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The
slump and the revival
Tamil pop witnessed
a boom in the mid-90s with many a pop albums clicking and giving
the music field singers like Suresh Peters, Subha Kailash, Anuradha
Sriram to name a few. These singers who managed to create a fan-following
of their own, shifted gear to playback singing. Through films they
became household names and it was good-bye to pop. With no good
singers on the pop scene for a long time after that, the slump was
ineveitable. Thankfully, the dead pop scene seems to be on a revival
trip. The arrival of a pop album titled Unnakagave (For You) sung
and composed by Dilip Param has already become a favourite with
pop lovers. It’s also a regular on the music channels and radio
spots. Yet another pop singer Karunas has hit bigtime with his Gaana
(a Tamil rap) and pop numbers. On the threshold is Ravin, a singer-composer
from Canada, who is creating waves with his album Kaatru (Wind)
which is soon to be released in the market.
 Ravin
is a software-engineer based in Canada who grew up listening to
his grandpa Balakrishnan, a Carnatic singer. He used to accompany
his grandpa and play the keyboard. A regular in many academy shows
in Canada, Ravin was bitten by the music bug and took up classes
with a teacher in Toronto. He then decided to try his hand at composing
and singing. “I decided to try out Tamil pop and it is possible
only if one is in Chennai. The Tamil music scene has undergone a
sea change with A.R. Rahman and I have noticed that the listeners
are just bothered about the music quality and do not look further
than that. So I opted for a fusion of western music and techno music
with Tamil folk. That’s why the album is named Kaatru, meaning
wind which blows across the continents and brings in all the emotions.”
SPB, Srinivas,
Sujatha, Febimani, Mano, Yugeandran, Unni Krishnan, Unni Menon and
Krishnaraj have sung for this album. The seasoned singers were all
praise for the debutante composer and are recommending him to directors.
Aware of the role of music videos in the promotion of the music
album, Ravin has selected three songs to be picturised. “I
want to have everything ready. I have composed 11 songs. After the
video is made I will decide on which audio company to sell my album
to,” says Ravin.
Ravin’s
music has a filmi touch, yet it’s very upbeat and Western.
His aim is to reach out to film music with his songs, but at the
same time he does not want to lose his identity. “I want to
make music that can reach out to other countries, for I see music
from not just an Indian angle. My ambition is to create an album
for world peace and have singers from various continents sing. The
proceeds of this will be used for an institution to look after the
destitute and the aged,” he informs.
There is pressure on Ravin to accomplish his musical aim since his
parents have given him a time limit. Or else he will have to go
back to computer accounts. Judging by the pre-release response,
Ravin is likely to be around for some time.
Unnakkagave
(For You) by Dilip Param is marketed by Magnasound. Here Dilip has
come up with eight tracks based on the theme of love and friendship.
A Business Administration graduate, Dilip’s success story is
a combination of his business acumen and talent. When Magnasound
gave him only Rs. 1.5 lakhs for the music video, Dilip got cinematographer
Rajsekhar (Minnale fame) and Devi Amrita (the sole female director
of music videos) together, and pumped in his own money to make a
video album in 35 mm, which cost him Rs. 5 lakhs. The gambit has
paid off. SS channel airs the video of the song Vishiyile atleast
10 times a day.
 Dilip
has a background of Carnatic music. His grandpa was the late Veeramani
Bhagavathar. At the age of 10, he learnt singing from the late Doraiswamy
Iyengar. Now a shishya of Vykom TV Jayachandran, Dilip who earlier
cut a devotional album in Malayalam, composed his pop numbers and
asked Devisri Prasad, the Telugu music director to hear them, who
in turn recommended it to an audio company. The album has both Tamil
and Telugu versions. The Telugu album titled Nee Kosame is a bigger
hit than the Tamil version.
The youth from
Andhra Pradesh are more receptive to new music and open to newcomers.
Without any promotion, a sale of 25,000 cassettes is assured in
Andhra Pradesh for a good pop album. But in Tamil Nadu, the promotion
has to be good and only then will an album catch on, according to
Dilip. Though he has composed, written the lyrics and sung a few
numbers, Dilip is not sure about making a career as a singer or
composing music for films. “I think audio engineering is the
heart of every musical creation. Acoustics is very important and
I want to concentrate on that. I might end up choosing audio engineering,”
says Dilip who has an offer from Harris Jayraj to sing for a Telugu
film.
Karunas, the
Tamil pop singer with an Afro haircut is a hit with the campus crowd.
His Tamil rap songs known as Gaana down South, are about love, failures
in life and about the richie-rich villains. While studying in a
Chennai college, Karunas took to supplying water in pots to hostel
inmates and eked out a living. Next was when he became the hood
for crime gangs. All this changed when he fell in love and decided
to change into a new leaf. Once he was a part of the group that
was arrested for a student agitation. Students of other colleges
were singing his gaana songs at a police station during a student
agitation. Listening to this, he decided to start his own band.
They performed on stage and his campus gaana was a hit. No sooner
were the audio cassettes out, Karunas got himself the Afro haircut
to give him the hip look. Now, he has taken on the new avatar of
a comedian. “My comic role in Nandha has given me the media
attention, and now there are queries about my music, and a lot more
offers to act. I might become the singer-actor of Tamil screen,”
says Karunas as he runs his hand through his Afro hair.
With these
new entrants, one hopes that Tamil pop gets an impetus.
—Ayyappa
Prasad
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