Her latest visit to Calcutta was more special to Shilpa Rao. The singer, who was in the city to serenade Calcuttans at a musical concert, has sung a Bengali song, Jete dao, from the film Madam Sengupta. Directed by Sayantan Ghoshal and starring Rituparna Sengupta, the romantic number has been penned and composed by Anupam Roy. In a tete-a-tete, Rao talks about collaborating with Anupam and travelling back in time to listen to legends like Begum Akhtar, Mehdi Hassan and others.
Tell us the story behind this Jete dao? When did it happen?
I’ve known Anupam (Roy) for quite some time, and we’ve mutually liked each other’s work. He reached out last year for this song, and he sent me a little voice note. He sang it and sent it to me. It’s such a beautiful song that I was like, yeah, we’ll record.
The song is written and composed by Anupam Roy. Was this the reason that you got on board, or are there more reasons?
It’s never about who’s made it, who’s written it. That is an added factor. The most important thing is, what is the song like? How does it sound? That is more important to me than other things.
This is not your first Tollywood song, as you’ve sung a very fast-paced number, Money radio, and then Kotha dilam tokey, a romantic number. How special is Jete dao for you and your collaboration with Anupam?
It’s not an easy song in terms of composition as well as the emotion. You need to introspect, dive deeper to be able to express it. It took me time to not just learn the song, but understand it in a way that I could express it. Even when I do a Tamil song, it is always better to be in the room with the makers; that’s something which I prefer. The same goes for Hindi songs, that’s something which I feel is best.
In this case, it was not just about pronouncing the words correctly, it’s also about having the proper expression for that word. After I finished the song, I gave it another run, and we went through multiple drafts of the mix to get it on point. Anupam was extremely patient with me in that way. It was a major help that he was there in the room to guide me in terms of how to express that song properly. I had many questions about what the character is going through. Even if it’s a romantic song, you need to understand what the expression should be. Anupam was such a big guiding force for this one.
Do you have any favourite Bengali songs?
By far my favourite Bangla song is Thikana na rekhe by Haimanti Shukla and Manna Dey. It’s a classic.
You had come to perform here on World Music Day. Who would you want to dedicate the day to?
Of course, to my gurus. But we don’t have a switch-off button, or it doesn’t come to us annually. This is an everyday thing for us. It’s every day, non-stop, 24x7. We start the morning with Begum Akhtar, Rashid Khan... This is our daily routine. We look up to them so that we can learn something, we can imbibe that kind of depth into our music. That dedication is there every single day. It still amazes me how these people sing that well or how they express themselves so well. But on this day, I especially would dedicate it to all the listeners, because the listeners complete that circle. I would urge people to get back to those times when we would keep our phones aside and meet friends and listen to music. Where you discover music, and that music stays with you. It will always make your life more nurturing.
How would you describe life without music?
I don’t think that’s much of life. I don’t think it qualifies to be anything. I’ve been listening to music since I can remember. My parents have been playing me music before I was even born. So it’s not a thing for us; it’s just life by itself.
If you could time travel, which musician, singer, or composer would you want to share a stage with or jam with?
I don’t think I would want to jam or share a stage; I would probably want to be a part of the audience and listen to them. I think in the 1960s or 1970s where you had Begum Akhtarji, singing, Aamir Khan sahab singing. It was such a golden time. I would love to be there and just attend the concerts and listen to all of that. That’s all.