Journalism of Courage
Nihar Shembekar,grandson of famous Marathi singer Jaywant Kulkarni,on his new album
With a grandfather like Jaywant Kulkarni,who is fondly remembered as the voice to many of Dada Kondkes Marathi movies with hit songs such as ‘Hi Chal Turu Turu’ and ‘Malachya Malyamandi’,23-year-old Nihar Shembekar’s recently launched debut music album,seems like a natural step.
His album,’Split Personality’,is his first independent project,and marks his return to music after a hiatus of eight years. Shembekar had decided to take a break from music and focus on academics for a few years. However,after graduating from Symbiosis Centre for Management Studies (UG) at Viman Nagar,he decided that he was serious about a career in music. After a sound recording course from Mumbai University,he began working on the album last year.
The album spans across several genres,with Punjabi hip-hop,hard rock,raagas,ghazals and romantic numbers. My music is obviously influenced by my grandfather and parents but it is truly mine, he explains.
Recorded under his personal label,Swar Arts,the album has songs in Marathi,Hindi,English and even a song which is part Spanish. I am obviously more comfortable with Marathi and Hindi,but I have found that some styles go better with certain languages. For instance,hard rock combines best with English and raagas go with Hindi or Marathi. The use of so many styles and languages is what inspired me to name the album Split Perosnality,in fact, says Shembekar,who has also started a band Diversity which performs music across all genres and languages.
