

"...singing sensation in the Indian subcontinent, feted by the cognoscenti and the commoner alike."

"As a tawaif, she was trained to charm the system and subvert narrow patriarchal practices by means of highly sophisticated seduction. At another level, she was a hapless victim, constantly tormented by the twists and turns of her own destiny. She braved on regardless, driven by a deep inner quest to pursue love in its purest form, as an end in itself; be it in music or in life."

"People don't want to listen to an imitation. If they want to listen to my style, they will go and buy my records."

"The much loved classical diva of 20th century India Akhtaribai Faizabadi, or Begum Akhtar was the last of the great female singers from the courtesan (tawaif) community."

"Even if the childlike, ignorant and careless Saigal committed any blunder, it was hard to get irritated with him. Often it happened that the set was ready…But he would not been seen anywhere. Weary and tired of waiting for him, everybody would prepare for “pack-up’, Suddenly someone would inform us that he had been singing songs at the tune of broken harmonium in a small room at the farthest end, forgetting the world around. After coming so late he would try to make light of the situation by his innocent antics so that no one could ever get angry with him."

"…he was impossible to fathom and the most complex creation of God."

"Saigal was a born singer with a perfectly tuned voice and his seemingly effortless talent was the result of a deep, meditative training style nurtured not by any gharana but by intense riyaz and mad passion for the ‘inner world’."

"On his acting and singing in the film Devdas"

"The two hundred or so songs that Saigal sang, touched a popular chord despite their, or perhaps because of their, profundity."

"...in "Anmol Ghadi," he acted and sang a duet with Noor Jahan, "Awaaz dei kahan hai... *Once again it was the tender emotion of love expressed with an ardour that lent credibility to the song."

"The phenomenal singer's lone image of an animated performer transcended the time in which the image was conceived."

"One's all-time favourite has been "Aye katibe taqdeer mujeh itna bata dei, kyon mujse qhafa hai kya mane kiya hai... "."

"As an actor, Saigal had a special feel for the scenes he portrayed. The mood especially got reflected in his songs: his Devdas is a case in point. "Dukh ke ab din beetet nahin... " brought out the deep tonal quality in his voice. His was not just a base, guttural voice but an emotionally-charged, husky nasal articulation, descending lower octave with rasping resonance and with an infinite variety of forms."

"...the golden voice of Kundan Lal Saigal's is literally a transferred epithet, where `golden' and `kundan' are synonyms proclaiming the extraordinary feat of this actor-singer. "Chah barbaad karegi hamen maloom na thha" in a voice so intimate it becomes a part of one's consciousness; a fantastic achievement in an age lacking in sophisticated technology."

"Think of K.L. Saigal and a form emerges. Recall the voice, his distinctive personality and slowly, mysteriously, you can hear the inimitable "Nain heen ko raah dikha prabhu, pug pug thokar khaoon main" (show the way to the blind oh Lord, I stumble helplessly), combining both corporeality and spirituality."

"The actual star persona of K.L.Saigal strongly relied on a similar unspoken hierarchy between the ‘natural’ and the ‘trained voice’, emphasizing his lack of formal musical training and his ‘natural gift.’"