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: Music,
my lifeline
Friday March 28 2008 10:02 IST
Ranjini Hariharan
She came, she sang, she conquered. Till about a year ago K R Roopa
was just another postgraduate student of RLV Music College,
Tripunithura.
Today this 23-year-old is the heartthrob of thousands of music
lovers across the world _ thanks to Amrita Superstar Global. Roopa,
a resident of Vypeen, is the only Kochiite to make it to the last
three of the reality show, the mega finale of which will be held on
April 5. “It’s going to be a neck-and-neck race. I’m keeping my
fingers crossed,” she says. The two other finalists are
Jeethendranath and Teena Joy, residents of Mumbai and Kozhikode
respectively.
Roopa has been learning Carnatic music from the age of five under Dr
Malini Hariharan and Tamarakkadu Govindan Namboothiri. “My parents
(her father RamaPai is a teacher and mother Pushpa Lata an insurance
agent) were so obsessed with music that the first thing they taught
me was not the alphabet but sa, re, ga, ma.”
Indeed. From day one, Roopa woke up listening to kirtanas of
legendary musicians like M L Vasantha Kumari, G N Balasubramaniam
and M S Subbalakshmi.
Their renditions were also her lullabies. “When you hear music 24/7,
you naturally tend to get involved.” And so she did. Besides
learning classical vocal, Roopa took to learning violin from the age
of seven under Sunil Bhasker and T H Subramanyam.
“I was never lured by professional courses. From a young age, I
wanted to study music. Whether it fetched me and job or not, I
wasn’t bothered,” she says. It was this obsession that took her to
concerts in various parts of Kerala, and eventually to a guru like
Subramanyam. “I was so enamoured by his violin concerts that I used
to wait for hours to get a glimpse of him. One day I collected his
phone number and gave him a call. He agreed to teach me violin. I
was so elated,” she recalls.
After her predegree, Roopa joined the prestigious Madras Music
Academy but left it as the city’s climate was not conducive to her
health. But nothing was lost. She joined BA music at Maharaja’s
College and emerged the university rank holder. During these years
she bagged first place in classical vocal and violin in state youth
festivals and gave independent concerts.
In 2001 she won the Augustine Joseph Smaraka Award from none other
than maestro K J Yesudas. That’s till today one of the most
memorable moments in her life. On another occasion, Roopa got an
opportunity to accompany Yesudas Summer Camp Music, my lifeline on
the violin. “It was at the Kollur Mookambika temple.
Das sir just heard me play the instrument once and asked me to join
the concert! I couldn’t believe my ears,” she recalls. Her joys
weren’t to end there. After the concert, Yesudas passed on the mike
to Roopa asking her to sing a kirthana! “How I shivered that day!
But lucky I was to have bagged such an opportunity,” she says with a
humble smile.
However Roopa despised reality shows. To the extent that she would
ask all her friends never to take part in them. It was Superstar
2007 that changed her mind. After seeing the performance of the
participants and keyboardist Stephen Devassy, she was inspired. She
enrolled herself as one of the 20,000 contestants of Superstar
Global.
Twenty one youngsters were shortlisted and Roopa was among them.
“Till this day I have sung not-so-popular yet melodious songs. Many
people have criticised me for this decision. But I don’t regret it
for I won’t be able to do justice to these great songs anywhere
else,” she says.
The grand finale is not far away and Roopa says she is not tense.
“I’ve done my best, the rest depends on the audience.”
As an afterthought she adds: “The other day when I reached Ernakulam
railway station, three women came up to me and hugged me. They said
they watch my performance and that they love me a lot. Musicians
like Janaki amma, K S Chitra, Vani Jayaram and several music
directors, including the judges of the show, have blessed me.
Therein lies my victory.”
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