Recreating the past

With her husky and passionate voice, Pakistani singer Reshma had set millions of hearts thumping in India and Pakistan. Her song Lambi Judai from the 1983 film Hero is an unforgettable and evergreen song of a lover’s yearning. Over the decades, many of her originals have been reshaped and sung by different music composers and singers. Following suit, singer-composer Akhil Sachdeva has breathed a new life into Reshma’s Nain Na Jodeen in his latest rendition.

Unlike Reshma’s other songs, this song never actually came under the limelight, but the melodious strings make it an apt song to be re-sung and recomposed. The singer Akhil informs that the new version has been re-written by Bhushan Kumar, composed by Rochak Kohli with a complete makeover, “Though the hook line Nain Na Jodeen has been retained with its original chord, keeping the same vibe.”

For Akhil, giving voice to the legend’s song came as a gift and he attributes this satisfying experience of singing the song to his childhood fondness for Reshma’s melodies. He claims, “It’s like telepathy and I knew that I can do justice to this song.”

While the apprehensions of the audience to accept the recreated version of the legend’s song is understood, the singer is however uninhibited. For him, it’s his love for folk and Sufi music that gives him the confidence to do justice with such kind of a melody. “Having an old soul, I relate more to the music of the olden era than the music of the present generation,” he says. The singer also agrees that Pakistan is strong in its music content but that does not bother him much as he believes he has done his job well, as far as this song is concerned.

The original song was written about 30-40 years ago and was only sung in Reshma’s mehfils, which she used to take charge of as a singer. But Akhil believes that a song like this deserves more visibility. Shot at many locations in Mauritius, the new version of the song has a chord to gauge the attention of the listeners and forces them to close their eyes to listen to its lyrics. “It surely has a capability to transport the listeners to a soulful world with its updated music and beats and soulful singing,” he gushes.

The singer believes that Bollywood is constantly recreating the old songs; changing old melodies into new compositions; and not producing the original content as just a phase which will get over soon, “But it should be done in a right way and then there is no challenge.” Believing in maintaining the old melodies intact with their original soul, this song has retained that Sufi and soulful touch. With this Akhil also confirms that Nain Na Jodeen is the first ever song that has been recreated by a male singer in India after Ali Sethi’s composition with original lyrics in Pakistan. This, however, is not the first for Akhil. The singer from Delhi has also listed his name for forming the first Sufi-Rock band in Delhi and has been performing with the band for past eight years. When asked if the originality remains in the fusion, he assures that everything that he produces has originality. Talking about his inclination towards Sufi and Rock music and how that helps him amalgamate the two, he says, “Basic content remains authentic, it’s just my renditions are produced in Rock form.”

While the advent in technology seems to be overpowering every sector of music industry too has not escaped its reach. With auto-tune coming in aid for non-singers to give voice to many successful songs, many such technologies are deceiving tools used by people. Akhil believes that singers who depend on technology are not genuine singers and should not be called the same. He adds that if one or two songs become a hit, that means that they are fortunate, but eventually they too will get a reality check. “You can lie to the world but not to yourself, you live in guilt and you realise it in some time,” rues the singer.

Considering Hamsafar of Badri ki Dulhania as a testimony of his talent, it’s far more convincing that his voice is irreplaceable for the revamped Nain Na Jodeen. Moreover, the singer is expecting a bright future with his own compositions being produced by him soon, which he says has long been kept in his musical library. “I don’t want to be dependent on anyone, I have my melodies for the world to hear,” he signs off.