What’s common to ‘Moves Like Jagger’, ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ and ‘Wind of Change’? These songs have whistling incorporated in their prelude. A host of other numbers too feature whistling tunes, and each of them is catchy enough for listeners to pucker up and attempt replicating it at least once. Whistling, like singing, is a common hobby — some succeed and some end up blowing out nothing but air.
And then, there is this group of intrepid whistlers from Chennai who has allowed love for this pastime to take it to different parts of the world. Jagat Tarkas (68), N. Venkatraman (69), M.R. Subramanian (59) and Dhivya Soundari (33) from A Whistling World and Swetha Suresh (24) from Indian Whistlers’ Association represented India at The World Whistling Convention in Kawasaki, Japan, last month and won three titles in the solo categories. Jagat won in the seniors’ category, where he whistled ‘Main Hoon Jhum Jhum Jhumroo’ (a Kishore Kumar song from Jhumroo ) and an Italian classical tune; Swetha performed a composition by Strauss and ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. The other category she won in, titled Allied Arts, was a bigger challenge. “I had to whistle and simultaneously perform Bharatanatyam. I chose ‘Minsara Kanna’ from Padayappa ,” she says. In the group challenge, they presented a short play that was a love story… all through whistling.
“The idea is to promote this art among people,” says 68-year-old Jagat, who started A Whistling World in 2005. Post retirement, he pursued his hobby. Rounding up other interested whistlers, he started the association, and, in the same year, organised its first show in the city. He also roped in Rigveda Deshpande, founder of the Indian Whistlers’ Association, Pune, for the performance.
“We were just four people performing, but 400 people attended the show,” says Tarkas. In a year, he organises two shows, of which one is ticketed. “It’s unfortunate that people do not want to pay even Rs. 100 for a whistling event. If they’ve watched a show once, they feel they’ve seen it all. But, that’s not true,” he says.
There are variations, the group explains. For certain segments, an orchestra plays in the background, or they perform karaoke. “There are three styles of whistling that we follow in India — outward (that’s the regular style), inward (where you have to suck in air) and teeth whistling (where the sound comes from between your teeth),” says Venkatraman, and does a quick demo.
He’s been whistling since he was seven years old, but took it up seriously after his retirement. Passion for whistling has seen him record for music directors such as A.R. Rahman, Kashif and Anirudh, and for an album with Javed Ali and Sharanya. Swetha, too, has recorded with music director D. Imman for songs such as ‘Paravayaa Parakkurom’, ‘Verasa Pogayile’, ‘Waltzing Whistle Theme’ and ‘Yedho Maayam Seigiraai’. She has a handful of whistling records to her credit — Asia, India and Tamil Nadu books of records, for whistling continuously for 18 hours. She’s also a trained classical singer, but prefers calling herself a professional whistler.
Dhivya, an employee with IBM, used to be a bathroom whistler. She wanted to sing but couldn’t; so, she resorted to the next best option, whistling. But after being pulled up by a teacher in school, Dhivya stopped. “I restarted in college, when friends encouraged me to perform during a college event. I am not trained, but after I joined A Whistling World and practised with them, I can now perform classical numbers as well,” she adds.
It took a newspaper article to connect Subramanian with fellow whistlers at A Whistling World. “I run a light music orchestra and sing in multiple voices,” he says. Now, with his evolved whistling skills, he’s glad there’s one more act added to his repertoire.
The group meets and practises at Jagat’s residence. They’ve done shows in Bangalore and Mumbai, and start practising every Sunday, three months before a show. The group hopes this art form picks up. “China and Japan have whistling schools,” says Jagat, adding: “I’m certain there will come a day when television has whistling shows that offer good prize money. Then, this art form will definitely pick up. For now, we are doing our part.”
