Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | NXg | Friday Review | Cinema Plus | Young World | Property Plus | Quest |

Making a cool splash

Photo: V.V. Krishnan

CREATING A RIPPLE Shibani Kashyap at the InterContinental Eros hotel in New Delhi

Slumdog Millionaire has left a resounding trail. Any production with a whiff of Hollywood in it is now destined to be a talking point. Singer-composer Shibani Kashyap knows that. It is with a tingle of excitement that she plunges into a repertoire of symphonies for Blood Money, a Hollywood production. Shibani agrees Blood Money, scripted by an Indian-American banker, is a pivotal point in her career as a music composer.

“I am excited about our film. I have already composed one song and there are three more to go,” says a spirited Shibani. “The movie is about financial terrorism and has a thrilling plot,” she adds. In what appears to be a bouquet album, Shibani says one is a soulful track with merely a guitar accompanying her voice, while there is also a vibrant Salsa song.

With over a decade in the music industry, Shibani now pins her hopes on Blood Money, expected to be released this year. It will mark an important milestone for the singer who came along with “Ho gayi hai mohabbat tum se” in the 1990s and who now wants to carve a niche as a composer.

Women music composers still are unseen specks in Hindi filmdom. Breaking in was not easy, admits Shibani, though she is beginning to make little dents.

“Initially, they don’t really take you very seriously,” says Shibani. After a clutch of negligible movies, Zinda created murmurs, and now she is banking on Blood Money and Osama. Shibani however takes multi-tasking to a different plateau. Making music, live shows with her band Sojourn, mulling over a musical movie script, cameos in films and the idea of an album with the band assures her no spare time. She has already completed her dose of reality television as a judge on Bathroom Singer.

Music and its infinite opportunities are Shibani’s life-breath. It has been so for this Delhi girl since her mother introduced her to classical music at the age of five. She might have veered off to different inspirations like Western, jazz, R&B and Sufi, but music still defines her. Defying slotting, she says, “I don’t want to classify my music at all. It is of the world.”

Shibani recalls it was a musical she did in school that eventually opened the doors to jingles, albums and music videos. “When we were in class XI, we did a musical called “Stepping Out.” It was about the emotions of students on the threshold of leaving school. I played one of the central characters. Loy Mendosa and Barry John were associated with it. The actors had to sing and dance and that’s when Loy told me to sing my own songs,” she recollects.

That began a journey, and the idea of a musical still excites Shibani.

“I want to write the script for a musical. I already have about 15 songs ready. The idea is to promote music, because individual music is suffering today,” she reels out her plan of a lavish musical with an array of songs stringing together a story.

However, Shibani is convinced that a lot of aspects of music never get attention. She cites that the album industry, with which she made her mark, is in a dire state today.

“Nobody listens to albums, even when good albums come. It is a waste of effort and is not fair to the musician,” she says, affirming her decision to stay away from albums, unless it is a label one with her band.

Albums may not be a hit today, but Shibani seems to have interspersed her identity with music. A testimony to this was when she was invited to the Rashtrapati Bhawan along with a host of celebrities chosen from different fields on Women’s Day. “We all took an oath against female foeticide there. It was such an honour to be invited. It indeed gave me a sense of pride,” she says.

It is pride that Shibani feels for Delhi too, the city where she was born and brought up. A product of Delhi Public School, Lady Shriram College and the Delhi School of Music, Shibani says, “Delhi is a city to look up to. It has volumes of history — just look at the Rashtrapati Bhawan.”

For someone who loves the tomes of William Dalrymple, a good round of shopping and films, Shibani still nurtures a wish, “It was my dream to attend a music school abroad. However, at that time, it was very expensive and tough to get in. Even now, at some point, I just want to stop everything and go and re-learn. It is an aspiration,” she concludes.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail