It was 1992 when a relatively new playback singer sliced through the air waves with his peppermint-fresh voice singing Vaada raha sanam... on my stereo in the audio cassette era. The duet was from Khiladi and the splendid male voice had the dependable Alka Yagnik for company. I quickly scanned the playback credits on the cassette’s flap to know who the singer was and got introduced to Abhijeet Bhattacharya.
The Fresh, Breezy Singer
There was something enchanting about Abhijeet’s voice that made him sound different. I found that his more popular contemporary, Kumar Sanu, hit an awkward nasal tone when he went high-pitch and the equally prolific Udit Narayan had a rustic twang to his voice. But Abhijeet’s vocals were crisp, breezy and captivating.
And like his voice, the singer soared - delivering hits, becoming the voice of Shah Rukh Khan having sung several chartbusters for him including:
- Main koi aisa geet gaoon... (Yes Boss)
- Badi mushkil hai... (Anjaam)
- Suno na, suno na... (Chalte Chalte)
- I am the best... (Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani)
- Tumhe jo maine dekha... (Main Hoon Na)
- Zara sa jhoom loon main... (Dilwale Dulhani Le Jayenge)
“I’ll Never Sing For Shah Rukh Khan”
Abhijeet later fell out with King Khan over the manner in which credits were given to singers in Main Hoon Na. SRK was last seen miming to Abhijeet’s voice in Billu Barber (2009) for the song Khudaya Khair and it’s been a downward spiral ever since for the singer and not just professionally. “I’ll Never Sing For Shah Rukh Khan” declared Abhijeet to a leading daily, he also claimed that singing was never his bread and butter in the same interview.
The singer apparently dabbles in real estate, in running a coffee-retail outlet AND off-late is busy making some really disgusting posts on Twitter.
How and when did this mellifluous singer of love ballads turn into a venomous, abusive, hate monger? Perhaps we’ll never know.
Abhijeet’s Hall of Shame
Vaada raha sanam... now just brings promises of a barrage of abominable tweets and it’s not just against Pakistan. Remember this gem of a tweet while the trial of Salman Khan’s hit-and-run case was on last year?
Roads are meant for cars and dogs not for people sleeping on them.. @BeingSalmanKhanis not at fault at all..abhijeet (@abhijeetsinger) May 6, 2015
Come out fraternity, support @BeingSalmanKhan boldly not hypocriticly Roads footpath r not meant 4 sleeping, not driver’s or alcohol’s fault— abhijeet (@abhijeetsinger) May 6, 2015
He later had to delete his tweets and apologise for them.
Pro at Pak Bashing
From Salman’s defense, Abhijeet went on to call Ghulam Ali and other Pakistani singers ‘dengu artists’ (sic).
Outrage Against Aamir Khan
The singer also had his two bits to add during the whole Aamir Khan and intolerance outrage that took place on social media. Abhijeet’s Facebook carried an open letter to Aamir which had the standard references to the star being a hypocrite and also added:
If I WERE indeed intolerant, I would suggest you move to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the safest place on earth, where Begum Kiran Rao can feel absolutely secure inside her abaya and your little son can grow up watching public executions in a Riyadh square. But I am not going to do that. As a tolerant Indian, the only thing I can and WILL do is to make sure that not even one rupee of my hard-earned money goes towards buying tickets for your movies.Open letter on Abhijeet’s Facebook
However, what’s more shocking is the way he responded to a journalist who criticised the move to remove Aamir Khan as the brand ambassador of Incredible India.
What’s disconcerting here is not that Abhijeet has a different point of view. The singer may well be incapable of separating an artist from the machinations of the state that he comes from or the singer indeed must have felt outraged by Kiran Rao’s anxiety about the tolerance levels among Indians. But it’s the nature of his obnoxious and toxic drivel online that alarms.
The Love Jihad Alarm
Most recently, acting in a totally reprehensible manner, the tragic murder of Chennai girl Swathi was dubbed as a result of ‘Love Jihad’ by the singer on Twitter.
The communally sensitive tweet remains, even after Swathi’s alleged killer, P Ramkumar, has been remanded to judicial custody.
Abhijeet then hit out at a female journalist who countered his false assumptions and called him out for being jealous of Pakistani singers.
And voila! The singer is now the poster boy of vile jingoism, being cheered on Twitter by dolts for teaching ‘libtards’ and ‘presstitutes’ a lesson.
Someone once said:
The job of an artist is to offer a sanctuary of beauty to an ugly world.
RIP to the singer in Abhijeet Bhattacharya. The death of an artist and birth of a bigot can’t be a mere coincidence.
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