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Should janaki stop singing

Topic started by ram (@ 24.47.158.78) on Tue Jan 8 00:08:45 EST 2002.
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.

I'm an ardent fan of S.Janaki and I consider her to be most talented female singer ever...but of late age has caught up with her divine was and I feel that if she continues to sing then people will start forgetting the great renditions she has rendered and curse her like they do for Kapil dev T.M.Sounderrajan etc....

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Responses:

• Old responses
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Fri Jan 11 02:11:58 EST 2002
  
  Aiyyo Pavam...that's what I think when I hear a solo by IR. He is a genius MD. But he can leave the singing to someone who is better qualified. Muttrillum En Abibpraayam.
  
  
• From: SJpriyan (@ 203.106.150.6) on: Fri Jan 11 08:04:48 EST 2002
  
  Excuse me
  
  Chinese girl who doesn't know our language neither exposed to our music agreed that the "girl's" voice in song is so sweet. That girl was 65 years old girl SJ.
  
  Her voice still much intact and appreciate that MDs are giving her chance for good songs like we use to hear nowadays
  
  Stop giving unwanted remarks on SJ
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Fri Jan 11 11:29:00 EST 2002
  
  "Unwanted remarks"? Everybody here agrees that SJ has a sweet voice. But if she continues with yamma summa mukkal munagals into her 70s - that's not how she will be remembered!
  
  
• From: avr (@ 203.199.150.70) on: Fri Jan 11 11:52:48 EST 2002
  
  Janaki sounds unbearble in nenjinale nenjinale,IMHO
  
  
• From: Good Heart (@ 129.252.25.211) on: Fri Jan 11 14:05:17 EST 2002
  
  I felt the same too...SJ should give up singing...Come one guys...Whenever i listen to the nenjinile song, i couldn't think and admire the charming -bublicious -cute - early 20's Priety Zinta...In stead a 70 yrs old female with lotsa lines in her face is coming to my thought. SJ has done injustice to the great song and the beautiful Priety Zinta!!! Same goes with the hindi version of that song...but by Lm...
  
  
• From: Sunil (@ 161.114.88.71) on: Fri Jan 11 14:44:56 EST 2002
  
  just wondering - do you guys think SJ would have gone to ARR asking for a chance to sing in "nenjinile" or the more recent "endan nenjil"? or why ARR did not introduce a new face to sing that song or why he did not use an established Chitra to sing that song?
  
  He obviously still has some faith in her voice. lets try to develop 1% of that faith.
  
  
  
• From: unbiased (@ 12.78.141.171) on: Fri Jan 11 16:10:55 EST 2002
  
  Its time for SJanaki to take a step backwards and and nuture younger talents. Singers like LM and SJ dont understand that enough is enough. LM and SJ has aready made a mockery of themselves. Do they think that they are immortals? Its nothing but arrogance and megalomania at its heights. In a population of over a billion in India..tell me ...what percentage of the population listens to Naushad, Hemant Dada, SDBurman, M Rafi..blah..blah.? Some guys post their pieces without any logical reasoning. Even Mozart, Beethoven, J Strauss, Dvorak, Camille St. Sains, Vivaldi, Puccini, Verdi are not considered immortals. I dont understand what these guys talk about sometimes. Someone says lets have faith..faith on what? These singers should have retired gracefully a long time back. A good repetoire is only for 10 years. After that tonal modulation starts to crack.
  
  We cannot keep listining to all these singers and justify the postings that support them. Its absolute stupidity. LM/PS/AB/SJ/VJ/TMS/SPB/KJY have all had their glory days. We all had nostalgic experinence listening to them. Look at IR'S songs today as compared to his peak between 76-86, after that everthing was just mediocre. Please dont give me all these cockamami stories..and analysis. BTW, SJ to begin with was not an extraordinary singer as many people claim here. She was discovered to suppress someone else who in turn was suppressed by the same guy to promote someone else..
  
  Lets put some sense in people's mind, that her time is over and she has to retire gracefully without subjecting herself to humiliation. She had her time and thats it.......Can someone define "established" for me in regards to play back singers?
  
  I hope Naaz agrees with my point of view.
  
  
  
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Fri Jan 11 17:32:23 EST 2002
  
  Unbiased -
  
  "I hope Naaz agrees with my point of view."
  Why single me out...? Yes, I do agree with you.
  
  It is good to know that SJ is so revered that people think she should sing as long as she is alive...but that sentiment arises more out of respect for a wonderful artiste, than her artistry in her 70s.
  
  Retirement cannot be imposed. It has to be voluntary. The artiste who retires has to have an "Image" of how they would like to be thought of many years after they are gone.
  
  SJ can still sing the odd number for films, here and there. But that number should be in keeping with her capabilities with age.It is a bit of a stretch to sing for the twenty-somethings when the maturity of the singer exceeds the person portraying the role. The song (if SJ is to sing it) has to be for a specific character, with a persona that is in keeping with her age. Period.
  
  Yes, Dev Anand can still act in his films... But close your eyes and see him running around trees with Raveena Tandon or Rani Mukherjee...OH the Horror! SJ singing for younger heroines has the same effect.
  
  SPB/KJY/VJ still have the range and the capacity - but that will also show signs of mortality in a decade or less.
  
  But who are we to say sheshouldthis and sheshouldthat...The lady must know her limitations - and if she doesn't know them now - what are the chances that she will ever know them?? (Maybe, she has decided to go the LM way...Money over Memories.)
  
