Well I would never forget this song in my whole life as it was the
beginning to every amazing thing that happened afterwords in my musical career! This was the first song that I sang for "
Meri Awaz Suno". I still remember that day when the hall was filled with aspirants all over from India. As I was the only one who was from the south, I was all at sea listening to the tall stories of my fellow participants about singing track for big singers like
Udit Narayan,
Abhijeet,
Kumar Sanu...etc. All of them were already doing rounds of recording in the studios of
Bollywood and here was me, a
southie...who had come to beat them all and that too singing
hindi! Well I was at times wondering why I had traveled the whole way on a plane to
Mumbai in the first place. And then suddenly my name was called out of nowhere! As I went on to the makeshift stage, I found myself confronted by two great personalities in front of me! One was "
Sanjeev Kohli", son of the legendary music director "
Madan Mohan". The other was "
Pamela Chopra"
Yash Chopra's wife! They were the judges of the audition rounds! I somehow finished my song "
Dil Aisa Kissine Mera" and after I had done with it, I was almost sure that I was going to be out in the audition round itself! The enormity of the occasion had taken its toll on my confidence and I could not even do 50% justice to what I sang. And as I had presumed, I was not selected, and had to go back to my relative's home where I was staying. Once it was over, I was free from all tension and as I was preparing my mind for the long journey by train the next day back to
Kerala, the phone bell rang! "I am calling from
YASHRAJ FILMS. Can I have Mr.
Pradeep Somasundaram on the phone?" A sweet female voice spoke. My relative gave the phone to me. "Sir, we would like to hear your voice once more as we are yet to finalise the last person in the final 14 for the next round. Could you come over?". She said. I could not believe what I heard!
Now, I had no fear at all and thought...what do I have to lose?...let me just go there and do my best this time... "See Mr. Somasundaram...Mrs. Chopra wanted me to hear your voice again as she felt that there was something in you..that we missed...so we called you" "Mr. Kohli said. This time I sang "Dil Aisa" with my heart out! And they said "Mr. Somasundaram...is this really you? Our doubt has been justified! We thought you did not sing well last time due to tension...and see how well you did it this time! We would have lost a good contestant!". And finally I was in the final 14 as the last man at the last minute! The rest of the story and the climax is history, on how a "Manush" became "Amanush" in just 10 days of time! Strange are the ways of fate!
After a long gap am here again with a Kishoreda song. Ever since I heard this song in my College days, it has been one of my all time favourites. It's definitely one of Kishoreda's best songs in the sentimental category. His soulful sonorous voice has so much of depth and emotion in it. I have tried my best to do justice to this beautiful composition from Prem Dhawan which came out in 1970.
