Most of us have heard something about Ranu Mondal – the woman who became an internet sensation after a video of her singing an old Bollywood number went viral. After this happened, there have been reports of her being signed up to sing playback with music director Himesh Reshammiya and of her having been gifted a Rs. 55 lakh flat by Salman Khan. We look at the phenomenon of Ranu Monal and sift fact from fiction.
According to reports, Atindra Chakraborty, a passerby at the Ranaghat railway recorded this video of a woman who used to sing and beg for a living. This rendition of her singing Lata’s Ik pyar ka naghma quickly went viral.
It is startling to hear that lovely, pitch-perfect, mellifluous voice – even the high notes are effortless – coming out of the nondescript-looking middle-aged woman with the unkempt hair. Soon there were more videos of her singing different Hindi movie and Bengali songs being shared on social media.
Soon after she became an internet sensation, she was invited to perform on a TV reality show. With this performance on Superstar Singer (including the heart-rending story narration with suitably dramatic background music and facial contortions of the judges and others) she gained even more fame. More importantly, this is supposedly where she caught the eye of music director Himesh Reshammiya.
It is the dream of a million talented singers to do a playback song for a Hindi film. For Mondal – who just about managed to keep body and soul together by singing – that may not even have been a dream, but it did come true nevertheless. She was roped in to sing two songs by Reshammiya for his movie Happy Hardy and Heer.
After a while, the life story of Mondal seems to have taken on a life of its own. There have been breathless news stories about a rags-to-riches life, of the recognition of true talent, and more. One report in a popular Hindi publication even spoke about Mondal’s dream journey including the gift of a Rs. 55 lakh flat from actor Salman Khan and an offer to sing for his film Dabangg 3.
Turns out that claim about the Rs. 55 lakh flat is quite false --- something of a rumour that took on a life of its own. The fake story gaining traction probably has something to do with the fact that Salman Khan's fans revere their idol to be a wonderfully generous and kind-hearted person who loves to help the underprivileged.
The story of Ranu Mondal – a talented nobody – being discovered by Bollywood’s rich and powerful sounds more like the figment of a novelist's imagination than reality. The starving-to-stardom story is in fact heartening. It is something that has really caught the public imagination. However, the cynic in me feels that this is precisely why this talented woman received the life-altering attention that she did. Those in the business recognised the potential of a story like this grabbing public attention and they milked it for all it was worth. It certainly makes for great TRPs! Sure Mondal is talented. But then, so are thousands of other struggling singers, who would literally give their right arm for a break like this.
To my mind, this is very much the case of the success of a good story rather than the success of a worthy talent. This is a woman's abject poverty being used because it makes sound business sense. Yes, this is a cynical view, but then it’s a cynical world out there which uses whoever and whatever it can for its own benefit. If in the bargain, the life of Ranu Ek-Pyaar-ka-Naghma Mondal was transformed for the better – that is marvellous. I just hope that her good fortune lasts; that she and her lovely voice are not discarded now that the publicity machinery has extracted all that they could from her story.
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