Playback singers in the middle/late twentieth century played a very critical role in the Indian cinema, primarily due to the practice of film characters to unrealistically start singing in between a running plot or story. It’s not really clear why characters needed to ‘sing’ rather than having music in the background, but this practice of singing started back in the 1930s when the Indian cinema was wedged in 2 genres, the ‘Commercial’ and ‘Art’ movies. The Commercial movies were spiced up with concoctions of action, melodrama, dances, comedy, and songs that were sung (or lip synched) by the characters of the movie, which were appealing to the masses, who were largely uneducated during that time. Unlike the commercial movies, art movies which were similar to the Hollywood setup, with realistic scenarios and music in the background rather than sung by the characters, this was more appealing to the urban elite and intellectuals. In the end, the commercial movies liked by the general masses ended up with most of the revenue, making playback singing an integral part of the movies, as the songs sung by the characters were most appreciated by the masses bringing in more revenue through sales of music records. It was essential to have good playback singers as the commercial movies at that time showed the protagonist as the perfect model of everything good, including singing, so the musical greats like Kundan Lal Saigal, Manna Dey were the melodic voices of the protagonist. Later Bands like Indian Ocean also performed for movies as by the end of the 20^th century, commercial movies accepted songs in the background by the turn of the century.

Kundan Lal Saigal was one of the foremost playback singers of Indian cinema, he was active in this field from 1932 to 1947. He was an actor and also sang for his character in films, as during his time, it was necessary for an actor to also be able to sing live on shoot. As songs became more and more important for movies and increased in number, it was more practical to have the songs recorded separately and then added in the movie later. This started of a career in the industry called ‘playback singing’. Kundanlal Saigal never sang for any other character than his own in his films. His songs are still heard today with great enthusiasm by many fans old and new.

Manna Dey was a multifaceted playback singer, who used to compose his own songs. He was active in this field from 1951 to 2007. Unlike Kundan Lal Saigal who used to only sing for his own character, Manna Dey was purely in to music and used to sing for characters acted by other actors. By this time in the film industry, there were many actors who got recognized for their skill in acting, but they could not sing. Their character in the film would be sung by professional singers. Manna Dey liked experimenting with music. He was the one who pioneered a new genre in Indian music where he infused Indian classical music within a pop frame work. His experimentation with western music too produced many unforgettable melodies. It is said that Manna Dey has sung songs in every Indian Language that exists.

Indian Ocean is an Indi-Rock Fusion Band known for their electrifying performances on stage as well as in movies. They have performed in many movies where their songs are sung in the background and conveying a message about the scenario of the film. They have been active in playback singing for movies since 2004. By around the 1990’s, just presenting generic songs wasn’t enough for the movies anymore, there was a lot of competition in the market and in order to get noticed by the public, movies needed to present something fresh. By this time, commercial movies also started introducing songs and music in the background rather than that being sung by the characters. Since the music was in the background now, many possibilities in composition and music started rising, as things weren’t limited to one or two playback singers anymore.

One can see how playback singing in the Indian cinema evolved by starting out with simple tunes sung by actors live on shoot, to recording songs separately (in the 1930s to 40s) as the demand for songs grew in films. Somewhere around in the 1950’s Quantity of skills in an artist was no longer appreciated as much as quality of skills in an artist, hence professional singers were then used for playback singing. As time went by, tastes in music changed by bold experimenting and fusion. By the end of the century, songs were no longer ‘sung’ by the characters in the movies as much as it was earlier, they are more in the background. Even if the story or plot has halted while a song starts up, one can notice that the character may merely express their emotions than actually sing the song.

Sources:

–  Morcom Anna, Hypothesis: Hindi Film Songs and the Cinema

–  Kundan Lal Saigal, http://members.tripod.com/oldies_club/profile_kls.htm

–  Manna Dey, http://www.mannadey.in/contactus.php

– Indian Ocean, http://www.indianoceanmusic.com/