‘Kabir used his art, the power of his words to wake up people’: Singer Sushma Soma

“Of course there is a strong spiritual undercurrent to Kabir’s poetry, but he also chides the blind beliefs. He used his art, the power of his words to wake up people… Centuries later, I feel, in Home, there is that strong message of wanting to shake up people and, asking them to take charge of their lives and think about the consumer choices, sustainability and environment. I feel it’s so aligned, and something through the art of the music, I hope that I can convey. Besides, the green initiative by the festival, where they explicitly state the measures they’ve taken also felt serendipitous,” says Soma in a telephone conversation from Singapore, just before boarding a flight to Varanasi, where she will be presenting an acoustic set of her much appreciated new album today (November 19) as part of the sixth edition of the Mahindra Kabira Festival, presented by Teamwork on the ghats of Ganga, amid the ritualised cycle of life and death that goes on around it.

Soma was born in India but raised entirely in Singapore

Today, PM Narendra Modi will also be present in Varanasi to inaugurate Kashi-Tamil Sangamam — a 30-day festival showcasing the culture of Tamil Nadu in Varanasi.

Soma was born in India but raised entirely in Singapore where, in like a default space that exists in almost every Tamilian household all over the world, she woke to MS Subbulakshmi’s famed Suprabhatam – her vestibule into the world of Carnatic music. While in her teens Soma instantly fell in love with the Illayaraja tunes that her parents played on their tapes, classical vocal training began early– at the age of four – completely out of parental pressures to ‘understand’ culture. While she learned Carnatic classical for several years in Singapore, the thought of turning it into a profession when Soma spent about six months in Chennai, learning under Lalitha Shivakumar followed by currently being under the aegis of violinist vocalist RK Shriramkumar.

But while she learned Carnatic classical, the space didn’t exist in a vacuum. She was also existing in difficult, contemporary times, which positioned conundrums and caused pain often. It was the death of a pregnant elephant after being fed a pineapple stuffed with firecrackers in Malappuram, Kerala, that she found herself extremely angry. The resentment was soon taken over by desolation and grief. As Soma mourned, “bawling and crying”, she decided to turn her lament into The Elephant’s Funeral, a gut-wrenching piece that has her grieve in music. Six other songs proved her prowess as a contemporary Carnatic artiste, who was ready to use her knowledge of the shastra of the repertoire to convey contemporary matters of concern.

Soma’s performance will be followed by ‘Dohe jo Mohe’, a presentation by ace puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee

“It’s not like terrible things have not happened before. Probably it was Covid and we were not distracted, there was something about witnessing it that did something to my gut. That was the turning point,” says Soma, who spoke to friend and US-based musician and producer Aditya Prakash soon after, and recorded the album that was about “experiencing an emotion”.

At the Mahindra Kabira Festival that opened on Friday, Soma’s performance will be followed by ‘Dohe jo Mohe’, a presentation by ace puppeteer Dadi Pudumjee, who’s reinvented the art of puppetry in India with his giant puppets and grand productions. While the evening will feature a performance by Shubhendra and Saskia Rao, the finale of the second day will have classical vocalist Aruna Sairam conclude the evening. It’ll be interesting to see how Sairam’s intense concerts that have often told us stories of Krishna and Rama will veer into the territory of Kabir. While Sunday morning will feature a presentation by Hindustani classical vocalist Rama Sundar Ranganathan who will attempt to create a conversation between sagun and nirgun (form and formlessness) bhakti by presenting piece by Nanak, Kabir, Meera, Swati Tirunal and Tulsidas, there will also be a dastangoi presentation on Kabir by Fouzia Dastango. The evening will feature a gurbani recital by Jasleen Aulakh, while the grand finale will be presented by Bengaluru-based contemporary folk band The Raghu Dixit Project.

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