T he mellifluous flute rendition of the title track of ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ comes wafting out of the house as I gather myself to meet the flautist Naveen Kumar. It’s hard to come out of the musical trance when he’s is at play and get ready for an interview. Kumar is one of India’s most talented flautists and he’s on one of his rare visits to Vizag - the place of his roots. Engrossed in his impromptu musical session, Kumar drifts into the Roja track and then soon the signature flute tune of Bombay theme follows. For any music lover, there isn’t a chance you would miss Kumar’s woodwind magic which he played in some of the most immortal compositions of music directors like A.R. Rahman, Illayaraja, Shankar, Ehsaan and Loy and Pritam among several others. As the short musical session ends, the flautist breaks into a smile, welcoming me with his humble smile.
The flautist who is in Vizag to host India’s first World Wind Festival on December 17 took out some time to go down memory lane and share his experiences of Vizag, his association with Rahman and the evolving music scene in India. Born and brought up in Vizag, Kumar started his musical journey at the age of three by singing folk songs. It was his father’s fascination for the flute that left a deep impression on him and he took to playing flute when he was a VII std student. “I first got an opportunity to play the flute in my school, the CBM High School. In appreciation of my performance, my headmistress presented me two flutes then,” recollects Kumar, who has been an innovator in flute technology, creating different types of flutes. It was a special moment for the shy school boy, which spurred his interest of collecting flutes with today having over 300 flutes as his personal collection. His special musical talent was spotted quite quickly and soon he gave slotted programmes for All India Radio.
“I remember pillion riding the moped with my father who would drive me up the AIR junction with my set of flutes for my performances,” recollects Kumar, who did his diploma in vocals from Andhra University School of Fine Arts. From a shy teenager to an internationally recognised musician, Kumar’s journey has been awe-inspiring to say the least. His chance meeting with Ilaiyaraaja in Chennai during his father annual LTC trip of the South was the turning point of his life. “After hearing me play the flute, he asked me if I wanted to stay on in Chennai or complete my studies in Vizag and return. I was so thrilled to get the opportunity that I instantly told him I wanted to stay back because of my love for music,” reminisces the flautist. While meeting him was a dream come true for Kumar, the musician said he never felt nervous when he was playing the flute in front of the musical maestro. “I am a natural artist and a self taught musician. I used to practice breathing exercises since my childhood. The flute is like a part of my body, so it just feels natural and spontaneous when I am playing it,” he says proudly. After playing for Ilaiyaraaja in 1984 for a Tamil film, Naveen got noticed and was soon recording tracks for leading composers including Rahman, Pritam and Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.
Talking about his collaboration with Rahman, he says, “It was a wonderful journey with Rahman. I met him when I used to play for music director Pasupuleti Ramesh Naidu. Rahman would play the keyboard while I played the flute then. After hearing me there, Rahman asked me to play for him.” His collaboration with Rahman was the focal point of his musical career. “Rahman placed lot of emphasis on flute in his music, for instance in films like Roja and Bombay .
The Bombay theme music gave me global acclaim after which I got a chance to perform with the London Symphony Orchestra,” Kumar recalls. “When Rahman is at work, he is like the queen bee directing the team of musicians to create a fascinating musical honeycomb,” he adds.
Besides being a much-sought after recording artiste in the Bollywood, Tamil and Telugu film industries, he is also a prolific music producer with six critically acclaimed music albums to his credit till date. On majority of the tracks, he creates an innovation like no other. “My father had presented me a book called The Flute by Prof. Sambamurthy which helped me to understand the nuances and styles of flutes. I made a Chinese flute after reading it,” he says recollecting his first experiment of placing a dried thin layer of onion skin inside a Chinese flute to make a unique improvisation. The experiments and improvisations continued till he made a flute which had a special feature with strings inside with the audio being modulated into a MIDI keyboard. Kumar calls it the Naveen flute. He recalls, “More than 10 years ago, I was practising in my soundproof room in Chennai and I heard some vibration – turns out my flute sound was vibrating the strings on the guitar kept nearby.” He also invented a glass flute and the overtone tone and the musician says that a lot more is coming up.
After his recent works in Hindi films like Fitoor and Mohenjodaro , he is back after working for Aamir Khan’s Dangal . On an international level, Jungle Book the film kept him busy throughout the year. This apart, he is also busy with his shows with fusion bands.
On being back in Vizag with the World Wind Festival, the Kumar says: “We have to spread awareness about our traditional musical instruments to the next generation. They should know about our musical roots and culture. This festival is my way of paying respect to the place of my birth. I want Vizag to be a global musical landmark and plan to make this festival an annual feature.”
