When we remember the “
golden era ” of Indian cinema, we remember it through great music – music that
had soul, great melody and beautiful lyrics. Great songs are always created by
a combination of great melody and great writing- a piece of poetry. However,
nowadays it is difficult to hear great, meaningful poetry in popular music and
film music barring a few exceptions, although there is large volume of great
poetry, classic writings by great poets in our country. This gap was identified
by Chinmayi Tripathi, an entrepreneur and singer – songwriter who
started off a unique initiative – Music and Poetry Project
in association with her partner and
producer –composer – Joell Mukherjii.
is a trained classical vocalist and has released 3 music albums so far with
Times Music and Worldwide records. As an artist, Chinmayi is known for her own
original songs that have meaningful lyrics and rich compositions. Chinmayi has
received Vishnu Prabhakar Puruskar for her work in music and poetry and was one
of the five nominees from India by British Youth Awards 2012. Her music also has
been nominated for RadioCity Freedom Awards 2019. Chinmayi has also been the co
founder of an music platform-Songdew(web and TV) that promotes independent
music. After working for 5 years in the corporate world, Chinmayi decided to
dedicate her entire time and energy to music and started
off the Music and Poetry Project
.
The objective of this
initiative is to merge great Indian poetry with contemporary music and extend
it’s reach to young audience. Over the last couple of years, this project has
been known to reinvent classical Indian Poetry in the form of
contemporary music for new audience. Started off through a crowd funding
campaign on Wishberry(reference- https://www.wishberry.in/campaign/the-music-and-poetry-project)
the
project received support from
large number of people
online who believed that great
poetry should be composed
and presented as songs. After raising the required funds
through crowd sourcing campaign,
Chinmayi Tripathi composed and
produced a bunch of songs in association
with Joell Mukherjii- a versatile, multi talented artist who came
on board as the music producer of the project.
The first set of songs comprised of
“chhayavad” poetry by iconic poets such as Nirala, Mahadevi Verma,
Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Shivmangal Singh Suman, Ramdhari singh Dinkar,
Dharamvir Bharti, Bhavani Prasad Mishra and poets of today
such as Anamika and Shellee. The songs have been released by
Times music. Here are some of the links to the music videos
–
Jaag tujhko duur jaana- Mahadevi Verma
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4f1tE-u4Kk
Dheeth chandni- Dharamvir Bharti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qvtu0vl5aKE
Khushgappiyan- Anamika
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQaeaj34fW4
Anhad Baaje- Shellee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgajMnyM8C8
Chinmayi and Joell
with their live band have been
performing this music along with their live band at various music festivals, college
festivals in India and UK- with the objective of popularizing
great poetry and literature among the youngsters. Their live performances have
been received well at the venues like – The Nehru Centre, Richmix,
Oxford University and Asia House, India Habitat Centre, NDMC-Central park,
Spoken Fest, Sahitya Aajtak- Delhi, Worli Festival, Kumbh Mela-
Prayagraj, ICCR Mumbai,Levi’s Lounge, Jaipur Lit Fest,Kala Ghoda Festival among
others.
Here are some of the links to the live renditions of
songs-
Bandho na naav is thaanv bandhu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0PDakHH9ck
Rashmirathi (
teesra adhyay)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsLpC2fYkFk
“The idea behind producing the music has always been to experiment and bring different kinds of
sounds, genres to give it
a rich and vibrant form of
music but at the same time,
keep the soul of the poetry
intact” say Chinmayi and Joell.
Here are some more links to their music:
Jaraa
halke gaadi haanko – Kabir
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbkZVOt-rTc&t=5s
Khali samay mein – Sarveshwar Dayal
Saxena
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbkZVOt-rTc&t=5s
Jeevan ki aapadhaapi mein-
Harivansh Rai Bachchan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgWj6cNzOSU
*All the music of
music and poetry project can be accessed at www.youtube.com/chinmayitripathi