Pappu - My Telugu Launch

The first time I ever attempted singing in Telugu was for Shyamaprasad sir's Ritu's Telugu version aka 'New'. Had a little tough time singing that as the language was new and was only my second playback. Surprisingly , destiny had other plans! At the time when Ritu had released a young composer, Phani Kalyan from Chennai had liked my demos and wanted to feature my voice in his debut album . But somehow that never materialized and all was forgotten about that project. Months later, he asked me if I would be comfortable recording a Telugu number for his debut film , I was not only surprised but taken aback by his nervousness as a composer. I was all game for it though the language barrier never occurred to me.

Recording in A.M.Studios is any singer's dream! Sitting in the office and underlining certain words and writing few alphabets in Malayalam was how the afternoon was spent. After taking little rest we began recording at around 6. It was a splendid experience for me to be experimenting with another language so soon! I never ever thought of doing a Telugu number so soon in my career. The song being a duet had made me curious to see who would be singing the male portions. Initially there was a plan of featuring a popular young singer..but nothing took off. Finally as luck has it, A.R.Rahman had introduced a Grospel singer, Alphonse through Aaromale! I was again blessed to have Alphonse sir as my duet partner in this film. A big thanks to Phani for making this happen and wishing him all the success for a bright musical career.

To listen to the track CLICK HERE.

P.S. The film's name is Pappu! You can check out it's poster here.

Quote for the month

"You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have."

Sivamani - in conversation with Neha Part 1

One of my most memorable works in Rosebowl and was nervous !!! Check it out

I loved his tips and most importantly the advice to all young musicians out there : Throw your ego away ! :)

Part1:





Part 2:

Quote for April

Vishu is approaching and I want to wish all of you a happy year ahead. This month's quote would be:

Don't be disappointed if the world refuses to help you. Einstein once said

" I am thankful to all those who said no. Because of them, I did it myself! "

One of the greatest lessons taught by my Guru, Ramesh sir was the process of self learning. It also instills upon one , discipline, to come face to face with the critic within you and to identify the creative you. You know you are on the right path when you realize the importance of what you need rather than what you want.

Television 'empowerment'

I read a thought provoking article in The Hindu today on how Television serials influence and 'empower' Indian women around the world. The reporter had mentioned on how women were not only entertained but even felt empowered watching serials which highlighted the weaknesses of the female community. Anyhow, out of my personal observation I realized a thing. I have two 60+ aunts who are totally into watching soaps. One aunt is addicted to Malu and Tamil-dubbed-into Malu serials and the other manages to watch Hindi and Malu soaps running at the same time. The poor remote suffers in the process but who cares? After all it's not going to make them feel empowered! The former is very creative. She loves poetry and writes a lot of good poetry and stories. I kept telling her to involve herself into such creativity rather than spending 4 hours in front of the TV increasing her blood pressure when the soap will end right at the time when the leading lady is about to give out the ‘secret’. But both my aunts would justify saying that all their lives they've been doing house chores, taking care of their grandchildren, serving everyone around them...that, the least bit of entertainment they could get was by watching these soaps. I could not understand what they felt. It was the Generation gap!

Then the reality shows happened. And they came like a pauper but ended up being the Kings of TRPs! They attracted every sector of the society. It was a full packed drama with dance, costumes and good music! What made me happy was that they took up the prime time of the daily soaps and reduced the prominence of Indian serials. It was a good trend until they ended up with reel, oops! I mean 'real' emotional stints! With emotional atyachaar going on everywhere, it became hard to decide if serials were a better pass time or the latter. No one benefits from all this except for the ones who run the channels.

