O. S. Arun won the hearts of music lovers with his renditions of bhajans at Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Award Festival 2015 at Rabindra Mandap in Bhubaneswar recently. By his own admission, he has sung for dancers from six to 60. Some of the senior artists he has worked with include Yamini Krishnamurthy, Birju Maharaj, S.Kanaka, Swapnasundari, Raja Radha Reddy and Jaya Rama Rao.
On this occasion, Arun, who comes from a family of who’s who of music, took a few questions from this interviewer.
Youcome from a background of music. How did you develop as an artist?
Yes! I hail from a family of music …when I grew up in Delhi, music was a part of my life. There were regular music classes conducted by my father O.V. Subramaniam in our house and willy-nilly I was drawn into it. I was initiated to Carnatic music by my father. As I grew up, my interest in music increased to an extent that my passion towards music became my profession.
Why do you call yourself self-made in spite of coming from such an illustrious family?
That is because, when I wanted to take up music as a full time, I did not get an immediate go-ahead from my family. My parents, especially my mother, wanted me to take up a full time job. I was desperate to take up music full time. That is when I started singing for dance recitals. Unlike Chennai, there were not many sabhas in Delhi to promote Carnatic music. I had to face criticism from the people. Some would call me dance accompanist...dancers would say my singing for dance was of concert standard...I worked towards this and developed a style of my own... When I came to Chennai in 1998, I became a most sought after singer as people found in me a different approach to the classical rendition and my inclusion of various other compositions in my repertoire, including Jayadeva, Surdas Tukaram, Annamyya, Badrachal Ramdas and so on. I still remember the living legend Dr. Balamurali ji commenting on my music saying…“Arun has created a new style of music with bhava and emphasising Sahitya.”
How do you manage to combine the classical and contemporary?
It all depends on how one handles the musical form.. Be it classical/semi classical/contemporary you should not mix up styles. When you sing hardcore classical...maintain its pristine grammar and technique. While handling bhajans...bhava and the element of Bhakthi should be intact.
What are the challenges of playing the role of an accompanying vocalist in a dance recital?
I am not singing for dance anymore, yes I do compose music for productions. When I sang, it was quite a challenge for me as there were rasikas who would attend a dance recital because I was singing. I had to live up to their expectations and still sing without being a hindrance to the dancer.
Since you have lent your voice to genres of music other than Carnatic, have you ever tried singing Rabindra Sangeet? What is your take on it?
I have worked with various artists and have sung Carnatic, which has the same raga and the same melody such as “Basanti hey bhubanmohini..” (Meenakshi Me Mudam dehi).. and “Eki Labonne Purno pran pranesho hey”..(Lavanya Rama).
