Shweta Mohan does not answer the call when it rings. But she messages promptly, she is busy at the moment, can the call be made at 6 in the evening. And at 6, she messages again, can she expect the call now. There, in those two messages, is a gist of how organised and polite this young singer is.
It comes off as a pleasant surprise when being nice is not so easy to come by. But then Shweta, with all her fame, and the legacy of her mother — veteran playback singer Sujatha - does these little courtesies that many of her contemporaries do not.
This, after being a busy singer at a time there are so many in the industry, and so many more coming by every season. Even now she has just sung for two films in Malayalam — White and Thoppil Joppan, and is working on her first independent song. “It is a little early to talk about the single that we are releasing in Tamil and Hindi,” she says. ‘We’ would refer to her and Bennet and the Band.
She has been collaborating with him for stage shows for two to three years. “There will be film songs — my mom’s, my own, and songs by other singers too, like Malare.... There will be classical, there’ll be fusion, depending on the show and the audience.” For the independent song, they went for pop.
“It’s a social theme and the lyrics in Tamil were written by Madhan Karky, Vairamuthu sir’s son.” Shweta features in the video of the song, and is co-composing too. “It’s basically Bennet, he is a great composer, I just gave some inputs.” But the experience has been nothing like the playback singing she’s used to.
“When you sing for someone, you go to the studio, record and finish the job in two hours and come back. But when it is your own creation, it is a totally different feeling. You feel so involved, you were part of the creation.” The new film songs too had been special. In one of these, she has a song with Dasammama — that's what she calls the legendary Dr. K.J. Yesudas.
“He’s my biggest idol and this is the second song I sing with him, after Alakadaloli for Urumi. The song is also special because it is composed by Vidyasagar who has made many beautiful melodies with Dasammama and Amma like Varamanjalaadiya and Ethrayo Janmamay.” In White, she has two songs — Oru Vela, a melody, and Premardram, a slow rock.
