BENGALURU: Often when one listens to the melodic songs from their favourite movies, they do not realise that they too are participating, albeit unknowingly, in appreciating Indian classical music and its mystical ragas. They are a tonal system on which variations are improvised within a prescribed framework of typical progressions, melodic formulas and rhythmic patterns. The upcoming concert From Ragas to Reels by the renowned singer MD Pallavi is curated to bring us a little closer to these ragas through familiar songs.
“The idea is to demystify the Indian classical raga and to present it in a way that somebody who has no understanding of the Indian classical system is able to understand and identify the structure within which a lot of compositions that one hears in their everyday life exist.” The show will be held on December 6 at the Bangalore International Centre under the aegis of the Unboxing BLR Festival.
Talking about the creative process behind curating a concert like this, Pallavi says, “The concert needs me to do quite a lot of research because I present film songs that are within a certain raga and I decode the raga. It requires research as well as a script to put it all together in a cohesive fashion. For example, I will be presenting the raga Ahir Bhairav and there are many famous songs in this raga, one of them being the famous Poocho Na Kaise Meine Rain Bitai.” The veteran singer is supported by a team of renowned musicians, with Amith Nadig on flute, Lokesh R and Amith Raj S on tabla, Sunaad Anoor on kanjira and Amogha Varsha on drums. Shabbir Ahmed will be the music arranger for the show.
Pallavi, who has also won the Karnataka State Film Award in the best playback singer category for the song ‘Nodayya Kwate Lingave’ from the Kannada hit Duniya, has also recently collaborated with German cellist and electronic musician Andi Otto, “That collaboration is across two countries and we have released the CD called Songs of Broken Ships. He had come to India recently and we did a series of performances featuring songs from that album,” says Pallavi. She will also be performing with Otto in Europe next month.
Talking about her upcoming projects, Pallavi says, “I also have a new show with Bindhumalini Narayanaswamy and Vedanth Bharadwaj, called Songfarers at Sea, that brings together songs and poetry about the sea. Then I am also composing music for a new play that will be directed by Abhishek Majumdar.”