Coke Studio is here. Can it replicate its success in Pakistan and become a platform for Indian music? Tucked away in in a corner of Marve,one of Mumbais few fishing villages,in what looks like the skeleton of an old bungalow,is Cherish studio. With its white-washed Catholic icons,candy-coloured cottages,rutted mud tracks and swaying palm trees,Marve seems a world away from Mumbai,the entertainment capital of the country. Nothing stirs in the summer heat and humidity. Inside the studio is a different scene. The freezing cold sets are lit up in red,white and blue,and the energy is electric. Singer Shruti Pathak,who sang the popular Mar Jawa from Fashion,her dress co-ordinated to match the sets red-and-black and blow-dried hair perfectly in place,matches tunes with Assamese folk singer Angaraag Mahanta,better known by his stage name Papon. The spiritual notes of an Eastern melody segue seamlessly into the more earthy tune of a Gujarati folk song,Painpdon. Absorbed in the music,a few members of the television crew close their eyes and lean back slightly. It seems like the perfect take,with the flutes high notes being in sync with the drums,and yet the singers are asked to repeat the lines. They move back to square one along with the house band and everyone gets ready for a retake. A Coke Studio @ MTV session is in progress. For the many viewers who have sworn off music television and its 24x7 Bollywoodisation,this musical experiment was long overdue. I often think of the Coke Studio as a chemistry lab. You mix various chemicals together and create these fantastic explosions, says Aditya Swamy,channel head,MTV India. On the sets of Coke Studio too,we like creating these explosions; pull out a musician out of her comfort zone and get her to collaborate with a completely different kind of musician. Folk-rock artiste Raghu Dixit,who recently recorded a performance of Hey Bhagwan for the show,is gung-ho. He exclaims,From what we saw,we know it will certainly be put together beautifully. I do hope the show is all about the performances and the music and everything else will be an embellishment. The man in the middle of all the musical action,choreographing it to the last detail,is former Colonial Cousin,Leslie Lewis,the musical director of the show. On the sets,hes a perfectionist and a multi-tasker one moment hes strumming the guitar on the stage,next moment hes in the control room,giving out precise instructions and ordering retakes for even the smallest deviation from his vision. He confesses to not having slept in many days,and says,I dont think Ill get any sleep until its wrapped up, he shrugs. My vision for this is it to be the best kind of platform for all music in India. The musicians are excited and their excitement is pushing me forward. That excitement is shared by many music fans in India; the show is based on the same format as the hit show of the same name in Pakistan. In that country,Coke Studio became a common platform for its varied musical traditions. Rock and pop artistes like Atif Aslam and Strings jammed with Sufi singers Abida Parveen and Saieen Zahoor to create music that transcended not only Pakistans many ethnic and social divides,but also crossed over into India to create a cult following. The Indian version has similar ambition,with a list of artistes that include Ustad Rashid Khan,Shafqat Amanat Ali,Shaan,Kailash Kher and Shubha Mudgal. The show intends to cover a broad range of genres from sufi to classical to folk music. We have three categories of artistes mainstream names like Shankar Mahadevan and Shaan,emerging artistes like Harshdeep Kaur and Shruti Pathak,and folk musicians like Papon and the Assamese singer Khogen Da, Swamy says. The edginess could come from the names you dont recognise,artists chosen after the production team sent out groups to various parts of the country to spot unknown talent. Thats how the final roster ended up with Chinna Ponnu,a Tamil folk singer who started singing as a teenager in temple festivals and churches,and attained great popularity after she sang for a few Tamil films. Names like Chinna Ponnu and Khogen Da are very well-known in their own regions. We put in a little effort and did the necessary research and the result is that the whole of India will now get to listen to amazing singers they had not heard of before, says Swamy. Some purists may complain about the possible dilution of the Coke Studio concept by including mainstream,and more significantly,Bollywood names like Shaan and Mahadevan. In Pakistan,it turned niche and lesser-known artistes like Aunty Disco Project and Sanam Marvi into household names. In India,where all other music is anyway pushed into obscurity by Bollywood,wouldnt it have been better to stick to showcasing artistes who are fantastic,but have been struggling for an audience? The concept is the same as in Pakistan,which is to showcase the countrys rich musical heritage. You cant completely ignore Bollywood singers; after all they have all been classically trained and will not just interpret film music in a different way,but will so do some heavy,experimental stuff, says Swamy. Pathak,too,chimes in with her support. I run the risk of being typecast as a Bollywood singer simply because I have sung for a few movies. But I do like other kinds of music. Im a Gujarati and I want to show my music and culture to the world and this is a great platform for that. Leslie Lewis offers the most practical reason of all. See,20 per cent of viewers have watched Coke Studio before and are eagerly waiting for the Indian version. Then theres 80 per cent of the country which have not heard of the show before. These are people to whom Shankar,Shaan,Kay Kay are all familiar names. Theyll watch the show for them and see them doing something different and experimental. Itll open their eyes to new genres of music and get them interested in the folk musicians that their favourite singers are performing with. In India,Swamy says,the strategy includes getting artistes from different genres to perform together,in an effort to encourage musical inventiveness. It resulted in performances like the crackling collaboration between Kailash Kher and Chinna Ponnu. Kailash was so kicked about the idea of jamming with an artiste so different from his style,that he just wanted to keep going, he says.n (The show goes on air on June 17)
