Mon, a five-minute romantic number featuring Jaan Kumar Sanu, son of singer Kumar Sanu, tells a story through the music composed by the duo Shiladitya-Som, aka Shiladitya Chaudhury and Som Chakraborty. The duo has worked with Kumar Sanu before, and now they felt it was the right time to launch his son, Jaan Kumar Sanu in the Bengali music industry. The song Mon has also been recorded in Hindi and that version has been penned by Shyam Raj.
“We’ve been following Jaan for quite some time now and decided to rope him in for a music video and launch him in the Bengali music industry. This is the first time we’re doing a musical and it’s like a five-minute film (starring Jaan Kumar Sanu and Srijla Guha) that tells a story. We thank Surinder Films for giving us this platform... it’s the first time they’ll be launching a musical on their platform Addatimes,” said Shiladitya Chaudhury.
“When we first signed Jaan we kept thinking about what kind of song to compose that’ll fit perfectly well with him and zeroed in on a romantic number with a new-age texture. Jaan’s voice has a modern texture and the romantic numbers sound too good. Jaan has done an excellent job and we’ve captured the best mood. We shot the video at a Calcutta golf course for over two to three days like a big film,” said Shiladitya, while talking about his experience of shooting Mon. “Narrating a story through a five-minute song can get pretty challenging and our lyricist Soham Majumdar did a great job in writing down words in such a way that it can narrate a story within a time frame. Jaan is a gifted artiste, with a unique voice that is very different from his father. It’s an honour to work with both Sanuda and Jaan,” he said. A t2 chat with Jaan...
How was your experience shooting for Mon?
Shooting is always a lot of fun. I had a great time shooting with the team of Surinder Films. Everyone was super helpful and cooperative and I had the most amazing time.
Apart from the romantic genre, which are the other genres that interest you?
I like singing in all kinds of genres based on the opportunities that I get. It also depends a lot on the audience’s feedback and what they’re enjoying more. Given a chance, I would like to focus and touch upon all genres. Here’s hoping I get that opportunity soon.
Did you face any challenges in acting and shooting for the musical?
I think understanding the entire concept was a challenge to me, shooting, not so much. When I asked Shiladityada and Somda about how we’ll go about this because telling a story through a song is very difficult, they told me they’ve got the right people on board to ace the job and I think that’s what happened. And I think that’s what the team did. The video is really amazing. And since it’s like a musical, people are going to enjoy it more.
Do you ever feel the pressure of being Kumar Sanu’s son?
Honestly, I don’t feel the pressure so much because I’ve been into music since a very young age, even before the time when I realised my father’s popularity and legacy. By the age I understood this, I was already engrossed in music and seeing myself going somewhere with it. It’s never been a pressure but a responsibility, yes! Of course, he’s got a legendary name and it is my duty as his son to carry that forward. But with the training and all the riyaaz that I’ve done, I think I might be able to make a good position for myself.
So you’ve sung in both Hindi and Bengali now. Which language are you more comfortable in?
Being a Bengali, I’ve grown up listening to a lot of Bengali songs since childhood and it’s contributed a lot to me. A lot of legendary songs were first made in Bangla and then sung in Hindi, so I would say that I’m very very comfortable doing both. I am a Bengali and was born in Mumbai, so Hindi comes naturally to me and Bengali is what we speak at home. It really depends on which one connects with the audience.