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Mann’s magic
Dil Apna Punjabi (Tips)

With passage of time, Punjabi film music scene is becoming more and more ambitious. No, this time I am not talking about the quality part but just the scale at which it is being produced and marketed.

Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Mohammad Rafi and several other Bollywood mainstream singers have lent their voice to Punjabi film songs in the past but those have been rare occurrences. A majority of the films today confine themselves to local singers or at best those with Punjabi background who have made it big in Mumbai and are ready to nurture their roots back home. But Dil Apna Punjabi stages a coup of sorts by roping in Alka Yagnik and Sunidhi Chauhan.

And why not? The Harbhajan Mann-starrer has been mounted on a fairly lavish scale with most of the shooting done abroad. When you want to cater to an international market, you are always keen to give the project a pan-Indian feel. The advent of Bollywood singers has novelty value too.

Since Harbhajan is the sheet-anchor here, most of the songs have also been sung by him. He is fluent in singles as well as duets. For his film singing, he tends to be a little less flamboyant than he is in his private albums. But still, the well-modulated voice carries the day with `E9lan.

Sunidhi is the surprise packet. Her pronunciation is so good that it is very easy to mistake her for a pucci Punjaban. Not only that, her voice is full throated in "Sarayan to sohna munda lagda oh" (with Apache Indian) and "Sun haan mere de mundya ve" (with Harbhajan).

The former also has a remix version in which she is quite boisterous.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Alka Yagnik’s voice. She opens Sohniye exactly as if she is singing a Hindi number. She makes amends later but still you can make out that her Punjabi is affected.

For the typical Punjabi voice, one has to go over to Sudesh Kumari when she renders the traditional Jago with Harbhajan.

But the song which is making waves is Teri meri akh lad gayi. In this the co-singer of Harbhajan is Bella. This too has a "dhol mix".

Surprisingly, composer Sukhshinder Shinda has not sung any song himself.

The songs have been penned by Babu Singh Maan except Sohna munda, which has been written by Amarjit Musapuria. —ASC

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