Shravan Narayan- a genius musician from a genius lineage

Introduction

Shravan Narayan

This is continuation of last weeks series facilitated by two of our peers Lakshmipriya and LaxmiPreethi. This feature is one heck of an effort to bring this story to you all here. This feature was planned with Shravan and we also had interest to bring here an interview with his famous dad Cherthala K. N. Renganatha Sharma. Due to several scheduling conflicts these efforts kept post-poned. It had been four months since Shravan interviewed for this particular feature. Possibly the longest wait for anybody. Problems and delays apart here we are so proud to present this genius son of a great scholar of South India’s Carnatic music, Shravan Narayan

Never had such a tough time to get another singer on phone as Shravan. A phone line that so hard to hear on this end, the struggle to do this here is monumental. Yet we will try our best to comprehend what we heard.

Shravan and His musical family

When we talk about Shravan and his music we will have to speak about a long lineage of his forefathers being Carnatic musicians. Definitely we cannot miss mentioning his celebrated dad the famous South India’s Carnatic musician Dr. K. N. Renganatha Sharma. Our first question to Shravan was related to growing up as a son of a famous Carnatic musician and living under the limelight.

How difficult was to be known as coming from such famous family of Carnatic musicians when you started singing public?

“It is a blessing for sure to have had training from such great dad whose knowledge on Carnatic music was right with me when my sister and myself learned our basics. Appa, comes from a small place called Chertala near Cochin , Kerala and he went onto do M.Phil and PhD in music in Chennai and later accepted a Professorship at the Government Music College in Palghat. My mom is also a music teacher. My sister also now studying music seriously like my dad and she practices for almost eight to ten hours music everyday.”

When you sing on stage, are the expectations from everyone kind of high that it become an unwanted attention?

“Yes, it is a big problem, but I like music and it is not anybody forced it upon me. My music is my music and always enjoyed it and I am not under no peer pressure, never will give it up.”

Do you sing on stage for shows with your dad? What is your singing experience on stage with him?

“Yes, I only sang as a vocal support on Appa’s concerts. His voice and ability to sing is no match to my ability to sing Carnatic. So at the moment, I would listen to him and try to learn more from him.” Shravan smile big.

What is the big picture here or what is your music life going to be?

“At the moment I have a stable job, I work for Citi bank group. I want to become a stage performing artist. And will learn music more that will help me sing better. I want to achieve all I want in music by my own singing talent and not because of my lineage or connections.”

So we heard you are interested in music direction? Is it true? When can we hear your new album?

“No, No, I am not that grown to make my own music. But if you are thinking what I wrote on Smule profile, with that I meant to produce my own music videos and we few friends have already joined and formed a group called, EZHISAI. I like to make music videos with like minded music friends. That is all.”

What type of music do you like?

Of course, I have a huge inclination for Carnatic based songs. Any type of melodies. I like a lots of different types of music as you may see from the songs I choose to sing on my profile.”

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What are your main achievements?

“There is nothing like that to highlight. I am happy that way. If you are talking about competitions, I have participated and won innumerable competitions and reality shows. I would say early in my school (Kendriya Vidyala, Bombay) days I did represent my school and the entire state of Maharashtra at a National level singing competition and the impressions I heard during this competition from judges and my teachers is still in the back of my mind like yesterday. Such encouragements very early in my music career were more valued than anything in my mind.”

So what do you think, Is Carnatic music relevant in this age? being a son of a great Carnatic music expert, let us hear your thoughts.

“It definitely helped me to sing better in a stiff competition in the music field. Every musician who want to take music serious must learn the basics”

Do you think in this age and time a youngster like you can take a career as a Carnatic musician? You did not? Why?

“Yes, I agree, but in places like Chennai, Mylapur etc, it is still possible to pursue a career like that. I had the bad luck of being too ambitious in my studies as well. Also being the older sibling in my family had pressures from to settle down in life quickly.”

So Shravan have sung for Playback and few other songs in the making?

“Yes, I have found an opportunity to sing for a Tamil movie and I have few other opportunities in the pipeline.”

