People force me to sing, says Big B

KOLKATA: Usually, it is superstar Amitabh Bachchan who gives his fans that ethereal feeling when he shows up. But on Saturday, it was Bachchan who realized what it felt being on the other side when he visited Thakurbari in north Kolkata’s Jorasanko. “It was so quiet, so amazing. I could almost feel Gurudev’s presence,” said Bachchan, recounting the Saturday morning experience later in the day.
Big B was at Rabindranath Tagore’s birthplace and ancestral house to do a location shoot for the rendition of the National Anthem in his voice. The voice recording was done three days ago at singer-composer Adesh Shrivastava’s studio in Mumbai and Bachchan flew down on Saturday to shoot the sequence for the 1-minute-38-second Anthem written by Tagore in 1911.
The legendary actor described Thakurbari as an iconic monument and a historic house that very few Indians had been to or even knew about. “I doubt if the rest of the country has seen the Thakurbari or even know about it. The house is steeped in history and culture, its rooms full of interesting mementos — from the Nobel Prize to his personal artifacts collected during his journeys abroad. It was interesting to see the paintings Tagore had done later in life. The silence in the room that he breathed his last… it was a great experience, one that has to be experienced. I will spend a lot of time tonight writing about it in my blog,” he said.
That Bachchan discovered Thakurbari was thanks to ‘Piku’ director Shoojit Sircar, who suggested they shoot the Anthem in the house Tagore was born in instead of Santiniketan where director R Balki had originally intended. With his movie ‘Shamitabh’ starring Bachchan set for release on February 6, Balki hit upon the idea of recording the National Anthem in Bachchan’s baritone and play it in PVR theatres in Maharashtra from Republic Day. It would be a tribute to the nation as well as a marketing tool to create interest in ‘Shamitabh’ where Amitabh sings the song Piddly composed by Illaiyaraaja.
“I am not a singer. People force me to sing. These days, there are all kinds of gadgets that set your voice in tune and make them sound melodious,” said Bachchan, sounding modest for someone who has lent his voice to several Bollywood hits like ‘Neela Asmaan So Gaya’, ‘Rang Barse Bheege Chunarwali’, ‘Tu Maike Mat Jaiyo’, ‘Jahan Char Yaar Mil Jaye’ and many more.
Incidentally, Jana Gana Mana is Amitabh’s second attempt at a song written by Tagore, the first being ‘Ekla Cholo Re’ in Sujoy Ghosh’s ‘Kahaani’. That is a song that he believes everyone will identify with at some level. “Ekla Cholo Re is a symbolic song for everyone. There comes a time in everyone’s life when one feels that even if the rest of the world does not agree, we must pursue and move ahead. And then when one achieves the goal and turns back, one sees there are others following you,” he remarked.
So now that he has got a hang of songs by Tagore, is he willing to take on the challenge of a Rabindrasangeet album? Not quite, felt the man who has lent his voice to render his father Harivansh Rai’s poems.
“Tagore’s songs should be recited by someone who knows the language well. But if a situation arises and I get an opportunity to do the renditions of Tagore poems in Hindi or English, I will be glad to do so,” he said.