Hariharan

'Hari'cane of Melody

His voice carries the freshness of the rising sun. He also happens to be blessed with a swanky sense of humour. Welcome on board to the ship of singer-composer Hariharan's exploits in the unfathomable waters of entertainment.

Managing to etch his place in the news with a few priceless vignettes here and there, this connoisseurs' latest venture - with fellow Colonial Cousin Leslie Lewis - Aatma has done reasonably well. Their hit single Kaye Zaala is the toast of a zillion cable channels! His rendition of the title track of Subhash Ghai's Yaadein is a worldwide favourite. And now Hari is all charged up to wear grease paint for his first outing as an actor in a Tamil-Hindi flick.

Power of Woman his maiden film, is woven around the issue of women's liberation. His co-star in the film is this 'south-Indian Goddess' - Khushboo and the director, Jaidevi is a filmmaker who specialises in parallel cinema. "I am playing the central character, an artist who runs an art school and sends across subtle messages of feminism through his paintings. Khushboo, my co-star, plays the role of a homemaker and shares a platonic relationship with me," Hariharan informs.

One cannnot doubt the fact that Hariharan is endowed with a rare-honey-dipped voice. There is an element of softness that makes his voice endearing, very masculine and yet having that touch of womanly gentleness.

Let's rewind and find out something about his past. Hariharan has been hugely inspired by his mother, who is an exponent of Carnatic music. "My mother is my anchor. She has always encouraged me. I think, that for anybody to succeed, one definitely requires an anchor," says Hariharan reverentially.

Hariharan, the master-singer of today had to struggle a lot initially. He fondly remembers composer Jaidev, the man who gave him his first break in Muzaffar Ali's Gaman. It was a ghazal that I had sung first; Ajeeb saneha mujh par guzar gaya yaaron. As is the norm in the Indian entertainment industry, he got slotted as a Ghazal singer till he recently broke the shackles by singing a popular tune in A R Rahman's debut film, Roja. But a protruding fact is his personal inclination towards Ghazal singing, which he himself admits is his "prized passion". Twenty-three Ghazal Albums are ample proof of his prolific production." People used to find it amusing that a 'south-Indian' is belting out Urdu couplets! But then, singing ghazals wasn't something that just happened. I was very clear since the beginning of my career that I wish to excel in Ghazal singing."

The two artistes he admires the most are Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan (also his teacher) and Ghazal maestro Mehndi Hasan. He narrated the incident when he met Mehndi Saab for the first time just for you guys "Mehndi Saab heard my name and tried to pronounce it twice or thrice and then said, naam mein goonj hai," Hariharan says.

He has shared an artistically rich relationship with the Ghazal doyen for over two decades. In fact, Hari paid his tribute by rendering Mehndi Hasan's ghazals from the maestro's latest album Sada-e-Ishq at the Y B Chavan Centre in Mumbai. "I'm perhaps Hasan's greatest admirer and have treasured some of his oldest recordings that were aired on Lahore Radio.

By: Faridoon Shahryar