Introduction
It is our mission to bring to our young audience, interviews of established professionals from India’s music industry. This feature is made possible purely as a result of kindness of the featured artist Gayatri Asokan.
Please see more about Gayatri at her webpage http://gayatriasokan.com/
It is a new initiative from the blog administration to bring biopic features of established professionals from India’s music industry. These are written in a way that their shared experiences are of tremendous help to upcoming singers. We previously brought to you an interview of a young successful American pop singer called Em Rossi; which was awesome in many ways to bring her life and music that showed how resilience from adversity in life made to success. In 2020 Em signed a contract with Sony music. Her career was established through a lot of support from Smule app.
On the other hand, responses from many of readers and peers were that they wanted to hear inspiring stories about successful India’s singers. A lot of efforts from blog admin behind to find resources to make this happen here. Asked for an interview Gayatri had been extremely kind and agreed to it right away. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Entire Smule India community is sending a lot of love for this kind gesture.
Gayatri is an accomplished, Award winning outstanding talent who came from Kerala to become a successful playback singer in Malayalam film industry and went onto pursue a National level career in Hindistani and Ghazal gayaki, and holds recognized position as Ghazal artist at the moment. Gayathri Asokan was born and brought up in Kerala (Thrissur). She is well known for her contribution to south India playback. She has recorded for esteemed music directors including maestro Ilayaraja and is a Kerala state award winner for best playback singing. We can not thank her enough for this kind gesture to come on board and spend some of her valuable time to come up with this write up for all you guys. When we called her on a video call we were ecstatic and had a million questions to ask, yet Gayatri gave about an hour of her time for this interview.
Describe in detail from where you started your music with all the memories of childhood like you become aware that you could sing?
“Basically music is in our family a lot. Both my mom and my grandma were Carnatic music teachers. My grandma was a really good singer.” Gayatri thinks that she inherited the music gene from her mother side. Her father does enjoy music and had been a great support always.
Gayatri continued “Both my parents loved music and I did obtain a strong basics in music from home itself while growing up.” Gayatri remembers how her parents despite being in the medical profession did not push her to become a doctor. “In fact, my parents never told me what career I should pick. Despite all that I did very good in my studies.”
Early School and a Talent is discovered, a studio recording at AIR
“I am convent school educated, I went to Calicut Presentation Convent School and the role of teachers and the school environment had a big role in encouraging the arts in my early forming periods.” Not to anybody’s surprise at school level itself Gayatri’s excellence in singing and talent was recognized at district level School competitions. Of one such accomplishments Gayatri specifically remembered a moment
“I will never forget receiving my prize from Chithra chechi ( famous Playback singer). For me, It is still a huge achievement in my early career that I cherish a lot.”
“I sang my first ever solo as a recording artist at at my fourth grade for an All India Radio (AIR) music production. Those were different times of recording and music. AIR stations were the primary stage where musicians, music directors worked together to produce great songs. AIR was a very active place where music was seriously taught and performed, possibly the only place at least for Kerala. There was a lot of dynamic environment at AIR studios. It was a christian devotional song that I recorded first. My first earning of one hundred and five Rupees; is still in my memory.” Gayatri laughed out loud and paused for a moment.
She continued “Some of the songs I still remember my favorite performances on stage, were some of the famous Malayalam songs like “Poomaname” and “Valampirishankil”, I don’t remember how many stages I sang those songs. But those days there were no reality shows. Talents are found at the ground level on stage shows and live performances. ” Gayatri looked really lost in memories thinking about those days.
So more singing at College days?
“Yes, I did my Bachelors in Arts, with literature specialization and I would think it was during that period when serious jamming and group singing in support groups at College, where I tested my singing abilities as an adult. Yet, all that time went without any prominent thoughts on taking singing as a career.”
Who influenced you the most during your early music life
“As I told you earlier my mother taught me the basics of Carnatic and Valu-iyama (Malayalam for Grandma) also was a serious Carnatic singer and I inherited the music from them. Sadly, I only heard about all that from my mom, but did not have the privilege to learn it from her directly.”
When did you realize that music is your way? and what were the most challenging thoughts you had when deciding to go in this direction?
