When fortune met talent...
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She is based in Bangalore, comes down to Chennai often to record for Tamil and Telugu films, travels to Kerala to anchor the weekly Sapta Swarangal on Asianet and sing for Malayalam movies and globe trots with her band for her music shows abroad. MALATHI RANGARAJAN talks to the busy singer, Chitra Sivaraman.
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Chitra Sivaraman ... multi-faceted singer
CHITRA SIVARAMAN has loads of luck — in these days when talent is aplenty and being at the right place at the right time can make a whale of a difference, she has been able to manage things quite well. "That's the irony of the whole thing," says this charming singer. Chitra's face may not be too familiar, but her voice ought to be. "I live in Bangalore and that's a handicap.
Composers could think I am too far away from Chennai, to be bothered with. But one call, and I am here in a few hours ... " Still she did succeed in getting her first break in Tamil films from A. R. Rahman because she was at his studio at the opportune moment.
"Yes," she agrees. "I tried to meet Rahman through a friend, but the actual call from the composer's office came quite suddenly one evening. I was asked to come over with a demo cassette. Quickly I recorded a couple of ghazals and a few Malayalam and Tamil numbers at home and took them with me. I assumed that I would have to hand over the cassette to an assistant. But Rahman himself was there. He took my cassette inside to listen to it and soon his engineer came out and told me that I should return at 9 p.m. for the recording. I couldn't believe my luck. Overjoyed and absolutely tense I recorded my first Tamil film song, "Athini Pathini... " for "Tenali." It was a duet with Hariharan." What better opening could an aspiring singer ask for?
But it was a long time before she actually met Hariharan in person. "I met him at the studio where I was waiting to record for "Kangalal Kaidhu Sei." In Bermudas or Capri, whatever you call them, and with his hair tousled I first didn't recognise him. Then I went and introduced myself, and at once he said, `we have given a duet together haven't we? You did a good job... ' I was thrilled," Chitra recalls.
Chitra was in Chennai recently, to record a Telugu song for A. R. Rahman. Between "Tenali" and the recently released "Enakku 20 Unakku 18" and the yet-to-be released "Kangalal Kaidhu Sei," she has sung quite a few numbers for Rahman and also for Yuvan Shankar Raja, Karthik Raja, Vidyasagar, Deva, Bharadwaj and others.
The "Thozha Thozha ... " song Chitra sang for "Pandavar Bhoomi" was a major hit. But strangely she has not recorded for its composer Bharadwaj again. "As I told you, my not living in Chennai could be a reason," says Chitra. She has also sung for the Hindi film, "16 December."
Chitra's mother tongue is Tamil but she is proficient in all the languages of the South ("Only my Telugu is not all that good") and Hindi. And thankfully it includes the mother tongue. "My parents would insist that I speak and write Tamil properly, together with other languages," she says.
As Chitra Iyer, she is a known face to Asianet watchers — she is the anchor of the Malayalam channel's popular music show, ``Jeeva's Sapta Swarangal." Having done her education in Kerala, Chitra is very fluent in Malayalam. "Though there I am known more as a stage singer and TV person I've sung for Malayalam films also."
As Providence would have it, Chitra had gone to a studio to record a demo to be circulated among Malayalam film composers. And in the adjacent room was composer Bernie-Ignatius. He heard her sing and the next day he called her over for a song recording. She has sung four songs for Bernie since then and also for Suresh Peters and Balabhaskar, in Malayalam.
Chitra is excited about two recent Malayalam hits of hers. "Chundathu ... ", a duet with M. G. Sreekumar, in the Mammootty film, "Chronic Bachelor" that has music by Deepak Dev, and the "Ishta Mallada" song with singer Afzal, for "Swapnakoodu' — a very different kind of song composed by Mohan Sitara.
"Meera Jasmine, on whom the song was picturised, has done such a wonderful job that you would think that she's sung the song herself," says Chitra.
In Tamil, many of Chitra's numbers have been for Jyotika it appears. "I've noticed it too," she laughs.
Her Kannada number for the film "Kurigalu Saar Kurigalu" was composed by Hamsalekha.
In between her tight schedules, she travels all over the country and abroad — from Sri Lanka and the Gulf to Germany and the U.S. — crooning with her band. "And I also have a family to attend to," adds this happily-married singer. Husband Sivaraman shares her passion for music and encourages her in her pursuit, says this mother of two.
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