New Year is the time to make resolutions and refresh one's attitude and direction in life. This Ugadi, how about taking pride in being a Telugu? You can start off by understanding the language better by learning Telugu padyalu in the form of a karaoke CD titled Telugu Padyalu launched recently by Sushma. A Hyderabadi, Sushma's ideas are quite a contradiction of sorts. She is a Carnatic classical singer but loves film music. “I treat cinema as an art and when we say film music, it is not just ‘dhichak dhichak' kind of music. Film music involves lot of emotions and is being peppy a sin?” she asks and adds, “People cannot live without music so they listen to anything and everything which is made available in the name of music.”
Telugu Padyalu , the karoake CD (available under Aarohi Music) is especially for parents, who want their children to discover a new world. “The album is for kids, by kids and the lines are easy to learn,” says Sushma, who conceptualised, composed and sung in the album.
Everybody needs an encouragement and in Sushma's case, Youtube provided her the necessary boost. “The desire to launch an album of Telugu poems was always there. To know how music lovers would receive it, I put a promo video on Youtube. It received quite a many hits that it proved to be a confidence booster. Youngsters are always criticised for being indifferent and ignoring their own culture and language. But I think, if things are presented to them in a different way, they are game for it,” she says. The poems are simple and have been selected on a familiarity basis. “The ‘padyalu' are not complicated and are common in most households,” she says.
Sushma has an experience of working with different media. She was associated with Gemini TV, worked as a World Space RJ and even sung for the movie Ashta Chamma . She had earlier launched a devotional music album titled Shubamastu (with 24 slokas ). Inspired by renowned music director K.V. Mahavdevan, Sushma hopes to be a filmmaker one day.
