When it comes to similarities and differences, the latter has always outnumbered the former between the members of my family and me. With discussions pertaining to music though, we share an exceptional bond, rarely disagreeing with each other; whether its carnatic, hindustani, or even as sporadic as it can be, filmy music. In the twenty years of my life at home, even though appa has managed to frown at the amount of filmy music I dissipate my time listening to; he and I have managed to see eye to eye on appreciating the voices of two people – Mohammed Rafi and Sonu Nigam. For the ardent fan that I am this post is a dedication to my favoritest singer in years — Sonu Nigam.
For me, what distinguishes him from other singers is the emotions that he effortlessly puts into any kind of a song coupled with his mesmerizing voice. I consider him to be the most versatile singer of our generation. It’s beyond mere talent. On one hand he smoothly cruises through soft numbers like dheere jalna, and suraj hua madham, and the next moment he burns the dance floor with numbers like ishq kameena. On one hand he creates a sizzling passion with satrangi re and the next moment he channelizes your mind into a serious thought process with tanhaai, and panchi nadiyan. How can I forget to mention some of the best yet silliest of songs like neeche phoolon ki dukaan, and what is mobile number?
Just a little over a decade ago…perhaps 1995 was the year when Sonu first appeared on television as the host of SaReGaMa. This for me was nothing short of a love at first sight moment. In fact, most of the ladies in my female dominant maternal family were just as (if not more) awestruck by this young, handsome, musical marvel. Our phone bills suddenly escalated as my grandma and I bonded over long chats about the slight harkats sonu took in the opening song of each episode.
Our love for Sonu has been so huge that we think about him in sickness and in health. After a series of lectures on not having invaluable and unintelligent conversations from the other members of the family, my granny and I reduced our sonu filled phone calls to each other. During that time she was admitted to a hospital for a fortnight. While I did miss my chats with her, my joy exceeded every boundary as I read a letter that she’d secretly penned to me, highlighting the following words: “Sammu, our sonu is leaving saregama soon. He is planning to act in movies.”
And then came the sad and gloomy day when we learned that he was tying the knot. As I was trudging along my room collecting a million pieces of my broken heart, trying to cope with this life shattering piece of information, my grandma called me from India.
“Our boy is getting married Sammu”
“Sigh! I know”
“Apparently his wedding is going to be one of a kind. Very grand style ya”
“I know. We’ll find another guy for us.”
“Your cousin here is racing up and down the house; I think she’s going to break something soon. She is cursing him left, right and center.”
“It’s ok. This too shall pass.”
In time, we did move past this disappointment and became bigger fans of his. For being the die hard fan that I am, I loyally watched and survived through all of his movies. Who can forget the movie with nine actors and an icchadaari naagin? My flight to Bombay gave me the luxury of watching half (thankfully not all) of Love in Nepal, and I recently caught his movie with Juhi Babbar.
Close friends of mine flooded my autograph books in school with messages like “reach for the stars, actually, sonu nigam sammy!” . A dream that is yet to be attained is to sing one line with him somewhere, some day 
. With this in mind, my pal P invitied me to Houston for his upcoming concert. As I was almost set to fly out reality suddenly knocked on my doors, reminding me that I am a poor graduate student with a lot of financial limitations. So other than for obsessing and listening to his songs time and again in the past couple of weeks, I decided to vent out my love for him through this post. And if you haven’t had enough of him yet, check out one of his performances, on a start plus show called Jo Jeeta Wohi Superstar.
samasyakashiram
kusublakki