  
• From: unbiased (@ 12.89.148.6) on: Fri Jan 11 17:50:17 EST 2002
  
  Naaz: The reason I singled you out was because I thought you made sense on many diferrent occasions. Thats all. Those arguments were made to counter ignorance. Actually I dont care whether SJ should stop singing or not. She can keep singing (screechy) as long as she likes...hehehehe. Time will ultimately take a toll on her.
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Fri Jan 11 20:42:18 EST 2002
  
  Many thanks,Unbiased. Time has already taken its toll on SJ - and the point most of us are making here is that - IT IS Scrrech Screech SHOWING!
  (I have learnt from my visits here in the past few months that you are more likely, than not, to run into many many forms of ignorance... Countering them is a crusade I do not have the energy for! :-))
  
  
• From: Kabuli (@ 65.224.102.20) on: Sat Jan 12 00:18:43 EST 2002
  
  if SJ must retire, so must Lata M. -- IMO its time for both of them to retire...their voices are just unpleasant and sometimes painful for my ears to hear. I hope Chitra keeps her wonderful voice and that it never deteriorates like these two did.
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Sat Jan 12 00:51:55 EST 2002
  
  Or she (Chitra) has the good sense to leave before people begin to think of her like the above...!!
  
  
• From: avr (@ 203.197.86.17) on: Sat Jan 12 04:10:36 EST 2002
  
  Naaz:
  
  AFAIK SJ is only 63.
  
  Sunil:
  
  as to why ARR still approaches SJ/LM/AB for their songs :
  
  the reason is repsect and the prestige part of working with a lata or a janaki or an asha.
  
  There are many people who go ga-ga over asha sounding just like an 18-year old and all other crap. Thats idiotic. Age was evident even in her much touted and cheaply overhyped album with Ustaad Ali Akbar Khan (released in 1992) where she sang a few 2-3 minute classical pieces (calling them as "authentic khayals") and did quite a poor job out of those. Yet it won a Grammy award nomination.
  
  Last year her concert was telecast on Zee TV (twas new year eve) ...where she sang her old classics like "dil cheez kya hai" , "aiye meherbaan" all totally off key and out of tune. yet some of relatives praised her to the hilt. Irritating, isnt it??
  
  
• From: unbiased (@ 12.89.149.120) on: Sat Jan 12 09:57:27 EST 2002
  
  Awards are not a yardstick for recognizing extraordinary singers par excellence. As I said earlier, the first 10 years after their debut, a singer has the best vocalise. Opera singers are popular ar at their peak during this period. The starin of singing at higher octaves with percussion accompaniment takes a toll on their voval chords after 10 years. This is a universal truth. Even the legendary singer Maria Callas was a victim to that. I read here many pieces which literally patronizes SPB, not that he is a good singer, but its over. Mohd. Rafi for example, in the early 70s, one could feel the cracks and a heavy nasal tone in his voice. In fact these guys were neither tenors or barritones. They could never reach higher octaves like opera singers. Yet the same rules applies to them. The 70's song of LM were all bad. Still people listened to her because there was no on else as VJ and every other singer who were considered a pain in the neck was thrown out of Bombay by the Mangeshkar sister (s) conspiracy.
  Things we did in our 30's cannot be done in our 60's ith the same spirit and dedication. It wanes out. We all go through this metamorphosis.
  
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Sat Jan 12 11:49:47 EST 2002
  
  Unbiased - Your points are both interesting, and valid. However, I must also point out that not every film song is a soprano aria - hence, the deterioration of voices has a longer lease.
  
  As for the SPB threads - well, what can one say? The sheer number of those is an indication of the objectivity (or the lack of) involved.
  
  With that "conspiracy" statement about the Mangeshkars you are likely to have touched a sore topic for a few...There is an (inexplicable) denial of the existence of a monopoly in the 70s/80s...Some still brush it aside as a "myth" and see the very thought as an affront to the singing talents of the sisters. Don't ask me how
  the suggestion of a monopoly immediately translates into the sisters being defficient in their "talent." (or they are "beyond compare") I am yet to figure that one out. Now it's your time to go through the denial wringer!
  
  
• From: unbiased (@ 12.78.146.64) on: Sat Jan 12 12:47:25 EST 2002
  
  Thanks for your appreciation. I try to call a spade a spade. May be we can add couple of yers to professional playback singers. Early M L Vasanthakumari's film songs were great, but one could see her voice falter later on. On the conspiracy issue, can we change fact , if only one could care to read Dostovskys "Crime and Punishment". I happened to read an quite an intriguing article the other day on the web about the same topic. It seems to tacitly endorse my view. A great russian literary figure once said, "God sees the truth...but waits". Monopoly can also be achieved through bullying and other tactics.....
  
  
• From: Naaz (@ 24.76.127.63) on: Sat Jan 12 13:19:52 EST 2002
  
  Have you read the journalist Subash K. Jha's interviews with the Mangeshkars? Never mind their journalistic merits (you really have to search those out in his interviews with Lata) - but what they reveal is that the denial "machinery" is still at work. An interesting counterpoint is that PS or SJ were never accused of the same "tactics" during their reign as Queen Bees of Tamil Film Music.
  The mangeshkar monopoly issue is either dismissed as "sour grapes" or decried with a litany of "Saintly" Deeds attributed to them. Sometimes, it is hard to ignore this small, telling voice at the back of one's mind: "The lady doth protest too much..."
  
  

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