“Basically the whole idea of a music career came quite late in my life. It was during College talent group training that I met with a great Tabla player, named Philip Francis from Thrissur. During many grooming sessions he is the one who has introduced me to Hindustani singing. He started his career as a conga-drum artist who later went to Delhi to learn Tabla under the maestro Ustad Fiyaz Khan of the Delhi gharana.
In fact, i would say he is a pioneer in Kerala in many ways. He came back to Thrissur and established Delhi Gharana School of Music. He is the reason how I get to know more about Hindustani music.” Gayathri also mentioned the name of Mr. Chandra Pisharody for his constant encouragement during initial periods of her music life.
Gayatri fondly remembers those were days where her world of music included a variety of genres; Bryan adams, Beetles on one side while her love for Ghazals by Jagjith singh and Mehdi Hassan and the light classic music like “Call of the valley” by Hariprasad Chowrasia, all good music was her world of music.
A love affair with Hindustani Gayaki
Gayatri decided to learn Hindustani by choice, but the challenge in those days in Kerala was that there were nobody to teach Hindustani. Gayathri remained influenced by the soulfulness of Hindustani music. Cassettes and DVDs of songs by Jagjit singh and Parveen Suthana were the soul resources of Ghazals.
Meeting with Dr. Alka Deo Marulkar
Again It was Mr. Philip Fracis who also knew Alka Deo Marulkar, in Pune. When Dr. Marulkar, came to Cochin for a concert, Gayatri was all hopeful to meet with her. It was Philip Francis sir who introduced Gayatri to her first guru. A highly enthusiastic Gayatri asked her to teach Hindustani. But a big artist like her, denied her first, saying she cannot teach beginners. Yet, she allowed Gaytri to sing in front of her. She sang a Carnatic bhajan. That performance changed Alkaji’s mind and accepted Gayatri as a student. But for Gayatri, the challenge was still to go and live in Pune for the training.
Few years learning Hindustani
Luckily Gayatri’s relatives who lived in Pune were happy to have her stay at their place and let her learn Hindustani music. These years changed Gayatri’s life around. She started to learn Hindustani from Alkaji. In the beginning it was all new for her. The Tal system was different from Carnatic and Kahayals were altogether a different style of music. Learning how one has to use imagination, thrown her into a different field of music that was all new to Gayatri; but every bit of it was enjoyable, She learned from her for two years.
A turning point in life to Playback singing
It was during one of the visits back to Kerala her mentor Philip Francis who introduced Gayatri to famous Malayalam music director Ravindran. Philip accompanied many famous music directors in the studio recordings and that helped him know many famous music directors in the industry.
Formation of a strong Playback singer in Malayalam Industry
The very first experiences of any singer remain fresh, Gayathri described how a casual audition at a music director studio turned to be a song offer in his upcoming movie.
“He was asking me to sing a Hindustani bandish; Ravindran master, also started singing with me. He was quite impressed, I guess, after the very first jamming session he asked “Why don’t you come out in the evening and sing for my next movie?”
It was a solo song designed to be sung by a male. The same song was made into a duet where the hero’s wife is from the north and director decided to change things around to have some Hindustani style singing incorporated into the song and that part was sung by Gayatri for the movie.
Gayatri says “When I sang the song in the studio I didn’t even know it was for a Super star movie (Mammooty film) and the male part was sung by none other than Dasettan ( K. J. Yesudas) (Song Deenadayalo Rama, from Arayannagalude Veedu, a semi classic song).
An illustrious Playback music career in Malayalam Industry
It was a lot of hard work and dedication that fetched her more opportunities in the coming years. Gayatri says she was lucky and fortunate to work with almost all major music directors in the South movie industry. Her life changed when she was offered to sing for some of the best of the best that any music industry can offer. Gayatri says those days she was also doing a lot of stage shows in the Middle East where the Dubai scene was very vibrant.”I was doing music concerts back to back.”
The transition from playback to Ghazals and slowly to Hindustani?
