The director-composer duo of Lal Jose and Vidyasagar have rarely disappointed. They have created the magic again, with Diamond Necklace . The songs are refreshing, so too the voices, that of Sanjeev Thomas, Nivas and Abhirami Ajai.
An electrifying performer
Sanjeev Thomas who crooned the title track of the movie, Nenjinullil…, has been carrying the address ‘A.R. Rahman’s lead guitarist’ for six years now. He has been so busy touring with the Oscar winner in his Jai Ho tour and working with him in films such as Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na, Robot, Vinnai Thandi Varuvaya and EK Deewaana Tha that his singing had taken a backseat. But, Deepak Dev, with whom Sanjeev has worked in many projects, wanted to give Sanjeev’s voice a chance and Pathiye pathiye… in Grandmaster happened. When Vidyasagar wanted a fresh voice to sing Nenjinullil… , he got in touch with Deepak who suggested Sanjeev’s name. “Interestingly, many people don’t know that I’ve sung these songs. In fact, many don’t even know that I’m a Malayali,” says Sanjeev. Born and brought up in Kuwait, he is now settled in Chennai where he has a band and a studio, both named Rainbow Bridge.
A part of MTV’s music programmes Coke Studio and MTV Unplugged , Sanjeev had earlier sung his own compositions. He had composed and sung the theme song of Kerala Strikers, the Celebrity Cricket League (CCL) team of Mollywood. He is all set to make his debut in Mollywood as a composer with My Fan Ramu , singer Nikhil Menon’s debut film which features a bunch of players from Kerala Strikers. “I’m happy that my singing and composing debut happened in Malayalam…,” he says. He has a cameo as a guitarist in the song Aaranu nee in Grandmaster.
A dream debut
As the song Nilaamalare… is racing up on the charts, Srinivas, alias Nivas, the voice behind it is still bemused. “We already have a great singer named Sreenivas. Many suggested that I should change my name and so I dropped ‘Sri’ from it,” says the 28-year-old.
Nila malare… is his debut song as a playback singer. His claim to fame till date was the music reality show Airtel Super Singer- Season 3 (Vijay TV) in which he was among the top five contestants. “I wanted to be a playback singer and used to go around giving demo CDs to many music directors, including Vidyasagar sir. Luckily, he liked my voice and called me for a recording,” Srinivas recalls.
But, he was in for a shock. “I was given a Malayalam song! My mother tongue is Telugu, I can speak Tamil and Hindi, but not Malayalam. I was sure that I had lost my chance. But he made me comfortable and taught me the song. Singer Binni Krishnakumar helped me with the diction,” he says. And before he knew it, the song was lapped up by music lovers. Srinivas works for a telecom company in Chennai.
Srinivas has already sung tracks for a few Tamil films and hopes to get more opportunities. Meanwhile, he wants to explore his passion – Sufi music, “since I’m comfortable singing in higher octaves.”
Young talent
If Srinivas’ was the case of a Tamilian singing a Malayalam number, Abhirami Ajai, a Malayali, was given a Tamil song in the movie. In her duet with Najeem Arshad, Thottu thottu…, picturised on Fahadh Faasil and Gautami Nair, she has sung the Tamil portion, as Gautami plays a Tamilian in the movie.
Abhirami is a class ten student of Delhi Private School, Sharjah, but is a veteran of sorts when it comes to stage performances. She has shared the stage with singers like Vani Jayaram, K.S.Chithra, P.Jayachandran, M.G.Sreekumar, Unni Menon and Vijay Yesudas among others at various performances in UAE.
It was a stage performance which got her Diamond Necklace . “In December 2011, Lal Jose happened to heard her sing in Dubai. He asked us to send her voice track to Vidyasagar. To our surprise, we got a call from Vidyasagar’s studio in Chennai to come for an audition,” says Abhirami’s father Ajaikumar M.Nair. The only daughter of Dr. Ajai and Aswathi Radhakrishnan, Abhirami has been a winner of many contests and reality shows in UAE.
The excitement hasn’t yet sunk in for Abhirami. “ It was only at the studio that I came to know that I’d to sing a Tamil song, that too a duet. It was challenging since I was not very fluent in Tamil. But he trained me well and the recording was over in two hours,” says Abhirami.
Abhirami has sung in a music album for composer Vidyadharan master and has brought out a compilation of her 12 favourite songs in Hindi, Tamil and Malayalam.
A huge fan of K.S.Chitra, Bombay Jayasree and S. Janaki, she has already recorded another song for Vidyasagar (a duet with Karthik) for the Malayalam movie Mumbai Dost and has got more offers .
