I feel the same way about listening to Sukhwinder Singh sing in Telugu for the soundtrack of Adipurush. ‘Huppa Huiya’ is amusing at best. While the track mines Singh’s powerhouse vocals, the singer’s grasp of Telugu takes away from the music. Singh has also sung the Tamil version of ‘Huppa Huiya’’ and it turns out that his Tamil diction is better than Udit Narayan’s. Purists will vehemently disagree, but Narayan sounds terribly cute despite or because of his Tamil (mis)pronunciation. I certainly cannot imagine anyone other than Narayan singing ‘Kulu Valilay’, composed by A.R. Rahman for the 1995 Rajinikanth blockbuster Muthu because the voice oddly sits perfectly with Rajini’s character in the film. And as much as I would like to believe that Rajini can do anything, singing is not the actor’s forte.
There’s a lot to be said about South Indian actors who can sing. In recent times, it’s not a gimmick to draw audiences, but to bring real talent and fresh voices into the industry. There’s Dhanush who has proved that there is no emotion too big for him to tackle with ‘Onnoda Nadandhaa’ from the Illaiyaraaja soundtrack for Viduthalai Part 1, released earlier this year and Vadivelu who delivered a powerful folk song in ‘Raasa Kannu’ from Maamannan (2023), composed by AR Rahman. This month, we have Sivakarthikeyan reminding us that the playful songs that he’s called on to sing often (“Inna Mylu” from Lift, 2021; ‘Vaayadi Petha Pulla’ from Kanaa, 2018) swiftly take the edge off your playlist. Actor Aditi Shankar, who essays the title role in the upcoming film Maaveeran, opens the song ‘Vannarapettayila’ with Sivakarthikeyan following her lead with ease. The duet, composed by upcoming music director Bharath Sankar, with its vocal harmonies, buoyant rhythm and easy lyrics makes for a great singalong track.