Vocal Chords

Saturday,8PM

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What’s it about?

If you watched MTV in the 1990s,chances are you already know a great deal about their legendary show MTV Unplugged,and have been witness to some of the world’s greatest concerts. The franchise was started in 1989 with the idea of presenting music in its truest form — raw,acoustic and unmixed. The show has received numerous awards and featured nearly every popular artiste you could think of — from Eric Clapton to Katy Perry,Nirvana to Alicia Keys,and everyone else in between. Recently,the franchise was brought to India as Micromax MTV Unplugged with Ranjit Barot — composer,director,singer,drummer and a popular name in the Indian music industry — as the music producer/arranger.

Who’s in it?

Rabbi Shergill,a musician who has often been referred to as ‘Punjabi music’s true urban balladeer’,inaugurated the Indian edition of Unplugged on October 1. Pop and playback singer Mohit Chauhan,who was a member of the band Silk Route before it split up,was up the following week. Some of the biggest names in the Indian music industry will continue to grace the stage on following Saturdays. Rock bands Indian Ocean and Euphoria,playback singers Rekha Bhardwaj,Shilpa Rao and Javed Ali,British Tamil musician Susheela Raman and fusion band Advaita are lined up for this season.

What’s hot?

As the title of the show suggests,Unplugged is,quite literally,unplugged. Eliminating all electronically engineered aspects of music leaves you with a raw,soulful sound,as was demonstrated during Rabbi Shergill’s performance in the first episode. In studio-recorded music today,vocals are often meddled-with,leaving very little chance for the artiste’s actual voice to come through. And in live performances,instruments often drown out the vocals. So hearing the vocals dominate here is rather refreshing. Also,before each song,the artistes give the audience a little introduction to the song,bringing in a definite sense of familiarity.

What’s not?

If reports are to be believed,the Indian edition of Unplugged has strayed from its international counterpart in a crucial aspect. They have,it has been said,done a number of takes to get each performance down perfectly,thereby “polishing” the content of the show a great deal. That takes away from the very essence of the show,which is to present the artistes in a way they have never been seen before. Besides this,the very line-up of artistes is a cause for concern. Many of the names scheduled to perform on Unplugged were seen very recently on Coke Studio and,before that,on Roots. While it may be because they are the most established musicians on the scene,it would be nice to see some different names,perhaps a tad less recognised,also take the stage.

Should you be watching it?

Say what you may about re-takes and performances being polished,the fact of the matter is that the show has managed to produce some very interesting music,and for that,it’s definitely worth a watch.