INTERVIEW: Town Hall will host evening of Bollywood music
Photo: Kavita Krishnamurti will sing songs from her Bollywood career at Bollywood & Beyond. Photo courtesy of Subramaniam Ent / Provided by Cindy Bryam PR with permission.
Saturday, July 20, will be a special night in Midtown Manhattan because audiences at the Town Hall will have the chance to enjoy music from two trailblazers, violin expert Dr. L. Subramaniam and multi-platinum singer Kavita Krishnamurti. The program for the married couple’s evening of entertainment is called Bollywood & Beyond.
No doubt the “Bollywood” part of that title speaks to Krishnamurti’s dominating presence in the Indian film industry; she has been a go-to playback singer for several important films, from Pyaar Jhukta Nahin to Mr. India and so many more. Her musical collaborations over the years have taken her from the world of Indian music to jazz, pop and global music fusion.
Subramaniam is a world-renowned violinist who offered his first concert with the instrument at the age of 6, according to press notes. He grew up with many professional loves; besides his mastering of the violin, he’s also a credentialed medical doctor. As an ambassador of the Carnatic tradition of Indian music, Subramaniam has graced stages around the world, and his compositions have appeared in films as well, everything from Salaam Bombay! to Mississippi Masala to Little Buddha.
Recently Krishnamurti and Subramaniam exchanged emails with Hollywood Soapbox to describe what audience members can expect at Bollywood & Beyond, which is produced by the Town Hall and Indo-American Arts Council. For the evening, they will be backed by a seven-piece band playing a mix of Indian and western instruments, according to press notes. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What can audience members expect at this unique evening of Indian music?
KRISHNAMURTI: Essentially as far as I am concerned there will be a strong set of Bollywood songs. These would be my popular Bollywood songs which people have heard and appreciated. That represents my genre and my life in music. When it comes to the fusion segment, I sing mostly my husband’s compositions, and I try to do my inputs, the way I know how to do it, in my way with a Bollywood approach to fusion. That’s how we decided to do the Town Hall concert also, my Bollywood popular songs and his fusion segment where I will sing his compositions with a little bit of improvisation Bollywood style.
SUBRAMANIAM: The audience can expect samples of Indian classical, very strong Bollywood numbers and very strong global fusion numbers, which I have specifically written for myself and Kavita and the ensemble, so it will be a variety of things going through a musical panorama of global fusion and Bollywood.
How did you develop the set list for the Town Hall concert?
BOTH: We are still working on it. We will be rehearsing shortly and finalize the plan, although there’s always a surprise element depending on the audience!
When did you pick up your first violin?
SUBRAMANIAM: When I was 3 years old my father, Professor V. Lakshminarayana, introduced me to the violin. He was my guru, mentor and guide, and he is responsible for bringing Indian violin (which was basically an accompanying instrument) to the global stage as a solo instrument. He was dreaming about having our Indian violin being played in all the major concert halls like Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera, etc., so he developed new techniques. And I was fascinated by his music, and I wanted to be like him. My first concert was when I was 6 years old.
Are there any parallels between your musical career and your medical career, or are they worlds apart?
SUBRAMANIAM: They both are worlds apart. By the time I finished my second year at the medical college, my father asked me to play in front of a professional German concert violinist, and he told my father that I had a lot of potential and that I should go ahead and pursue western classical music studies, get my master’s and become a professional violinist established in Europe and worldwide. So, I was very happy. I went back home and told my mother that my father and I decided that I will quit medicine. My mother said there was no way I was quitting medicine, that I must finish my studies, get the degree and then do whatever I wanted, so that day I decided I will just do my medical studies, register as a medical practitioner and then get my master’s in music.
So, when I finished my second year, I started writing the Trinity exams, diploma exams, and then applied and got musical scholarships in both the places where I applied. I completely switched over from medicine to music. I registered as a medical practitioner, but I did not practice. I didn’t make a single penny in medicine! I did my master’s in music and realized how wise my mother was because, without a basic undergraduate degree, they wouldn’t give me a master’s degree. Later on … I did my PhD in Raga Harmony — where all my orchestral pieces, including “Fantasy on Vedic Chants,” which I wrote for the New York Philharmonic under Maestro Zubin Mehta, everything is based on Raga Harmony. All this wouldn’t have been possible for my mother and father, and I am grateful to both of them.
Were you a fan of Bollywood films before you started singing in them?
KRISHNAMURTI: Before I started singing for Bollywood, I was a great, great fan of all the playback singers who existed at that time, especially my very favorites Lata Mangeshkar and Manna Dey. I used to love Manna Dey’s interpretation of classical music, the way he used to do film songs and bring it to the masses, and I loved Lata’s perfection and her tonal quality and her spirituality. Of course, I was a great fan of all the others like Mohammed Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Mukesh, all of them from that generation. I have grown up listening to their songs and loving them. That was definitely the grounding of my attraction to Bollywood songs and has been there from my childhood.
Is it difficult to bring a fusion sound to life, going back and forth between traditional songs and more modern tunes?
KRISHNAMURTI: As far as fusion is concerned, it is definitely very suitable for Indian classical music and especially Carnatic music. The elements of Carnatic music, the Raga style when shifted to fusion music and the western harmonies are a beautiful blend, and it is something my husband did from the 1970s onwards. He was one of the pioneers in bringing fusion music to the Indian audiences and to the rest of the world, too, so fusion is definitely very beautiful when it is done the right way. We take a traditional song and fuse it the right way with western harmony and then blend it the right way with western musicians.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Bollywood & Beyond, featuring Dr. L. Subramaniam and Kavita Krishnamurti, will be performed Saturday, July 20, at the Town Hall in Midtown Manhattan. Click here for more information and tickets.
