She is self-admittedly not 'pushy'. Her PR could be aggressive, but isn't. And she does not have that one chart-blasting number that can make her fortune. But Mahalakshmi Iyer has consistency. For a decade now, the lady has sung thousands of jingles, devotionals and pop besides film songs. Her filmography runs into dozens of big films from Sur and Kal Ho Naa Ho to Don and Dhoom 2.
So when will big-time come? Well, Ms Iyer isn't unduly perturbed. Excerpts from an interview:
The big mystery: Why are you not in the big-league? Can the lack of aggressive self-marketing alone explain this?
Well, I also have not had that one career-defining hit like Alisha Chinai's 'Kajraa re' or Zubeen Garg's 'Ya Ali'. But I do admit that it is a bit strange, because I have been releasing songs every month in big films. Among hits, last year I had 'Aaj ki raat' in Don. Then there was 'Dil lagana' from Dhoom 2. This year there is my remix in Hattrick, and songs in Just Married and Life Mein Kabhie Kabhiee. I am also singing for Marathon, Tara Rum Pum, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and other big films. But I have never been the 'newsy' kind of singer. I have just kept doing my work.
Today, the singers in the fray are so many that the market share of even the successful ones is far less than in earlier generations. How can singers survive then?
Fortunately for me, I have always been singing jingles and recording at least 7 or 8 of them every month. As singer, I also sing a lot in Marathi and Gujarati and in all the South Indian languages. Till today, I have sung over 700 Assamese songs and recently, I also sang some songs in Bengali that did very well. Besides this, I keep singing in regional albums and in basic Hindi albums including devotionals like Gayatri and Geet Govind.
On my shows I mostly sing my songs because I have a fair repertoire now. I have also realized that a playback singer cannot just be heard but needs to be seen today. I am taking steps to correct that. You have had a fair variety in your songs.
Yes, but the name hasn't been connected with my face even when the song became popular. So I am not identified with songs like 'Kya yeh sach hai' (Dillagi), 'Chup chup ke' ('Bunty Aur Babli), 'Jaaniya ve' (Dus) and 'Tainu leke' (Salaam-e-Ishq) or my songs in Kal Ho Naa Ho, Dhoom 2 or Don. Some music directors who supported you earlier have opted for more saleable names.
I do not blame them. Market considerations are very important. There are some singers whose sheer vocal appeal makes them popular. There are singers like Sunidhi Chauhan who are strong in every department.
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I agree, but once again the market considerations can outweigh creativity. In recent times there have been just a couple of albums that have impressed me, like Sona Mohapatra's Sona and Rekha Bhardwaj's Ishqa Ishqa. Recently Meenal Jain, though she came from the background of a popular TV show, showed guts and class by coming out with Mehram, an album that went against trends. What is your own take on such talent competitions?
They are a very good platform for talents that are not lucky enough to be born and bred in Mumbai, like Meenal. But the standards should be very stringent, or the winners can fall by the wayside later despite the initial hysteria. If you are doing a talent show, you must see to it that the better singers are not sidelined. Moving on to basics, nothing much is known about you.
Well I have trained in Hindustani classical, though I have not completed a Visharad. My mother Vijayalakshmi is an exponent of Carnatic classical music, though after marriage she did not follow it professionally. I have three sisters, and all of us were encouraged to learn Hindustani music because we were born and raised in Mumbai. My sister Padmini Roy has also sung in a few films for music directors like Rajesh Roshan and Anand-Milind. As for me, my various gurus include Pt. Rattan Mohan Sharma, Pandit Gautam Madhusudan, Pandit Govind Prasad Jaipurwale and Suresh Wadkar. Like Hariharan and Kavita Subramaniam, your Urdu accent is impeccable.
To what do you want to attribute this?
To me! I made it a point to learn to read and write Urdu and take Urdu classes when I was in St.Xavier's College. I also listened extensively to our senior film and ghazal singers. How did you get your first break?
In films it was with Dus with Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The film was shelved and the music was released as an album. I also recorded with A.R.Rahman in Dil Se... Before that I had recorded jingles, Shaarang Deo's Zameen Aasman - a TV serial - and S-E-L's title-song for the countdown show Ek Se Badh Kar Ek. What is the difference between the scene of jingles and films?
To me, the one prominent difference is that the world of jingles welcomes and absorbs new singers fast, while in the world of films, they seem to love seeing you struggling away. I was lucky to enter films through the world of jingles as Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy were also starting out around the same time in films. Another vital point is that singing a 30-second jingle trains you in expression, emotion and understanding a composition and its needs - all of which is vital in playback singing or recording any kind of light music.
