BY Harjap Singh Aujla

WE were born with Punjabi duets heard during social and family occasions such as weddings, engagement ceremonies, births of children etc. In a typical rural setting, two sisters or friends used to sing duets, one used to play “Dholki” and sing and the other will sing only. Harmonium was rarely used. One format of “Punjabi Lokgeets” was singing of “Mahiya”, another was “Dhola”. “Boliyan” were also sung in duet formats and “Tappe” were mostly sung as duets. We were used to listening to recorded duets in the voices of Mukhtar Bai, Nawab Bai, Dilshad Begum, Umrao-Zia-Begum, Noorjehan, Shamshad Begum, Zeenat Begum, Munnawar Sultana and of course the most prolific duet singers Parkash Kaur and Surinder Kaur.

But now we are seeing the pop version of “Punjabi Duets” being churned out in big numbers by a new Punjabi singing sensation Miss Pooja. Born in Rajpura in Patiala district on April 12, 1979, this thirty two year old singer is basically well trained in classical music. Her original name is Gurinder Kaur Kainth. She took training and grooming in classical music under Ustad Kesar Nand Kesar, followed by more advanced continuing education under Mohinder Singh Nagina. It appears that Miss Pooja did a lot of “Riyaz” during her formative years. For two years Gurinder Kaur Kainth was a teacher of music too, which exercise also helped her tremendously.

She has been singing for quite some time, but the proliferation in her recording is merely a four or five year old phenomenon. Professionally her thundering success is about four years old. Quite like other singers, she started as a solo “Punjabi Geet” singer, but somehow she could not make a real headway. Then she quickly changed her course and switched to “Pop Punjabi Duet” singing. Most of the singers, she chooses to sing along are much less accomplished than Miss Pooja herself, even then her duets are nearly all selling like hot cakes.

Miss Pooja is not only blessed with a very melodious, highly modulative and flexible voice, she exudes a lot of glamour too. Bestowed with a highly photogenic face, she is neither chubby nor skinny, she is ideal for cinema and television. If she sings in perfect “Sur”, she dances in perfect “Taal”. In her videos she is seen not only singing, but also dancing with good choreographic moves. Overall she is a great entertainer and deservedly she is minting pots full of money. The singers of olden days used to be merely singers. Lata Mangeshkar performs no hand gestures while singing.

Surinder Kaur also at one time was just like Lata Mangeshkar totally devoid of hand and face gestures. Once, music director Khurshid Anwar asked her to perform hand gestures too with her singing, which she started later on during stage performances. Miss Pooja is not the first to perform dancing and hand gestures while singing, but she has given a new art form to the combination of singing and dancing on stage and during her recording sessions. This new art form has attracted the attention of the buyers of her videos.

Surprisingly Miss Pooja does not appear during the weddings and social occasions, especially in India. She refuses to hold an “Akhara” in the villages in India. But she gladly and wholeheartedly does lots of live entertainment shows abroad, where she makes a lot of money. She is always a big hit in America and Canada. It appears that she is very intelligent, she makes her decisions very carefully and once she decides to take a plunge, she does it totally unhesitatingly. All her decisions are right on the money. Most of the songs sung by Miss Pooja have been penned by Karamjit Puri of Bhagta Bhai Ka. Miss Pooja is no Zubeida Khanum, the other biggies like Farida Khanum, Iqbal Bano, Jaspinder Narula and Tahira Sayyed are in a higher class, but her music sells very well. That is what counts these days, especially in a highly commercialized India.

Miss Pooja has a lot of potential. She is ideally suited for the cinema and the small screen. She has the potential of becoming a singing actress just like Noorjehan and Suraiya. Although her partners in duets don’t measure up to her, yet the selling ability of her CDs and albums is tremendous. All the Punjabi TV channels in India are repeatedly playing her discs every day and the television rating points (TRP) of her music videos are the highest. The advent of color television has made glamour more important than ever before in the history of music and small screen. Miss Pooja is a lady, who has used her pleasant features to the hilt on the small screen.

Those who have watched Shakira performing on the stage, admire the way she can face totally alien audiences all over the world. Shaqira is of course a worldwide phenomenon. However on the ethnic Punjabi stage, Miss Pooja has come to be recognized as the Punjabi community’s answer to Shakira.

Almost a year ago I watched Miss Pooja and actor Harish in an interview for program “Direct Dil Se” conducted by an anchor Anshu. Miss Pooja was very impressive throughout the interview. In fact she talked about her new film “Punjaban”. Its music was scored by music director Honey Singh. Although the music is quite captivating, but the rendition of its songs by Miss Pooja is simply outstanding. One song entitled “Pehla pehla pyar” matches the melodious appeal of the film music of the nineteen fifties. In this film Miss Pooja’s voice comes very close to Pakistan’s Mallika-e-Tarrannum (Melody Queen) Noorjehan’s vintage voice. In the entire interview Miss Pooja made the hostess look quite irralavent. If Miss Pooja has become a big hit as a duet singer, it appears that her career as a playback or acting singer has just started ascending. If she keeps working hard on her singing career, there is no way she will not attain stardom in true sense of the word.

Miss Pooja has already recorded more than one hundred CDs and videos, mostly in duet format. All these are proving best sellers. She is continuing to churn out song after song. In fact she is proving to be a phenomenon unmatched in the history of Punjabi singing in both Punjabs.

Very soon we will all hear that Miss Pooja has broken the record of Late Surinder Kaur as the most recorded Punjabi singer in India.

harjapaujla@gmail.com