Music director Shamir Tandon can’t stop raving about Sonu Niigaam who hit the highest note ever for a patriotic track in the film Kandahar. Directed by retired army officer, Major Ravi, the trilingual project in Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam, toplines Amitabh Bachchan and Mohanlal.
“The song in question is Naman hai.. and Sonu has hit the highest note in human vocal registry with an open-throat effort without singing falsetto,” explains Tandon. Technically, the last octave is the highest possible note that can be humanly hit. And it’s usually achieved while singing falsetto when the voice begins to vibrate and turns shrill.
“Sonu was unaware of what he had done. Very few people in the world can go this far. The late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was an exception but even he sounded shrill. Sonu sustained the pitch admirably and the heaviness in his voice added a melancholic touch to the song,” exults Tandon.
Naman hai…has been penned by lyricist Sandeep Nath who also wrote verses for Tandon’s earlier soundtracks for movies like Page 3 and Corporate. “Ravi wanted lines that weren’t overdramatic and he wanted a Hindi synonym of salaam that could be used across the three languages. Naman is another word for salute in Hindi,” says Tandon.
This soft rock number, complete with electric violin, guitar distortion and live drums, though in Hindi, will be used in all three versions of the film. The other songs will be dubbed in the respective languages.
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Shamir’s ‘Naman’ to India
When we think of patriotic songs, a few numbers like, “Ae mere watan ke logon” comes to our mind and we can immediately recollect the incident when Late Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was in tears while the nightingale of India, Lata Mangeshkar, was singing it live.
“Sandese aate hain” from Border, “Mera rang de basanti chola” from Legend of Bhagat Singh, “Maa tujhe salaam” by A. R. Rahman are few other songs, which definitely stir a plethora of patriotic emotions in most Indians.
Now, music composer Shamir Tandon has recorded a patriotic song “Naman Hai” with the one of the best male playback singers in Bollywood - Sonu Nigam.
It happened when Shamir was recording the song “Naman Hai” for a multi lingual film “Kandahar”, which is based on the infamous Kandahar hijack that happened in 1999.
The movie stars legends like Amitabh Bachchan and Malayalam superstar Mohan Lal.
The movie is being produced by Sunil Nair from Saffron Advisor Productions is directed by Major Ravi and currently being shot at Dehradun.
Shamir says, “When I was given the opportunity of recording a patriotic song, only one name came to my mind – Sonu Nigam. He is not only the best singer in the industry, but he has this amazing voice that enables him to hit the highest notes. We all know that Sonu operates from the US these days.
“ When I expressed a desire to record ‘Naman Hai’ to Sonu, he immediately said ‘yes’ and found time from his busy schedule to come and record this song. ‘Naman Hai’ has some very high notes, and it was practically impossible for any singer to hit those notes, without his voice cracking. Initially I was a bit nervous, because it was a huge task that I put forth to Sonu.”
“But hats off to Sonu! He practised for a bit in the studio, and... His magical voice made the impossible possible. Not only he managed to hit those higher notes but he sang them with such ease and such emotions, that everyone in the recording studio had tears in their eyes.
“No one else other than Sonu could have done justice to the song. Sonu too was most delighted and at the end of the recording he hugged me and thanked me for giving him this opportunity to explore his own hidden talent of throatily hitting notes that globally very few singers can achieve without shaking their voice,” he said.
He further said, “I am so glad that Sonu has not only managed to live up to my expectations, but has surpassed them. Any other singer in his place would have packed his bags, because singing on such high notes can also cause damage to the singer’s voice.
“But today, I can proudly say that our industry is blessed to have a talent like Sonu Nigam. And this is our way to pay tribute to our nation. We are eagerly waiting for the music release of Kandahar. It is definitely an album that is very close to my heart.”
Shamir Tandon is known for his music in films, including, Rakht, Page 3, Umar, Corporate, Traffic Signal, Superstar, Acid Factory and Jail.
His next projects include a nationwide polio campaign with Amitabh Bachchan, ‘Uut Pataang’ starring Vinay Pathak, Satish Kaushik's ‘Hawai Dada’ starring Anupam Kher, ‘Mumbai Chakachak’ starring Rahul Bose, and Popcorn Films’ ‘Loot’.
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