Coming to my point: Audience has always adjusted to what the Television caters. Once upon a time Doordarshan aired good shows of which everyone became major fans. That crown was taken away by the commercial channels later on. It was more like a relay race with an unpredictable end. Just when I thought that reality shows are really going to get the leading ladies of Soaps end up jobless, Balika Vadhu happened. Whatever the television had catered, from good music to crying serials to dangerous games to swayamvars and the like, they have always managed to get above average levels of TRPs. So from this I understood that audience has always learnt to compromise with what they are spoon-fed with. Just like Political Parties. There is no party with the perfect ideology, or if any, being followed as per the rule book. We all (or at least me) go in for a compromise by voting for the better among the lot. Same way, when one ends up bored after doing whatever possible in their iphones and laptops he tends to adjust himself to what the Television provides. I feel that, like how good journalists attempt to provide literal news, Television must take up the responsibility of showing good shows. At the end of the say it caters to ever sector of the society from kids to grandpas. Few entertainment shows that are harmless can definitely be aired for not only Trps but also for a difference from the usual. YRF Television is doing a good job by providing some good, entertaining, harmless visual treats and reality shows like ‘Dance Indian Dance’ are some popular shows which highlight true talents .But soaps which claim to empower women must get realistic and realize the importance of educating the youth and the old. They must also show situations where a woman literally feels empowered instead of being put through a lie, instead of being put through an emotional, manipulative visual treat.

Creator's eye, the height of enlightenment

Today I was fortunate enough to watch one of the upcoming film maker, Bobby Mana's short film. It is officially not released as such but I am blogging about it as I got to learn a few things today. He assists Shyamaprasad sir in his movies and I got to know him during 'Ritu'. I, my parents and Manoj (who had assisted Shyam sir in 'Ritu' but is a thorough IT professional) watched the film and then we were asked to convey whatever we felt after watching it. Obviously he was not expecting a 'good attempt' or a 'very intellectual idea' or any of those cliched comments. Honestly, I didn't understand the conclusion part. It was a little complicated or rather we Indians are too used to spoon fed movies. Even in a thriller when the lights go off and the heroine is frantically searching for a torch the cameras show every tiny little detail from the time she finds the torch to switching it on to clutching on to it showing her finger nails prominently. This too, I realized when Bobby pointed out how spoon fed our movies are. Where does it give us the time to think? To think about what happened when and why.. To think about something apart from the popcorn and sms-es we receive during the movie.

Except for Manoj the rest of us were blank. I told him very honestly, ashamed at my can't-figure-out-a-thing perception, that I din't get the conclusion which is actually the 'suspense'. Very patiently he explained the story and then asked us to watch it again. Keeping all the hints in mind as I watched it the second time I totally got what he wanted to convey. Later , Manoj and I were giving some critical feedback on the acting and few scenes we still could not connect with. As I was seriously complaining about a particular scene, Manoj was looking down as though admiring the earth beneath him was, with a smile, ridiculing him .When Bobby sensed the vibe and asked him about what he was thinking.. he replied something that inspired me to blog about this.

It is absolutely astounding to have a creator put in his imagination into practicality and it is another extreme to have the receptor analyzing only quarter of what the creator has portrayed. It's even more beautiful when you realize what you had missed and then get an opportunity to experience it once more... you cannot feel more enlightened than this. Creativity is like magic. I don't know how it produces or if it will last. But I know it's there. It's like an evidence without an evidence. It's the beauty of seeing through the creator's eye. That's exactly what I got to do today. With my perception I missed half of the fun and efforts he put behind the creation. Certain things in life are that way. We never realize it's beauty and we rarely see it through the other perception. Maybe if life was like watching a movie from the director's eye... things would have been much different. Definitely not for the worse.

Quote for the month

Yesterday I had a shoot for one of the episodes of Nine at Night for Rosebowl. I got to have a conversation with Mr. Alphonse who is creating waves with his latest from Rahman's Vinnaithandi Varuvaya. Apart from being humble, talented and a spiritual person, his struggles ,despite a great entry as a composer through 'Vellithira' ,is worth a listen. His belief in God and constant hardwork without any distractions has inspired me in a way to ignore all the negativity that comes in my way. You must remember that the greatest critic of you is within you. And the Quote for the month is :

"Dreams and Dedication are a powerful combination."