Sweet notes of independence

As independence fever grips everyone, music director Ricky Kej has expressed his love for the nation in his own way. He has composed a patriotic song in Kannada called Nee Badalaadare, which serves as an anthem from Karnataka to commemorate the 62nd Independence Day. “I got the idea in the beginning of July,” says the composer. “There are many patriotic Kannada songs, but a majority of them are about Karnataka and not India,” he feels.

Soon after he thought of the idea, Ricky contacted Kavi Raj, and asked him to write the lyrics for the composition. “I wanted a number of people to be involved in the project. So I called my singer friends from the industry, who were very excited about it,” he exclaims.

Nee Badalaadare features the vocals of six artistes — B Jayashree, M D Pallavi, Hemanth, L N Shastry, Avinash Chebbi and Rajesh Krishnan, with a recitation by Kannada star Ramesh Aravind. “Ramesh believed in the song and was extremely excited about it.”

Once the song was recorded, the artistes thought of making a video. “We felt that it won’t make sense to shoot scenery so we showed the making of the song in the video,” notes Ricky. This was then sent to Zee Kannada, and even topped the charts on the channel’s top ten countdown. The song will soon be out in stores in an album. “The concept of the album is highly Western, with one main track and many bonus ones,” says Ricky.

Ricky firmly believes in the saying of Mahatma Gandhi, which goes Be the change you want to see in the world. “The lyrics are about bringing a change in one self first, so that a change can be brought about in the country and the world respectively,” he says.

He informs that his main aim was to not make an overtly patriotic song showing people running around with flags. “I wanted my composition to be about introspection. I felt it should be about patriotism within the country rather than patriotism at the expense of another country.”

Ricky and the singers will be doing an Independence Day special show at the Good Shepherds Auditorium on August 6 at 6.30 pm. “Each one of the singers will be presenting a Kannada patriotic song of his or her choice,” he informs. “Plus six children, who are the finalists of Sa Re Ga Ma Little Champs will be presenting 'Nee Badalaadare' too.”