Staging a Debut

The fourth judge of the show,despite his earnest efforts to fit in,seems a bit out of place. This,after all,isn’t a world Rahul Ram,the vocalist and bassist of the band Indian Ocean is familiar with. Instead of the open-air stage is an enclosed,studio setting and in place of a spirited,uninhibited crowd are two sets of orchestrated audience,clapping when required.

“I am trying to adjust. When I see these guys,Sajid,Wajid and Shankar,I realise I don’t know Bollywood at all,” says Ram. He still retains the twinkle in the eye,apart from the trademark kurta-bandana. He decided to take up the offer of being one of the judges for Sa Re Ga Ma Pa — a singing talent hunt show — as the show wanted him in a role of who he was. “When they approached me,I asked,why me? But they said they wanted my kind of perspective in the fabric of the show; they are looking beyond playback,looking for performers,” he says.

He always had a problem with the conventional trappings of Bollywood music. Sa Re Ga Ma’s new attempt,he says,promises to look beyond Bollywood. “There are some conventions that need to be broken. For example,why should one have to sing in all the genres? If you are good at one,just be damn good at it. For me,it has always been feel over technique,and these are few things the show is trying to encourage,” he says.

As someone whose music is known to have embraced folk traditions and western influences in equal measure,Ram is smitten by the presence of such musicians both in the country’s independent music scene and the show itself. “You have a Manganiar walking up to the stage of this show,singing with all his heart — it gives you goosebumps. Today,we have bands like Avial who are singing 1,000-year-old Malayali songs and Agam who do Carnatic progressive rock,” he exclaims.

As the conversation turns towards his band,and its future,Ram sounds a bit uncertain. It has been three years since vocalist and percussionist Asheem Chakravarty’s death,and that has left a gap that the band is still struggling to fill. Apart from the concerts and the rehash of their old songs in the 2010 film Peepli [Live,the band has come up with only two originals after that. “We are still trying to bring Tuhin Chakraborty (Asheem’s replacement) up to the level; and even though we have enough originals to cut an album,we miss Asheem’s contribution in the composition stage. The plan is to come up with another album,and then take stock of our future,” he says.

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