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Call of the songbird
Vasundhara Das has been shy of the social circuit for a while, but she hasn't been inactive. From singing with Rahman in American Universities, to AIDS campaigns, she's on a whirlwind trip
Joeanna Rebello
I am just back from the US, where I was part of an interesting project called 'Global Rhythm', along with a southern cellist called Shekhar, and AR Rahman." The rhythm continues to resound in Vasundhara Das's dulcet tone. "We were invited to the University of Eastern Michigan and the Miami University of Ohio to perform with 150 students at a concert called 'Wake Up'," continues Vasundhara Das, back home recently from the US.
"To be a part of this young group that was singing Hindi and Tamil songs from Rahman's repertoire was a once-in a-life-time experience. And some of those were difficult songs, even for me. Rakeysh Mehra was also present, and we sang a few numbers from Rang De Basanti as well," she adds.
Vasundhara has just rounded off one of her many trips, and is home in Versova, and although she has been engaged in a whirlwind of activity, investing her energies in a number of projects, she still isn't breathless.
We recently saw her on the telly sitting behind Bill Clinton at the 'The End Of Aids Global Summit With President Clinton'. The event was held in a church with participants like Hank McKinnell, CEO of Pfizer, Bill Roedy, president of MTV Networks, actor Richard Gere and Thembi Ngubane, an HIV-positive resident of South Africa. Vasundhara was caught on camera absorbed in the ensuing dialogue and it made one wonder what she was doing there.
Everyone is familiar with Vasundhara the singer-actor, few know her as an anti-AIDS campaigner. "The people who matter know….people involved in the issue. I have been a participant in the campaign for AIDS awareness and prevention for almost five years, with BBC, MTV, Richard Gere's 'Heroes Project' and Dr. Suniti Solomon, who discovered the first case of the virus in India," Vasundhara says.
Particularly busy with this initiative in the south, she uses her celebrity as a vehicle for driving home the AIDS cause in the local languages of the people there. And although the former Bangalore-based singer-actress now has pan-Indian acclaim, it is mainly the south that has her up as poster-girl. "I lost a friend to the disease, and that precipitated my involvement," she reveals. "As a teenager, I came out of a traditional family; I didn't know who to talk to about sex and its incumbent risks (like AIDS). Luckily, I had a friend – a doctor – who resolved my doubts. What I am trying now is communicate with people about the disease. We can't kid ourselves that our children don't have sex before marriage today. Keeping that in mind, we need to encourage people to get themselves checked regularly, and to not shy away from the topic. And that's what my work involves," she says.
Vasundhara finds time for her social work because, unlike most actresses who have a hard time 'finding dates', Vasundhara isn't trying to rack up an extended filmography. "But I do have three releases at the end of the year – Pathar Pe Zubaan, Ek Dastak and Kudiyon Ka Hai Zamana – almost all at once. Anyway, acting happened by chance (she has only been at it for six years), when I had gone to meet AR Rahman for some playback work, and the next thing I knew I had a couple of acting offers on hand," she recounts.
Yet, it's music that is Vasundhara's mainstay. Apart from playback singing (in coming films like Alag, Saawan and Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna), she has been performing around the world at the behest of global invitations. Her schedule is invariably a packed one, but Vasundhara isn't complaining.
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