“I was very comfortably making my living from stage shows and was singing very often in playback. I never felt it was satisfying, nevertheless. Malayalam singing is never known elsewhere unfortunately. Even though, I sang with KJ, worked with Illayaraja sir, Johnson mater, Ravindran master, and almost every genius music director one can think of, when I reached Mumbai with great hopes, all that hard work looked like in no place. It is the unfortunate state of the regional music industry in India. I had to start from scratch to build up my career in Hindustani and Ghazal singing. My husband who happens to be a major collaborator of many north Indian music circles has made my path to success much easier.”
“There are many singers who spend years of toil in Bombay to get that success. Even with the support, it wasn’t easy to learn Urudu and learn to pronounce without a Malayalam accent. Every step towards it was a challenge. It was really hard work with proper training and proper directions that I started seeing its fruits now. I have done a number of shows recently in major Ghazal circles all over India.”
After moving to Mumbai, a couple of years back, she has performed in Major music festivals of the country including the Kabir khushro festival in Mumbai , the Khazana festival, Jashn-e-rekhta festival and classical music for Sangeet Natak Academy National festival. Her solo Ghazal Album Ghazal Gaze was launched by Padma Shri Pankaj Udhas ji, under the label of Times Music at Khazana festival . She is married to Sitar Maestro Purbayan Chatterjee and also occasionally features in his fusion band classicool.
A happing present for Gayatri
Talk through your recent past training, especially details about your gurus etc. You can talk more about his influence or how you see the training in Gwalior/ Kirana Gharanas and how much you matured to take these systems further by your contribution?
I am further trained in Hindustani Classical Music and Ghazal Gayaki from Pt. Vinayak Torvi and Shrimati Shubha joshi ji. I learnt a lot also with my partner being a major hindustani trained artist. After joining Purbayan I am learning from him. But I think Sitar can make more subtle variations in the sounds than many other instruments and it is very hard to sing along the instrument. Yet the learning is amazing.
Gayathri Asokan – A heart beat for Malayalam Industry
You sang some outstanding melodies like Chanjadi aadi from movie Makalkku and Thumbikinnaram for Naran and recently Pularumo for Ritu, all beautiful beautiful songs.
I went back to Mumbai from a number of bust years of working for Malayalam movies; the major reason was that I did not want to be stuck in Malayalam. Malayalam was definitely comfortable and we have the best musicians of any other languages can offer. It gave me everything I can think of, but I was not happy doing songs only in Malayalam. Moreover, my destiny was to meet with Purbayan which ended up in our marriage.”
“When I started here in Mumbai circles, It was not easy to make a name. How much ever you are famous elsewhere, establishing a reputation in the larger music circles of India it needs a lot of riyaaz (practice) and talent and the right contacts. For me it is so important to be known Nationally. Thanks to my extensive opportunities, I got to perform Ghazals in reputed events. My partner Purbayan, is a big support in my career.”
Talk to us about Music maestros in Malayalam
“First of all, it was not easy to work with any of them. When I joined the Malayalam music fraternity, Chitra chechi and Sujatha, both had set such high standards. Every music director expected newcomers to match their perfection that had been set in the industry for over the decades before my time. When I got into the industry a culture of musicianship was very important. No Pitch correction or computer aided voice modulation was known. As I told you, standards set by Chitra chechi and Sujatha chechi really were the milestones. We followed them and that made it much harder for us to prove good because the predecessors had set very high standards.”
Could you speak about each of those great maestros
“ I have worked with many music directors throughout my career. But special thoughts that may be of interest here is Johnson Master. He will notate the complete melodic structure of a song, before he recorded a song in the studio; He was a true musical genius and is a music director who knew the whole orchestration of the recording process. When I started, and singing for him, I still remember it was more organic. One had to sing perfectly and nothing less or more. Everything had to be built from scratch and no music director would tolerate mediocrity. I am not saying there is no singer singing is good now or any of that sort; yet things were very different, and that made it much more tough as a playback singer in those days.”
Now you are effectively trying to work through social networks to come in front of listeners. Where do you want to go from here five years from now?
“Five years from now, I want to be a well established ghazal singer. Not only that, I want to explore fusion genres. Fusion is much harder than it sounds. One needs to really know what the final product should look like. A lot of understanding of music is needed to produce such music right.”
Why is it harder? Could you explain?
It has to be free singing sargam and swaram and it is not easy to sing with drums rhythmically. I recently did a concert at St. Andrews, here in Bandra. It is a lot about have an overview and know how to make it sound right.”
