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Interview: Bombay Jayashri
Posted on February 2, 2021
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Baradwaj Rangan 
brangan
February 3, 2021
The interview is up.
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brangan
February 3, 2021
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shaviswa
February 3, 2021
An interesting interview. And I was actually surprised that she sang much much before the time that we knew her in film music. I thought Narumugaiyae was her first. Pretty interesting interview and nice to note that there is somebody else who loves sad, melancholic tunes 😀
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hari
February 3, 2021
Awesome interview BR.
Bombay Jayashri mam is an integral part of our lives. My elder kid used to sleep only after hearing her lullabies. Without them playing she would never sleep, no matter what we would do.
In 2002-2003 when Vaseegara song released I used to play in every morning at work in US, if any day I forgot to play the song my American colleagues would remind me to play the song. Such was her reach.
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Madan
February 3, 2021
Wonderful interview!
I was reading her wiki page as I listened to the interview and St Anthony’s rang a bell. And then she said Ghatla! Ah, no wonder. Bombay Jayashri would be dismayed to know that today Ghatla village is world famous in Mumbai as a short cut to avoid the horrendous traffic on the arterial V N Purav road.
One interesting point to bring up would have been that Carnatic world has seen more crossovers into film music. Yesudas, Unnikrishnan, Bombay Jayashri, Nityashree, Sudha Ragunathan occasionally and now Sid Sriram. It doesn’t happen in Hindustani and nor in opera for that matter. Both Hindustani and Western classical require a very specific type of vocal production that does not fit into the requirements of pop. But as Carnatic vocals are more concerned with demonstrating the intricacies of the raga than in achieving a certain tone, the transition to the film world is much easier. Also that since MSV days or even earlier, Tamil music has often retained an element of gamakam or nellivu-sullivu if you will while straight notes are used a lot more in Hindi (again, changing the character completely from Hindustani unless you’re talking about semi classical songs of say Manna Dey).
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Anonymous Violin
February 3, 2021
@BR:
Are you a carnatic musician (or at least well versed) yourself?
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Yajiv
February 3, 2021
Such a pleasant interview to watch/listen to. Thanks BR for doing this.
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KayKay
February 4, 2021
“It doesn’t happen in Hindustani and nor in opera for that matter”
Interesting points Madan. Am not sufficiently well versed in the different musical forms, but I’ll then presume that Qawwali (Nusrat/Rahat) and Ghazal exponents (Pankaj/Jagjit/Hari) have an easier time transitioning to films as the aforementioned have all gone on to deliver many filmy hits?
Also, I guess Javed Bashir (Hindustani Classical)is making inroads into film music, the O Rangrez number from Bhaag Milka Bhaag was a huge hit.
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Madan
February 4, 2021
KayKay: Absolutely, ghazal singers can transition to films because, like Carnatic, they use a lot of classical know how but not that kind of vocal production. So they are basically trained in Hindustani but don’t sing in the Hindustani style. Same as Lata or Rafi, come to think.
I mean this style of singing by Hindustani. Or Pandit Jasraj/Bhimsen Joshi etc. This style of singing doesn’t fit into film music unless a situation is specifically created for it (like a Hindustani recital).
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Yajiv
February 4, 2021
@Madan: I was looking forward to your comments as soon as I saw a music-related post go up on BR’s blog 🙂
BTW I’ve been going down a ’70s English prog-rock rabbithole recently thanks to your piece on Renaissance & Annie Haslam
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Madan
February 5, 2021
Yajiv: Ha! So…where all has this rabbit hole taken you? 70s prog rock is an ocean.
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vijay
February 5, 2021
Glad that she mentioned ‘zara si aahat hoti” by Madanmohan as a favourite.
Hmm…but after all this, singing flatline melodies for Harris Jebaraj must have been a self-esteem downer 🙂 She should have been singing for Sharath in Malayalam.
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vijay
February 5, 2021
She has gotten the timelines mixed up. Vietnam colony came a good 2 yrs before Iruvar. Her song for IR must have also been the debut song in TFM. Unless for some weird reason Rahman recorded Narumugaiye before he did Thiruda Thiruda
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Madan
February 6, 2021
Zara Si Aahat is almost like MM’s tribute to Roshan. Couldn’t believe it was his composition when I found out. Like Ari O Shokh which sounds like an OP Nayyar song except for the sweeping violins. My favourite of Lata MM is either Rasme Ulfat or Khelo Na.
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Yajiv
February 6, 2021
@Madan: I have started exploring Curved Air & Caravan. The prog arrangements took some getting used (for my modern pop-trained ears) to but I’ve started viewing them as sonic journeys. It’s been really interesting. Thanks for opening a window into this world.
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brangan
February 7, 2021
The Silk Smitha song from THAMPATHIGAL Bombay Jayashree speaks about! (She sounds a lot like Vani Jairam.) The mind is blown!
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Madan
February 7, 2021
BR: Wow! This is like that Disco King song I posted. You just don’t expect to hear Bombay Jayashree in that zone. And she nailed it here. Love the way she rolled the ‘r’s harder for attitude.
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