Dharm ke naam pe...

Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and if reports are true, even Hrithik Roshan, have sung for Hindi movies. And now, it���s the turn of none other than Pankaj Kapur to lend his voice to songs of Kishore Kumar and Mukesh for the soundtrack of Bhavna Talwar���s Awasthi.
Talking about why he wanted to use Kapur���s voice, composer Debajyoti Mishra says, ���Pankaj plays a hotel singer who entertains by singing old Hindi songs.Both Bhavna and I had heard him singing and requested him to try the songs. Besides, he had himself done the chants for Bhavna���s Dharm. Pankaj loves Kishore Kumar���s numbers and for him, the whole exercise was like saying dialogues to a tune. Last week, we recorded the numbers in Mumbai.��� The numbers that have already been recorded include Hum thhe, woh thhe, Zindagi ek khwab hai, Gore gore and Babu samjho ishare. Besides these, he is also supposed to sing the numbers ��� Ajeeb dastan and Aa chalke tujhe.
While this sure is good news, Mishra���s use of a singer in Dharm has come under the scanner. Vocalist Ambarish Das, whose voice has an uncanny similarity to that of Ustad Rashid Khan���s, was credited as Sayed Ambrish in the audio track of Dharm. Mishra claims to have changed Ambarish���s name and also his religion only because he felt that the new identity would sell in Mumbai! ���Initially, I had composed the song with Rashid (Ustad Rashid Khan) in mind. Rashid is a friend of mine and I consider him to be a God in music. Somehow, we couldn���t record that number with him. Then, I recorded it with Ambarish. He sang it really well,��� says Mishra.
If the rendition was so good, why then did he change his name? Ambarish says, ���Friends called me up to ask whether I had changed my name and religion. When I replied in the negative, they asked me why my name in the duet Uphaar with Aanchal had been credited as Sayed Ambrish in the soundtrack for Dharm? Nobody even got to know that I had sung for this film!���
Mishra, on his part, says, ���Mumbai, I fear, has a lot of apprehensions about whether a Bengali singer from Kolkata can pronounce Hindi properly. It was my apprehension that Ambarish might just have lost out on the assignments had I used his original name. Being his well-wisher, I decided to do this. Let me make it very clear that the producer had no say in my decision of Ambarish���s name.���
Producer Sheetal Talwar, on his part, says, ���This is the first time I���m hearing about the fact that Ambarish���s name has been changed. The production team went ahead with the list provided by the music director. This song was recorded in Kolkata. Debu���s entire team has people from all across the country. They have all been given their due credit. We are not parochial at all.���Well, so much for just lending a name!