Just when I was in love with the movie, in love with the song, I get to hear the original [means originating from the land, by people, where the song belongs to] 'Ekla Cholo Re'. Frankly speaking, till date I had not heard any of the versions except one from Rahman's OST for Bose : The Forgotten Hero In that one, only two lines were used. But this time - after hearing 5 different versions, it makes me feel that the one featured in Kahaani - sung by Amitabh Bachchan is not upto the mark - that the legendary song deserves.
Why Mr Bachchan as the singer, that's the first question. Personally, I feel Sujoy needed a big name to be associated with the film. And how bigger can it get, but Big B himself singing a song for a film he is not featuring into? That must be the reason. Now, my question is - why him, and no other Bong artist who has lived this song throughout his life. I don't know any bong male singers who could have done better job here, but checkout the first version I have posted in below playlist - by Shreya Ghoshal. So soothing and flawless singing and perfect pronunciations. Yes, the pronunciations is a problem with Big B's version. Even a non-bong like me could identify that glitch, imagine rage of Bong people who love this song like anything else. And about that mish-mash of English and Hindi lyrics, I am fine though with that thing, but I feel it steals the soul, making it rather a peppy version. On the otherside, checkout Usha Uthup's version and how smoothly it transcends into both Bengali and English.
Here are versions by Shreya Ghoshal, Usha Uthup, Lopamudra Mitra, Kishore da and Suchitra Mitra. Please listen to it and let me know whats your view about this. (This is a playlist, hit 'next' button for next video)
Thanks @mittermaniac for recco of these wonderful versions of Tagore's masterpiece.
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