Together they created a musical dialogue. Together they brought the North and the South on one stage. And together they share their music, albeit in their own distinct voices. Artistes Shubha Mudgal and Bombay Jayashri, who were in the city to perform a jugalbandi for Give Life, a concert for the cause of deprived children, did it with elan. With the humility that music brings in, they talked about their jugalbandi, their lives and their only passion - music.

Shubha mapped the course of their journey. “Our coming together has helped us understand each other’s music. I am not trying to master Carnatic music nor is she learning Hindustani. We are both students of music trying to understand what we don’t know. We look for a repertoire of classical music so that we can have a dialogue.”
And this is not like having a theme, say sunset, and then base the concert on it. The truth is that their style is not rigid. “What we are trying to do is find points of similarity in diversity,” adds Shubha.

There is one cliche that everybody seems to know - that Shubha does not belong to any ‘gharana’. “It’s like saying you don’t have biological parents. It is not possible. It is just that I have learned from different people with eclectic approach. My music is an amalgamation of all.”

Jayashri on the other hand was trained under T R Balamani and Lalgudi Jayaraman.  As for ‘Vaseegara’ being a turning point in her life, she says, “but it is music for the masses. Obviously, many people came to know about me and more and more would listen to the song. I sang it with the same passion as I would sing Kalyani.’’ Playback singing and classical concerts are two sides of a coin for her. 

It is more or less the same for Shubha who enjoys singing a nursery rhyme as much as she would a ‘darbari’. All said and done, she says, “singing in Hindustani is like speaking  your mother-tongue no matter how many languages you know.” What is also common between the two which many are not aware of is that the duo took its first step into the world of fine arts with dance. Shubha had learnt Kathak by the time she was 17, the spins and all. “Then I turned to singing ‘tumris’ and never looked back.” As for Jayashri, she learnt Bharatanatyam till her master called her one day, asked her to sit beside him and sing the ‘padams’. Where the dance ended, the music began.

Jayashri, who is greatly influenced by Bharathiyar’s poetry, has high regard for music maestro Ilayaraja. “It is from him that I learnt how to use the words, how to use the mike, breath control, he would demonstrate everything. I come back rich every time I sing for him,” she says with nostalgia.

Shubha practises six to eight hours every day.  ``My life is wrapped with music. Forget the occasional distractions,’’ she says. When you perform and receive applause, it boosts your morale. But I also realise that many people before me have done bigger things. That there is always somebody better than me.”

Shubha, who is always ‘analytical and brutal’ about her performances, voices the constant need for improvement. Adds Jayashri, “some times your voice breaks during concerts. You might know how to camouflage it but then you come back with a feeling of not having been good enough.”  

Many a time Shubha has been described as an adventurous singer. She laughs it off saying, “you can call me a curious singer, but not adventurous.” “Look at Pandit Ravishankar, he has done it all,” she adds.

Shubha and Jayashri have common threads that bind them together, apart from the respect that they have for each other. Both have decided not to do any music videos. And there is one thing both are highly concerned about, the reality shows for children. “This is not moral policing. But an innocent child is made to mouth lyrics that are crass and do all the ‘jhatakas’. In the West, there are stringent laws when it comes to a child actor or programmes such as these. Not just the parents but the people who are behind the shows should also be held responsible for such shows.”Jayashri, in fact, had turned down an offer to be a judge on one such show.
Isn’t this also child labour?” Shubha asks. There couldn’t have been a better note to end this jugalbandi. For the cause of children, for what they came to the City for.