There are two types of artists in movies, namely on-screen artists and off-screen artists. The task of off-screen artist is to create a piece of art and the task of on-screen artist is to present it. Let's consider an example. The story writer, the screenplay writer and the dialog writer together create a piece of art by writing the contents of the movie and the actors just present the same. Similarly, the lyricist and music composer creates the content of a song, and the singer and the band, although are not literally on-screen artists, presents that piece of art.
The role of director and/or music director in this situation is not important for this discussion.
I always believed that "the performance of an off-screen artist has much more impact on viewer's mind as compared to impact made by creation of on-screen artist". (In other words, I always felt that, more credit goes to the story, screenplay and dialog writers, and not to the actors in the movie. Similarly, more credit goes to the lyricist and the composer, and not to the singers and the band in the movie.)
I always believed all of this until, a few weeks ago, when a counter example hit me like a bolt of lightening. A song where the singer (Shankar Mahadevan) has outperformed the awesome lyric by (Prasoon Joshi). The title song of movie "Tare Zameen Par".
As a part of the plot, the song was meant to present "innocence" and the lyricist has written something that is extraordinarily great but the way singer has presented the lyric, it feels like an overflow of innocence.
If you listen to the first four lines of the song and don't concentrate on the lyric, it will be clear to you that the song is about something beautiful, something happy, something innocent. Shankar Mahadevan conveys this fact just using his voice. Any lines in that sweet voice would have sounded like something sweet, beautiful and innocent.
Now when you listen again with concentrating on lyric, you will come to know that the lyric is also equally awesome but to me, it feels like Shankar Mahadevan has performed a little bit more to make the song what it is.
There is one more example in this song where singer has outperformed the lyricist. Towards the end of the song, there is a re occurrence of line "Kho Na Jaaye Ye ... Tare Zameen Par". The intent of that line is "calling (probably) everyone to try and save more innocent children loosing to this unfair world". The way Shankar Mahadevan recites this line, it feels like he is calling everyone from bottom of his heart. One really can feel the pain in his voice at that time. It is again, exceptionally great.
I feel that Shankar Mahadevan has expressed innocence in best possible way and no one will be able to do the same ever again.
The role of director and/or music director in this situation is not important for this discussion.
I always believed that "the performance of an off-screen artist has much more impact on viewer's mind as compared to impact made by creation of on-screen artist". (In other words, I always felt that, more credit goes to the story, screenplay and dialog writers, and not to the actors in the movie. Similarly, more credit goes to the lyricist and the composer, and not to the singers and the band in the movie.)
I always believed all of this until, a few weeks ago, when a counter example hit me like a bolt of lightening. A song where the singer (Shankar Mahadevan) has outperformed the awesome lyric by (Prasoon Joshi). The title song of movie "Tare Zameen Par".
As a part of the plot, the song was meant to present "innocence" and the lyricist has written something that is extraordinarily great but the way singer has presented the lyric, it feels like an overflow of innocence.
If you listen to the first four lines of the song and don't concentrate on the lyric, it will be clear to you that the song is about something beautiful, something happy, something innocent. Shankar Mahadevan conveys this fact just using his voice. Any lines in that sweet voice would have sounded like something sweet, beautiful and innocent.
Now when you listen again with concentrating on lyric, you will come to know that the lyric is also equally awesome but to me, it feels like Shankar Mahadevan has performed a little bit more to make the song what it is.
There is one more example in this song where singer has outperformed the lyricist. Towards the end of the song, there is a re occurrence of line "Kho Na Jaaye Ye ... Tare Zameen Par". The intent of that line is "calling (probably) everyone to try and save more innocent children loosing to this unfair world". The way Shankar Mahadevan recites this line, it feels like he is calling everyone from bottom of his heart. One really can feel the pain in his voice at that time. It is again, exceptionally great.
I feel that Shankar Mahadevan has expressed innocence in best possible way and no one will be able to do the same ever again.
-AmitHK