I also did a lot of stage shows with many famous play back singers like ARR’s sister and playback singer AR Reihana; and at the music event organized to recognize the music director Ramani Bharadwaj for his achievements. I got the chance to sing lead at this show. All the singers selected were from his reality show, Super Singers, which I thought is a huge achievement. That competition was really intense due to best talents”

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When we ready to part with Shravan it felt like a new experience to know a singer who knew from the day he was born, the music; and hear his life experiences of growing up in a family where practice of Carnatic music is almost a ritual and part of daily life. It was natural talent and a passion for good music is what made Shravan keep going strong. He said he is here to entertain all us with all types of songs and he is seriously pursuing a singing career as a stage artist. Stages, shows and audience make Shravan sing. He just started his adult life and have a lot of time to do what he want to achieve. We hope to see in near future a famous singer who make music and sing for his audience.

Without delay let us hear this fantastic talent and his singing from his Smule Profile. We choose first a Malayalam song since Shravan is a born Malayalee and here he sings a beautiful Ghazal song originally sung by Hariharan from the movie Garshome Lyrics by Rafeeq Ahmad, and beautiful music direction by Ramesh Narayanan. The difficulty here is the highest. There is one another singer who sang this equally well on Smule is Sanjay Santhosh.

Here Shravan joins Laxmipreethi on her fantastic invites (literally there is no match for the taste of songs for Preethi). Kurai Ondrum Illai, devotional written by famous Rajaji (C. Rajagopalachari). It is taken after its publication in the famous political magazine of those days, Kalki, by MSS. It could never be more blessed and went on to be one of those unforgettable songs of its type. According to the experts the song is an expression of Rajaji’s empathy for untouchables and where he see the god in every human being no matter what cast or sect he/she belong to. Divine is the word here.

One of kind of invite from Preethi, of a short version of an all time classic from Malayalam movies. Aaro Viral meeti by Vidya sagar’s magic for the beautiful lyrics of Gireesh Putenchery. Listen to this and you know what is this all about. Shravan’s enthusiasm for good music is adorable and that strike us when we saw and spoke with him. His voice tone is amazing and it is a rare time Preethi will decide to make a Malayalam song invite.

Family friends, all the way, with Pallavi Vinoth; joins Shravan in Kuruku Sirithavale Movie : Mudhalvan Singers : Hariharan & Mahalakshmi Music : A.R.Rahman. So we all know who is Shravan’s favorite singer.

Joined here with Shravan in a rare join by his equally talented sister – song Albela original by Kumar Sanu, Ustad Sultan Khan, Kavita Krishnamurthy – Music Director- Ismail Darbar. A rare song made its way into a Hindi movie; made in raag Ahir Bhairav. You want to hear a beautiful version of this sung by Rashid Khan himself go here . Here an encouraging brother trying to bring to camera a shy sister. Blessed talents for sure.

With Lakshmipriya, Un samyal arayil a beautiful song original sung by Sujatha and Unnikrishnan. This beautiful melody goes to one of the best and favorite. Give a listen. Thanks to Lakshmi for her help behind this feature.

Katre en Vasal from movie Rhythm, sung originally by Unnikrishnan and Kavitha Subramaniam.

May be one of the videos where we saw indications of experimentation. Panivezhum malarvanam– an analysis – that is what we call this. A dad who have a doctorate in music must have given a bit of that gene to his son here. Illayaraja composition sung originally by SPB sir to make an immortal classic and Shravan sees Raaja sir’s composition like this. Beautiful. As Shravan says it is made in Naatai raagam.

Yeya en Kottikara, from Papanasam movie. A beautiful song sung originally by Sundar Narayana Rao and Malavika Anilkumar. Listen to this version may be better than the original.

We are leaving you all to enjoy two songs picked by Shravan himself. Pachai Nirame and Johnson Sir’s mashup. Both compositions of its own complexity and amazement. ARR and Hariharan for the first one and KJY and Johnson Sir’s tribute in the second one. There is no match than these two songs selected here to show Shravan’s fine tuned singing. Such is the care, Sure one need to listen to this both songs and it is a treat in itself.

END NOTES

When we decided to write about Shravan we knew that it is serious business. We did our diligence by asking him the right questions to bring the story of a great talent to all you guys. Thanks to all our peers for the help in discussing the interview. We encourage all readers to go here at Shravan’s profile and follow him, encourage him in his music journey. Thanks to all who helped bring this feature to all you guys.