The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : He's a destiny's child

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Feb 20, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

He's a destiny's child

S. Aishwarya

Karthik. — Photo: R. Ashok

TIRUCHI : He was lucky enough to make his debut in ace musician's composition. But versatile voice and varied song selection put him on the road to stardom. Surprisingly, playback singer Karthik had a casual start as a chorus singer in A. R. Rahman's composition. He never aspired to become a singer but destiny willed it otherwise.

A Carnatic learner right from his school days and a Hindustani student at present, Karthik finds the transition interesting. "It was not really difficult. Though the intricacies and nuances differ, the `swarams' are the same and ultimately, both are music," he says, albeit adding that years of classical learning in one particular school might make the switch over a bit difficult.

Stage experience

Karthik took singing seriously when in college, after he and some like-minded friends started a college band. He kickstarted his musical journey with the band and continued with participation in various competitions. "Competitions helped me learn to sing the way people like. It built a lot of confidence in me."

While his band was busy performing at college culturals, he was introduced to A. R. Rahman by playback singer Srinivas. After a series of chorus numbers in films `Alaipayuthe,' `Kandukonden Kandukonden,' `Pukar,' and `Lagaan,' he came out with a solo number in the movie Star (`Nendhukitu nendhukitu').

From then on, he became a sure feature in the most of Rahman's compositions and soon became a favourite pick of the music maestro Illayaraja.

Both are from different schools of composing and have different thought process, he says. "There is lot of fun and learning involved working with them. Despite their different working style, both bring out the perfection in singers with ease."

The singer, who has recently entered wedlock with jazz dancer Ambica, clarifies that he has no plans for acting. "Acting needs inborn talent. I just can't do it," he says. When asked about his plans to get into music direction, pat comes the reply: "Singing comes naturally and I'm comfortable. Direction and acting involve a lot of creativity and innate passion. I'm certainly not for it."

Diverse

He has been one among the few singers whose versatility to handle both peppy and melodious numbers helped them to earn a diverse track record.

"Fortunately, I've so far been comfortable with both. May be because I haven't thought much about the track. I just sing the way music directors want," he shrugs.

But adaptability didn't come easy. Initial days were troublesome for the singer who had difficulty in getting to read the music directors' mind.

He recounts his experience with the song `Un Samayalarayil' from `Dhil': "I sung the humming track for the song but the intricacies just didn't fall into place. I realised singing needs extraordinary flexibility of voice and mind."

Voice culture

Being trained under a voice culture therapist, Karthik firmly believes voice culture exercises are mandatory for any singer.

"We are just human. Too much exertion can be disastrous. Exercise soothes the vocal chords."

On the increasing digital improvisation on singers' track, Karthik observes the trend as a part of digitalisation of sound recordings.

"It happens everywhere. We can't get into director's mind to sing the way he wants," he says.

After bagging numerous awards including `Filmfare' for the song `Oru maalai' in Ghajini and a state award for `Oliyile therivadhu' in Azhagi, Karthik says that he is not after awards.

"I don't sing for awards. It just happens," he says.

Asked about his reported plans of starting a music school, he smiles nonchalantly: "Nothing concrete as of now. I have so much to learn and sing. Five years back I never thought I would even become a singer."

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