KUALA LUMPUR: Help and inspiration sometimes come to recording artistes from the unlikeliest of people, and Aizat Amdan can now attest to this fact.
The award-winning singer-songwriter behind Sampai Ke Hari Tua has just come up with a Hindi version of the song, and he has his ailing father’s male nurse to thank for making it possible.
Aizat said the nurse, known only as Jassi, had been looking after his father, businessman Datuk Amdan Mat Din for the last six months. Amdan is recuperating from a stroke and while he is back at home, he is still bedridden and unable to speak.
“Jassi speaks fluent Hindi as it’s his mother tongue. He translated my song beautifully, and taught me how to sing it in his language in just three days,” said Aizat at the launch of Sampai Ke Hari Tua's Hindi version in Stalker's Cafe, Kota Damansara, Petaling Jaya last Friday.
Aizat said translating the song into Hindi was a fulfilment of his father’s request that he sing a song in a language other than Malay and English someday.
“My father asked that I record one of my songs in Mandarin, since it’s East Asia’s biggest language. However, my elder brother and producer Anas thought Hindi would be great, too, and that’s because the introductory sound of Sampai Ke Hari Tua has a Bollywood feel.”
Aizat admitted that he occasionally enjoyed listening to Bollywood music as Hindi was a “very romantic language”.
“Jassi and I got into the studio last month, and he was with me throughout the recording session, to make sure that I pronounced every sentence in Hindi correctly,” he said.
To enhance the feel of the song, Aizat and Anas recruited sitar player Ude and Hindi language singer Rojer to join them.
“Having the sitar accompany me for the first time, reminded me of The Beatles, my all-time pop-rock heroes. Ude and Rojer fitted nicely into our project, their work was flawless.”
Aizat’s music video for the Hindi song is simple, it shows him recording it in the studio with Ude and Rojer. “I would love to have a proper music video filmed in India - in New Delhi, Kashmir and Rajasthan, but not for now as that’ll be too costly.”
His next project is to record a Mandarin version of the song, and he hopes to wrap it up by May 11.
“My father heard the Hindi version, complete with the music video, and he’s responded with a smile. I’m sure he's delighted,” said Aizat, who plans to record more Hindi or Mandarin versions of his songs next year.
The Hindi version of Sampai Ke Hari Tua will be released on Friday. The original Malay version was launched on Feb 15 and has had 1.3 million views on YouTube. It is accompanied by a music video directed by Al Fahim Mokhtar and produced by Lokalab.