Music directors shy away from offering singing assignments to Madhushree, an AR Rahman protege.She was Sujata Bhattacharya, until mentor AR Rahman re-christened her as Madhushree. “I felt my luck would change with the name change. Also there were many singers with the same name. So Rahman-ji gave me this name,” she says.
Rahman gave her a dream debut with Kabhie Neem Kabhie Shehad (Yuva). It was followed by Hum Hain Is Pal Yaahan (Kisna), Pal Pal Hain (Swades) and Tum Bin Bataye (Rang De Basanti).
But her devotion to Rahman has cost her dearly too. Other music directors are not offering her work. True?
She is not too forthcoming on this front, “I wonder, why? It’s a very tricky situation. I would love to sing for Vishal Shekhar and Pritam who I consider very talented too but they just aren’t giving me work. I hope after reading this interview, they offer me some good work.”
She’s also admits that, “I sing in Tamil but don’t understand a word of it. I do ask for the meaning of the song to get the flavour of the song-romantic, sensual, sad and then simply repeat the words like a parrot,” she chuckles.
Right now, she’s on a high after her music album Lagi Lagan hit the popularity charts,
“It’s a collection of thumri’s with modern instrumentation. It wasn’t an easy task because my husband Robby Badal (who arranged the music) and I took almost a month and a half to mix each song. I even made Rahmanji listen to it and give his approval before we went ahead with it.
“By God’s grace, everyone has loved our experimentation.”
