BENGALURU: A singer, composer, actor, editor, sound designer and filmmaker- M.D. Pallavi dons many hats. From acting in National Award winning films to performing on stage, there is little she hasn’t done. “I enjoy my work,” she says. “I’m always excited to work on different projects and try new things. Every project, every concert is a learning experience for me.”Performing comes naturally to her. The granddaughter of the renowned theatre personality, the Late A.S Murthy, she grew up in a creative household. “I come from a family of theatre people, so it’s not a conscious choice I made. I was practically performing all the time. This is something that has been with my family and is something I want to take forward,” she says.
Best known as a classical singer, Pallavi learnt Hindustani Classical music and has been performing Sugama Sangeetha on stage for the last 21 years. Sugama Sangeetha is a genre of music where poetry written by famous Kannada poets is sung. The poems are composed into music by different composers. “I trained under the Late Mysore Ananthaswamy and Raju Ananthaswamy for Sugama Sangeetha. Both of them are regarded as two of the greatest composers in the genre. They put in me this love and I took it up from there,” she says.
Pallavi has shared the stage with a number of acclaimed musicians- Ganesh and Kumaresh, Abhishek Raghuram, K.J. Jesudas, C.Ashwath and Amit Heri, to name a few. But to her, all her concert experiences are special in their own way. With a concert coming up on March 4, she will be sharing the stage with renowned playback singer, S.P.Balasubrahmanyam. It is a charity concert organised by the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement at Chowdiah Memorial Hall.
All the proceeds from the concert will go to the palliative care program.“I have performed with him a number of times and it’s always a great honour to be performing with him because he’s such a legend,” she says. Citing him to be a perfectionist, she adds, “He has sung thousands of songs. But even after all these years if you listen to a performance, you will be quite surprised. It might be a song that he has performed thirty years before, but he will tackle it as professionally and perfectly as he might have all those years back. I really enjoy performing with him.”
Apart from her singing and acting career, Pallavi has started a small production company which makes fiction and documentary films called Sweet Spot Media. She started the company with her friend and fellow filmmaker, Shamik Sen Gupta. “We choose projects that push us out of our comfort zone. Our first short film, Playgrounds, is something that will always hold a special place in my heart. It won many awards and put us on the map,” she says. She has also co-founded ‘Samudra’, a recording label with her husband, Arun Kumar. “We are both musicians and artists.
We started Samudra as a platform to experiment and take on projects that we would like to see, and collaborate with different people,” she adds.
With a lot on her plate, Pallavi rarely has time to simply relax. But when she does, she seeks refuge in movies. “I love watching movies in my free time. Be it sitting in a theatre or simply curled up at home with my laptop, it relaxes while at the same time keeping my mind engaged.” Currently, she is planning on releasing an album in a couple of months. Work has already started and she has been composing music for the same. For more information on the event visit: http://swaraanubhuthi. svym.org. For tickets you can visit: http://swaraanubhuthi. svym.org/Tickets