It didn’t really feel like a formal recording. They were friends who knew each other for years, sang together in chorus, talked and laughed for hours on end. So Santhi, Sangeeta and Soumya were completely at ease when it was suggested a video be made of them singing and dancing — all classical. The suggestion came from Santhi’s musician husband Bijibal who composed the song for them — Sakaladeva Nuthe. Santhi danced, Soumya and Sangeeta sang.
“Biji ettan had planned that song for Vijayadasami with lyricist Santhosh Varma. That didn’t happen. So he thought he will bring it out for Deepavali and casually asked me if a video was possible,” Santhi says, minutes after getting out of her dance school in Padamughal, Kochi. It runs a floor below Bijibal’s recording studio, with the same name as his label: Bodhi. “I pursued my dance studies — taking BFA and MFA in Bharatanatyam, and then doing a research on Mohiniyattam — all post marriage, on Biji ettan’s insistence,” Santhi says. She had studied classical dance as a child, growing up in Abu Dhabi but it is after coming back to Kerala she took it seriously.
She is also a regular member of his female chorus group for films and independent music ventures. So we have heard her voice from the Chinese chorus in Tharaka Malare for Arabikkatha to the Idukki song in Maheshinte Prathikaram. “I sing the female chorus in the initial tracks.” But she doesn’t call herself a singer. “There are so many talented voices out there.”
Santhi and Soumya also sing in Bijibal’s music band Down To Earth, with another girl called Shweta. “I knew Biji ettan from my school days, and Santhi chechi too. He is the one who introduced me to film music with Arabikkatha,” Soumya says.
Her most noted song was perhaps Mazhanila Kulirumayi from Vikramadithyan, composed again by Bijibal. He also has a long association with singer Sangeeta Srikant, the third face in the video. “It is a friendship of long long years. We are all very close,” she says. Even their names rhyme, all beginning with S. You also see the rapport in the video, with the two singers touching up the dancer’s face before the performance begins. All three are in saris, no dance costumes here. “We knew that Santhi chechi danced, but it is the first time we were all performing together,” Soumya says.
