The Case of the Missing Chak De Phatte
A couple of weeks ago when I was listening to Raja Hasan’s interview on Zee Next, I was surprised. It was when Raja said that he had recorded Khosla ka Ghosla’s Chak De Phatte song. Thanks to some lousy video editing, I had to re-run the video clip several times just to see if Raja had himself mentioned Chak de Phatte. It seemed that Raja did himself mention that the song was Chak de Phatte.
So where did the mysterious Raja Hasan version of Chak De Phatte disappear?
It was during the Saregamapa days when a Rediff interview of Raja Hasan popped up. It did mention that Raja recorded a ghazal for Khosla ka Ghosla. That sent most of us hunting for the song. There were no songs credited to Raja (Or Raza, or anyone remotely close to Raja) in the album. I listened to each song - including the Chak De Fatte remix version. Sadly, no Raja. I thought the director simply dropped the song from the movie.
But it comes as a huge surprise when the song isn’t a ghazal as we know it - but the biggest song from the movie, Chak de Phatte that was widely used as the promo track.
And there’s a shade of disappointment in me when I hear the song in Kailash Kher’s voice instead of Raja’s. So what happened? Raja Hasan is still thankful to Dibakar Bannerjee, the director of Khosla ka Ghosla, in spite of the fact that his voice was probably dubbed over by Kailash Kher’s. This was a one-off composition by Delhi based music director Dhruv Dhalla, who along with Dibakar, probably thought Raja’s voice would be perfect for the song. But sadly, it didn’t turn out that way.
Khosla ka Ghosla was a movie that took three years to make - just because it wasn’t produced by corporates or Bollywood bigwigs. And at the time when the song was recorded, Kailash Kher had just one hit to his credit - Allah ke Bande. But somehow, it seems the producers felt that it was better to go with Kailash Kher than an outright new singer.
Somehow, I can still spot the typical Raja style of singing in Kailash Kher’s recording.
Now, a few points to ponder. What would have happened if the song was released in Raja’s voice instead of Kailash Kher’s? Would we have found a gem a few years earlier? And if the song was a hit, would he have appeared on Saregamapa? Or would he have ended up with as man with a great voice, but an unknown face?
Cliched, but perhaps true - everything that happens, probably happens for the good.
Raja’s Chak de Phatte
Kailash’s version
Tags: raja hasan, saregamapa, kailash kher, khosla ka ghosla, bollywood music
Posts
hi
rhb
tv on karo.on z tv there is a show for valentines day special and RAJA is there.
i wonder if we can get a hold of that song… by popular demand… maybe it can be part of raja’s first album!! btw i really want to hear raja singing nusrat’s “ishq ka rutba, ishq hi jaane”
Beautifully written article Manish. I have always marvelled at your wonderful analysis of things and there is always so much wisdom in all your articles. And I really admire you for that.
Well, coming to the point, I personally feel that whether parents agree or not, Zee TV should not have bent the rules that day when either Rohanpreet or sweet Vasundhara could have been eliminated. It is obvious that even when a parent is disagreeing in his mind to some request made by the judges and if he or she is put in a spot where all other parents are agreeing, he or she is not going to voice his disagreement and go against the other parents and appear as the ultimate bad guy, especially when kids are involved. So Amir’s parents may have agreed, but why should Zee TV make such changes and put the parents in a spot? I mean if a candidate narrowly escapes getting eliminated, and if given another chance, many of his fans are going to vote with a vengeance to make sure their candidate comes nowhere near the bottom two again. Rohanpreet and Tanmay are very good singers and have very sweet voices, but its a fact that Amir, in spite of being the youngest (he’s just 10 years old), always picked up the most difficult songs and his voice quality is also very superior to the other two boys. I mean don’t the judges take this into consideration.
Lately Mr. Nigam and Mr. Wadekar rarely had anything nice to say about Amir’s singing; unnecessarly picking on him and praising the other singers to the sky. Sonu
Nigam has always tried to project a ‘holier than thou’ image and after reading a lot about him in the past, he comes across as a very vindictive, petty minded, and arrogant person and his latest remarks just prove that. And yes, he definately made sure to launch his rediculous album on a day when he would have the maximum audience. How crafty can you get Mr. Nigam! I was also not too pleased with Aditya’s behavior that day. Being the host of the show, he should have shown a little more dignity and restraint instead of going after Amir’s brother and inflaming the situation. Also, he showed no concern or sympathy to Amir after the little boy was eliminated and instead went straight to Tanmay. That was quite callous on Aditya’s part, but in spite of that, Amir kept on smiling.
I also totally disagree with many of the reader’s comments. Zee did not do Amir any favor. The boy was so good at the audtitioning so obviously he had to be selected, and Zee definately needs such talented singers to mint their money.
Also, no one is condoning Amir’s family’s behavior. But these people are not media savvy. They are simple folk struggling to make ends meet and I think they were merely trying to convey, that had the rules not been changed that day when Rohanpreet and sweet Vasundhara were in the bottom two positions, the outcome of the finals could COULD have been totally different, and nasty Zee TV took advantage and made sure it gave maximum coverage to the showdown. How cheap can Zee TV get by following the family outside and showing the world every bit of their outburst and frustration?