Continued from part 1

Part 2

tOTaku tObuTTuvunu
aeTi nae biDDanu
paaTa naaku saidODu
pakshi naaku tODu

Playback singing is probably the easiest when it comes to background songs. While the action is going on the screen, the singer has the responsibility of capturing just the mood of the song and delivers it, without concerning himself too much about the players on the screen. These "saakee" songs are usually relegated to emotion laden situations, which almost all the playback singers would sleep-walk through. When the focus shifts from background songs to real playbacks - duets, solos and group songs, the singer has to put an extra effort of not only capturing the mood of the song, but also, if possible, mimic the actor who is lip-syncing to it. And the task becomes even tougher, when the players on the screen aren't as consequential as the lead actors, like character artistes and comedians. In the good old days, Madhavapeddi Satyam, Pithaapuram Nageswara Rao and to some extent Ghantasala lent their voices to side actors on the screen. Be it for Relangi, Ramana Reddy, Padmanabham and hordes of such actors, the singers didn't quite modulate their voices to fit the person on the screen, but rather played along reflecting only the mood of the song. So one couldn't quite make out the identity of the actor when listening to a "My dear meena, maha manchi daana" or "illarikam lO unna mazaa adi anubhavinchitae teliyunulae" or "siva gOvinda gOvinda, hari gOvinda gOvinda". But for the occasional song or poem sung by Madhavapeddi to match the deep baritone of SVR's voice, mimicking the voice of the actor was never a requirement, nor was there a need. Ghantasala's handling of NTR's and ANR's voices were almost similar, with the clear emphasizing and the clear lightening of the syllables respectively picked up only by a discerning ear.

In Rajan-Nagendra's "inTinTi ramayaNam", the situation called for Nutan Prasad, in his drunken stupor, parallel the lives of raamadasu and daevadaasu ("rammudaasu") in a harikatha form. Enter SPB and his inimitable style of mimicking the actor on the screen. In what can be called as the best piece of playback mimicry, Balu captures Nutan Prasad's dialogue delivery, his pauses, his intonations, his high nasal voice and his pitch perfectly and the result was nothing short of electric. A few years later, when Balu sung for Nutan Prasad in "raajadhi raaju" for Mahadevan's "kottaa daevunDanDee kongothaa daevunDanDee", the result matched to his earlier rendition so closely, that one would get the impression that the songs were recorded one after the other. Though it certainly is not a requisite that all the playback singers be master mimicry artists, it certainly helped Balu to stretch his vocal chords to further lengths, marking a mark not just in playback singing but playback imitation and playback mimicry. Though he started off his career lending his voice to comedians and side characters, Balu did not tread away from his first passion (he was a mimicry artist before he plunged into playback singing), and the innumerable songs he mimicked a variety of actors in - "rangammaa nuvvu naDustunTae andam" (a funny take off of Bobby's "hum tum ek kamre mein band hO" for Allu Ramalingiah), "sooDu pinnamma paaDu pillaaDu" (for Mada Venkateswara Rao) "patiyae pratyaksha daivamae" (again for Allu), "O seeta cheli my seeta" (for Sudhakar), "nacchina fuDDoo vecchani beDDoo" (for Kamal Hasan) - bear a solid testament to that fact.

Though not intended to be comedic in effect, Balu's imitation of NTR's and ANR's voices can probably be categorized under comedy, for the extra character that he brings into his voice while delivering the songs for the duo. Though Balu didn't start off imitating NTR's rich range initially, as evident in "nippulaanTi manishi", "maya maScheendra", "aDavi raamuDu" etc in such songs as "praNaya raaga vaahini, cheli vasanta mOhini" or "manishai puTTinavaaDu kaaraadu maTTi bomma" or "kOkilamma peLLiki kOnantaa pandiri" and the like, he switched to vocalizing NTR's thundering voice ever since "vaeTagaaDu" and the song "OsOsi pilla kODi peTTa" where Balu's boisterous imitation of NTR's naughty mood matched perfectly with the actor on screen dancing in gay abandon (but for the occasional "chitram, ayyarae vichitram, ee raacha nagaruku raaraajuni rappinchuTae vichitram" (dana veera soora karNa)). The voice is brought down from below the diaphragm resonating through the walls of the throat and emanating finally from a more closed or rounded shape, thundered into the microphone when delivering a "chaTTaaniki nyaaniki jarigina ee samaram lO" (Justice Chowdary) to potray the emotion of frustration and anger through the voice, or opening the mouth up a little bit to flatten the voice and deliver a "jananee janma bhoomiScha swargaadapee gareeyasi" (Bobbili puli) to evoke a sense of sentiment. In "aemani varNinchanu" song (Driver Ramudu), Balu keeps the rich tone in place but throws away the typical NTR sounds, and makes it still sound as NTR. Mimicry artists usually have a template from which they can generate many sounds off, than have a different voice for a different sound. NTR's starts off with a deep tone and the rest branch out from that voice - his anger, his sorrow, his joy and his playfulness. Consider the following to see how Balu retained the original sound while adding little variations to bring out the different moods.

"ee madhumaasam lO ee darahaasam lO"
"maa inTi lOnaa mahalakshmi neevae"
"attha maDugu vagu lOnaa attha kooturO"
"puNya bhoomi naa daesam namO namaami"

When it came to ANR, Balu completely reversed the process and brought the voice from way above the diaphragm floating it a lot in throat before delivering it. As contrasting as the delivery styles of NTR and ANR as, Balu's delivery for both these actors was even more contrasting than the original voices. "erekka pOyi vacchaanu irukku pOyaanu" (aeDantastula maeDa), "chiguraesae mabbaesae sogasantaa puta poosae" (secretary), "vandanam abhivandanam nee andamae oka nandam" (praemaabhishaekam) - these few show how much Balu matched the original, understanding where the original voice starts from and how the delivery finally comes through. Case in point, listen closely to the pronunciation of ANR's "Sa" (melika sa as in Saarada). He betters the original pronunciation and makes it near perfect - the way "Sa" is meant to be pronounced. And for the song "uttaraala tOTa lO uttaraalu dorikaayi (bucchi baabu), listen how Balu delivers ANR's "Sa" - "nuvvu raaSaavaa, naenu raaSaana, naaku nuvvu raaSaavaa, neeku naenu raaSaanaa". A 100% match. Though Balu does not seem to go overboard while imitating the voice, it feels as though he gets into the skin of the character (or the portrayer, in this case) just as an actor would try to loose himself completely in the role while delivering the performance. On an interesting note, when he sings for Nagarjuna (in Manmadhudu), he retains the same airy feeling, allowing the voice to waft over, lightening it up as much as possible when delivering "Siva ani naa close friend, college lO vaaDu greeku veeruDu" in the song "vaddura sOdara peLLanTae nooraeLLa manTaraa". In the many songs that Balu had sung for NTR and ANR, the perfect synchronization between the voice behind the screen and the actor on the screen resembled the rapport that Mohd. Rafi had with Shammi Kapoor's persona in the golden age of Hindi cinema.

visugu raadu
khushee pOdu
vaesaTa laenae laedu
asalu naa marO paeru aananda vihaari

(Continued in Part 3)

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