A mridangist, a ganjira player, a Cajon drum player, a vocalist…Charu Hariharan's life revolves around music. While many remember her as a participant of Amrita TV's music reality show, Super Star others will remember her for the songs in Venal Maram ( Thotte Thotteduthe ) and Ivar Vivahitarayal ( Sunday Sooriyan ). This artiste, Carnatic vocalist and playback singer B. Arundhathi's daughter, is going places. She is just back from a music camp called Ethno Sweden, an annual camp held in various European countries. This year, the camp was held at Rättvik, Sweden. Only three musicians were selected from India for the camp where musicians from across the globe attend.
This year, says Charu, there were 110 participants from 21 countries. “We were lucky as India was under a sponsored scheme, so my co-participants Debanjan Battarcharjee (sarod player) from West Bengal, Sukhad Munde (pakhawaj artiste) from Pune and I (mridangam and Carnatic vocal) did not have to pay for accommodation, food or registration.”
Pick a room
The participants were housed in a school where they could choose the kind of roommates they wanted. If ‘I want to fall in love' had participants who were looking for romance, ‘I don't want to go to sleep all night' had those who liked to stay up late. Charu opted for ‘I want to learn a foreign language.' “I thought I would be able to learn Swedish that way but unfortunately my other roommates were from Tanzania and Uganda,” laughs Charu.
At the camp, the participants learnt to play the musical instruments of various countries. “Every one had to learn the instruments and style of music of each participating country. In fact all of us had to play a composition from each country as an orchestra. From India, we taught them the pallavi and anu pallavi of Vathapi Ganapathim ,” says Charu who adds that they also learnt dances from across the globe (“We taught them a bit of Chau and Kollywood style dance”), how to do embroidery, how to chisel figurines out of wood…
The musician learnt to play the Cajon drum while in Sweden. “It is a percussion instrument, something like a box drum. In fact, I bought a piece to practice on,” says Charu who is one of six participants of Ethno Sweden to be selected for ‘Ethno on road' tour this year. “I'm the only percussionist and perhaps the first from India to be chosen for such a tour.” She will be starting the tour, which will cover Sweden in October.
The 21-year-old artiste is also on a high on the release of an album called ‘O! Shakunthala' last year. The album, which consists of nine tracks has Charu collaborating with slide guitarist Pandit Debashish Bhattacharya, a 2009 Grammy nominee, Subhasis Bhattacharya on the tabla and Chitrangana Reshwal on the pakhawaj. Charu accompanies them on the mridangam and the ganjira. As the album was popular in the United Kingdom (U.K.) the team of ‘O! Shakunthala' came together to form a band called O! Shakunthala. The band toured various countries.
Says Charu on how the album came about: “I met Pt. Debashish during a performance in Mauritius. We were stuck at the airport for a couple of hours and started talking about music. He asked me if I would be interested in coming to Kolkatta for a jamming session and I said yes. One day, I receive a message from him asking me if I could spare a couple of days. Next thing I know, I'm recording an album,” says Charu who accompanies her mother on the mridangam in various kutcheris.
Learning the mridangam
Mridangam and women? “I grew up in a household filled with music. My father, T.S. Hariharan, would always encourage me to pay attention to the percussion even as a child. As a kid I would tap my fingers on the pillow, waste bin, everything. As mridangam was and still is a popular instrument I decided to learn the mridangam. My guru is J. Balaji (in Chennai),” says Charu a first rank psychology graduate from Government College for Women.
Charu is currently pursuing her dream of becoming a playback singer and composer. “Jayachandran sir is my mentor. He is a versatile musician and I hope to be one too. My brother, Sreekanth, is also an aspiring singer,” says Charu.
She is now working on an instrumental album. “I'm working on the album with a friend of mine. We have completed one track that needs a bit of polishing. It has an Arabic flavour. I hope to do more of such versatile numbers.”
