On a Whistling Spree

Ten minutes into talking to Surve,in his small studio in Mumbai’s Goregaon,and one becomes apparent about his old-fashioned sensibilities. The most memorable anecdotes he shares are from the olden days. “I am asked to whistle the same tune in variations. It is then mixed and programmed for the songs,” he says. He also misses the participation of the composer as before. From being an exciting outlet to a gifted talent,whistling has become merely a mechanical,routine job for Surve. “I get my payments in time,the rest I don’t keep a tab on,” he says.

The man has derived the greatest pleasures of whistling artistry in the olden times — he once whistled the score of a violin orchestra for Ravindra Jain in Mehboob Studio — and the modern-day methods of music suffocates him. Even his favorite among his more contemporary works,the whistle-prelude in the Barfi! title song,is wrapped in the charms of old-world Bollywood. “It’s nice,old-styled,melodious and has a very orchestra-led arrangement,” he says.  

Surve’s other identity is that of an instrumentalist — a violinist,sitar player — and a composer,mostly in Marathi films (and a Hindi film,the Akshay Kumar starrer Zakhmi Dil where he named himself Rishi Raj). But the natural,carefree beauty of his whistling skills have got the better of them,giving him unprecedented fame. “Maybe I play the violin and whistle equally good but I get famous in one because I am the only one doing it,” he says.

 The 66-year has an amusing boyhood tale about the discovery of his special talent. In the chawls of Dadar where he grew up,Surve remembers a group of boys from his block who would go for a walk to the Girgaum Chowpatty every night after dinner. They would make playful whistles as signals for each other to come out of their respective homes and assemble. Surve’s keen ears observed the distinct whistles of all of them,and one day he played a mischief. “I went out and emulated one of them and came back to my room inside. They were startled. I could whistle the way each of them did; they started requesting me to whistle their favourite songs,” he recalls.

The ability to whistle with melody came from there,believes Surve.  The hobby then turned profession when once,during a picnic,an assistant of music composer Usha Khanna heard him whistling. “He asked me if I ever heard my own whistles. He insisted that I record it and see how it comes out.”

When Nagesh Surve is unable to name the song he whistled in for composer Amit Trivedi,or even fails to recollect its tune,in a desperate urge to find out I play one of the composer’s less-popular songs that has a whistling portion. It takes a second’s hearing for Surve,and his daughter,Rupali — who keeps a list of recent song names his whistles were featured in — to identify it. It turns out to be someone else’s. The whistle,says the daughter,lacks the clarity and personality that Surve’s tone has,a standard few in Bollywood has managed to match for decades.

For 40 years,Surve’s whistling has been the only living,breathing constant to Hindi film music: which has gone from the times of the ’70s Kishore-Lata-Rafi fare to the poppish melody of Jatin-Lalit and Anand Milind of the ’90s and the new age contemporary film music of Trivedi,Pritam and Sneha Khanwalkar.

Ten minutes into talking to Surve,in his small studio in Mumbai’s Goregaon,and one becomes apparent about his old-fashioned sensibilities. The most memorable anecdotes he shares are from the olden days. “I am asked to whistle the same tune in variations. It is then mixed and programmed for the songs,” he says. He also misses the participation of the composer as before. From being an exciting outlet to a gifted talent,whistling has become merely a mechanical,routine job for Surve. “I get my payments in time,the rest I don’t keep a tab on,” he says.

The man has derived the greatest pleasures of whistling artistry in the olden times — he once whistled the score of a violin orchestra for Ravindra Jain in Mehboob Studio — and the modern-day methods of music suffocates him. Even his favorite among his more contemporary works,the whistle-prelude in the Barfi! title song,is wrapped in the charms of old-world Bollywood. “It’s nice,old-styled,melodious and has a very orchestra-led arrangement,” he says.  

Surve’s other identity is that of an instrumentalist — a violinist,sitar player — and a composer,mostly in Marathi films (and a Hindi film,the Akshay Kumar starrer Zakhmi Dil where he named himself Rishi Raj). But the natural,carefree beauty of his whistling skills have got the better of them,giving him unprecedented fame. “Maybe I play the violin and whistle equally good but I get famous in one because I am the only one doing it,” he says.

 The 66-year has an amusing boyhood tale about the discovery of his special talent. In the chawls of Dadar where he grew up,Surve remembers a group of boys from his block who would go for a walk to the Girgaum Chowpatty every night after dinner. They would make playful whistles as signals for each other to come out of their respective homes and assemble. Surve’s keen ears observed the distinct whistles of all of them,and one day he played a mischief. “I went out and emulated one of them and came back to my room inside. They were startled. I could whistle the way each of them did; they started requesting me to whistle their favourite songs,” he recalls.

The ability to whistle with melody came from there,believes Surve.  The hobby then turned profession when once,during a picnic,an assistant of music composer Usha Khanna heard him whistling. “He asked me if I ever heard my own whistles. He insisted that I record it and see how it comes out.”