With that question, it was time to say goodbyes. My heart was full of excitement meeting with a great musician and more over a really kind heart. Can not thank her enough for this, it means big for Smule to have her come here to share her thoughts, and we thank her on behalf of an entire Smule India community.
ENDNOTES
That concluds the interview with Gayatri. It is so refreshing to learn about a very different way of an artist’s life experience figuring out her career in music. Gayatri, like many other singers, took music quite early in her adulthood. Her love for music and a huge talent led to a very successful career in Malayalam music industry. Music for her does not end at singing a playback or two. Music was all the more vast in her mind that she went in pursuit of going further deep in discovering new facets of her favorite genres. That also was not an easy task as you all can see. Every step in her career is geared by people that she met on her way and she dared to dream all possibilities and worked towards it. There are many aspects of it to think here for our young readers and singers that I meet every week.
We leave you all with some hand picked songs by Gayatri by herself from her illustrious career for all to enjoy her music.
Gayathri’s 2020 project with Jazim Sharma (read about him more in a ghazal special feature we published on promising Ghazal singers a year ago.) In the following video production of 2020 you will see Purbayan Gayatri’s partner on Sitar.
Immerse yourself into this scintillating presentation from the connoisseurs of music… A coming together of traditional and modern sounds in this melodious blend…. Ghazal : Tasavvur Singer : Jazim Sharma – Gayatri Asokan Feat. Purbayan Chatterjee Poet : Zeeshan Niazi
Dil Ye Bechain sa… a single ghazal video, penned by Niraj Shah – Safha-e-dil. The Ghazal is beautifully sung by Gayatri Asokan and Prithvi Gandharv who has composed the song as well. Paras Nath, provides his special touch with his masterly maneuvers on flute. Lyrics-Niraj Shah Female Vocals – Gayatri Asokan Male Vocals & Composition – Prithvi Gandharv
Guzar Jayega COVID Times
‘ Guzar Jayega ‘ is a New Hindi Song a humble Initiative by all the artists and personalities standing together for the people, assuring them ‘This Too Shall Pass’. Gayatri took her part as well.
Singers :
Anoop Jalota, Sonu Nigam, Shaan, Shreya Ghoshal, Dr. Jaspinder Narula, Richa Sharma, Hans Raj Hans, Kailash Kher, Javed Ali, Bapul Supriyo, Malini Awasthi, Jeet Ganguly, Jasbir Jassi, Arko Pravo Mukherjee, Monali Thakur, Shashaa Tirupati, Osman Mir, Shilpa Rao, Jyoti Nooran, Raghu Dixit, Dhvani Bhanushali, Asees Kaur, Shruti Pathak, Akriti Kakar, Anusha Mani, Bhoomi Trivedi, Abhay Jodhpurkar, Nikita Gandhi, Amit Mishra, Sukriti Kakar, Prakriti Kakar, Meghna Mishra, Himani Kapoor, Pratibha Singh Baghel, Sayani Gupta, Akhil Sachdeva, Jazim Sharma, Vipin Aneja, Bhavya Pandit, Devendra Pal Singh, Gayatri Asokan, Kumar Sharma,, Priya Mallik, Rahul Mukherjee, Ragini Tandan, Rashmeet Kaur, Romi, Shreya Sharma, Simran Chaudhry, Sumedha Karmahe,
Our first choice from her Malayalam songs is Chanjadi Aaadi; this is a super melodious track in Malayalam. Malaya-lees can not forget this song no matter.
Shaam Se Aank mein – Gayatri
Hairaton ke silsile
Gayathri play a key role in leading Ghazal singing in Kerala, Here on stage with legend Umbayi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Related articles of interest that we published on Ghazals on the blog site
https://smuleindiablog.wordpress.com/2019/04/14/ghazals-songs-that-create-a-world-of-love/
https://smuleindiablog.wordpress.com/2019/04/21/promising-young-ghazal-singers-2019/
Gayathri In conversation with Jazim Sharma, Insta Live recording
Gayatri recently released an album with Prithvi and to annouce it she came on Insta with Prithvi, A live recording of the session is here for those who interested to know more about the most happening young singers in North keep listening.
