JOIN USRanjani-Gayatri, the Carnatic concert vocalists and sisters, adhere to the philosophy, “Sing for the God inside you and the world will move with you.” Which is why they immerse themselves in music. They focus on exploring the layers of Carnatic music, decoding them step by step. They believe in the concept of shruthi shuddham as more of an ideal. Their music is known for its loyalty to manodharma, a clear diction, and above all, its ability to strike a chord in people’s hearts.
At their concerts, the sisters hold a sway over their audiences with commanding and mellifluous performances. Since they believe that music is a form of self-expression, they carefully select each piece of music to perform. Particularly noteworthy is their musical ability to make listeners eagerly wait for their performance even after the tani avartanam section, the extended solo played by the percussionists in a concert.
Rather than choosing only popular numbers, they gauge the environment and perform accordingly. “The idea is to allow every song to touch you in some way,” they aver. They practise to allow their rasikas to experience and enjoy one aspect of a raga to its fullest. This is something particularly known to the rasikas who have listened to the sisters’ kamboji (a sublime classical raga) in all its variation.
The reason for the popularity of their abhangs, a form of devotional poetry, is their approach. Instead of making an abhang sound technical, due to which audiences could feel disconnected and lose interest, the sisters add in the element of bhakti, which has the power to make a abhang a spiritual experience.
Sibling rivalry
Talking about what keeps them going, they cheerfully speak about their musical surprises for each other on stage. They allow personal interpretations of music and express them only on stage. “We do not practice manodharma together. We challenge each other in unique ways.”
When I ask what they would like to tell the students of Carnatic music about singing techniques, the sisters say, “An aspiring Carnatic singer must realise that this system of music puts a great amount of pressure on the vocal chords. The demanding gamakas, the complex microtones, the brigas or rapid-fire musical phrases — all these demand the voice to be extremely flexible and powerful. So, one is never to overstrain the voice. But once the voice is set and well-trained, about an hour of practice a day is sufficient to keep it in good condition. One can improve it by sticking to fundamentally strong principles of voice training.”
According to them, one can also strengthen the voice “with the magic of akaara saadhakam, which is holding each note for an extended period of time.” They add, “Practising the swara exercises... swaravalis that include thattu, sarali varisai, alankaram etc... in different vowel positions, stressing on the “aa”, also helps. It is important to bring out a pure aakara to avoid the trap of nasal and guttural singing — both of which spoil the voice.”
It’s when the topic of their upcoming projects comes up that they reveal another skill — “We believe that while multitasking is very attractive, it also has a diluting effect on the intensity of one’s pursuit, which is why we had to give up playing the violin. We just stuck to the vocal discipline. However, we hope that we can get back to our first love — the violin.”
Dream project
Their dream project is to sing and play the violin together, which would require them to compose a piece that has an appropriate place for both. “As of now, composing is a part of our regular activity — composing pallavis, abhangs, bhajans and other regional poetry. We enjoy the composing process immensely, and it’s a magical experience to see how a song comes to life in a concert. Even a perfect piece of composition needs the magic of a live concert to give it the life of vibrancy,” the duo express.
And, what is their take on copyright issues and the websites that allow free downloads? “Any recording, sharing or publishing done without the artiste’s permission is illegal. No argument to justify such bootlegging can be valid. Such acts do a disservice to the interests of good music. Also, classical musicians are cultural ambassadors. Passing on our tradition is a serious responsibility and a good way to contribute to our society,” they assert.