“I want to concentrate only on International projects as of now”

REEWA RATHOD tells JYOTHI VENKATESH

She was introduced last year at a glittering event by the nightingale of music Lata Mangeshkar with these words, “Today, I am presenting to you a very talented artiste. Her name is Reewa Rathod. She plays the piano beautifully, sings in multiple languages and also composes music as well. She has all the right talent for music. I hope that you all will like her and also compliment to her zeal. Reewa, I give you my blessing and I hope you are successful.” These words from Lataji presenting Reewa reverberated her voice in an audio-visual in Mumbai.

Known for critically acclaimed hits like ‘Maula’ (One Above), featuring Gulzar in 2018 and ‘Saanwal’ with music produced by Ustad Zakir Hussain and Michael Mennart in 2019, musician-singer-pianist Reewa Rathod is now back with her debut solo album titled ‘Saaya Tere Ishq Ka’. The icing on the cake is that the lyrics of the same album have been penned by Gulzar himself!

Just for the record, after the legendary lyricist Gulzar Saaheb penned the lyrics to her first single, Maula (One Above), Reewa was back with her new music video and single. Saanwal, a Saraiki traditional folk song was craftily blended with verses in Spanish, the music for which was produced by Tabla Maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain and Michael Mennart. I still remember that the chief guests of the exclusive musical evening, Padmashri Hridaynath Mangeshkar and the former First Lady of Maharashtra Amruta Fadnavis, had launched the music video and the single in presence of Juhi Chawla, Usha Mangeshkar, Hariharan, Suresh Wadkar, Jatin Pandit, Shravan Rathod, Ismail Darbar, Adinath Mangeshkar and Chef Sanjeev Kapoor.

With Dhrupad exponent Late Pandit Chaturbhuj Rathod as her grandfather, Roop Kumar Rathod – Sunali Rathod as parents, and singer Vinod Rathod and music director Shravan Rathod (of Nadeem-Shravan) as uncles, music flows through the Rathod family veins! No winder Hridaynath Mangeshkar who is her Guru exults, “I have taught Reewa’s mother Sunali and I have heard her father Roop, but Reewa has embedded the qualities of the two so beautifully and sings with grace and divinity. I am proud of her.”Reewa has trained under Shanti Seldon for Piano and holds distinction in all 8 grades of Western classical piano degree by Associated Royal Board of Music- London. She has trained under Prasanna Warrior and much acclaimed Guru T.R. Balamani in Carnatic music. She also trained under the doyens of Benaras Gharana Padmabhooshans Pandit Rajan and Sajan Mishra.

And more recently, when I met the pretty and sprightly daughter of Roop Kumar Rathod and Sunali Rathod before the dreaded lockdown sometime back, at the Hotel Sahara Star, Reewa exulted, “Gulzar Sahab has taught me to follow my heart, to believe in myself, and with ‘Saaya Tere Ishq Ka’, I have learnt to overcome all my fears”. With Dhrupad exponent Late Pandit Chaturbhuj Rathod as her grandfather, Roopkumar Rathod – Sunali Rathod as parents and music director Shravan Rathod (of Nadeem-Shravan duo) as uncle, music flows through the Rathod family veins.

Reewa Rathod started training under Miss Shanti Seldon for western classical piano at the tender age of 6 followed by training for Carnatic classical musical under the acclaimed guru T.S. Balamani. She has trained for Hindustani classical vocal under the duoyance of Benaras Gharana, Pandit Rajan & Sajan Mishra. She has also learned finer nuances of music under Pandit Hridaynath Mangeshkar and her father Roopkumar Rathod. Proud parents Roopkumar Rathod and Sunali Rathod, no wonder just cannot contain their excitement!. “We feel very blessed knowing that our little angel Reewa’s first ever solo debut album has been written by none other than the living legend Gulzar Saaheb, “the musical couple enthused, with Roopkumar adding further “the focus and dedication that Reewa is putting in her songs is indeed commendable and I am very happy for what she has attained till now. This time there is a great responsibility on her shoulders as Gulzar Saaheb’s name is also involved and I am sure she will be able to pull it off successfully with effortless ease.”

For the uninitiated, in the latest album ‘Saaya Tere Ishq Ka’ the title track has been mixed and mastered by American producer-engineer-mixer Brian Malouf who has earlier also worked with international artistes like Michael Jackson, Queen, Madonna, Pearl Jam and Stevie Wonder. The title track is a combination of traditional jazz and modern pop wrapped in gorgeous vocals. D.J. Ravin has also mixed and mastered a track in the album. Apart from both Brian and D.J Ravin, acclaimed musicians like Kalyan Baruah and Dhruv Ghanekar have also contributed immensely to the production of the album Saaya Tera Ishq Ka.

Besides Gulzar and Reewa Rathod, proud parents Roopkumar Rathod & Sunali Rathod, Gauri Yadwadkar of Times Music, Ajay Harinath Singh of Darwin Platform, video director Madhur Shroff, musician Kalyan Baruah also graced the grand launch held at Hotel Sahara Star. “‘Saaya Tere Ishq Ka’ means the world to me as I discovered a new me in the making of the song. The music is straight from the heart, and I have tried to keep it as raw as possible. I have put every ounce of my energy into it, and there are absolutely no gimmicks at all. Words aren’t enough to thank Gulzar Sahab and I am highly indebted to him for believing in me. He is the backbone and the power behind this entire project,” said Reewa Rathod.

How do you feel now that your debut album has been released? I ask Reewa, who shoots back, “It is indeed a dream come true as far as I am concerned. I feel that it is a big responsibility perched on my shoulders, especially because of my parents. I am also highly grateful and obliged to Gulzarsaheb. I remember I used to be taken along to Gulzar Saaheb’s house as a tiny tot, when I was just around five or six and did not at all know who exactly he is or how great he is in stature. Today, I realize that Gulzar Saaheb’s poetry is unique”

What did your dad Roopkumar teach you in music? I ask Reewa. “It was from my dad that I learnt how to be perfect and focus on the minute nuances in sur, because in general, people tend to go haywire and forget about sur in their search for bettering theirharkat.”Her track Enroute  Ganesha was  featured on the eminent 20th anniversary compilation of Buddha Bar alongside popular DJ Producers Ravin and Bob Sinclair.Yet another feather in her cap is inclusion of her track Love And Desire in 16 greatest hits of Buddha Bar—in an exclusive CD set launched this year. She has already stacked up a number of prestigious collaborations/projects internationally.

Reewa had earlier come up with the single International album Buddha Bar. Says Reewa, “I had always desired to be an international artiste, as it was a dream for me and I have no desire at all to be a Bollywood artiste. I had no plans to write the lyrics for my album but I had no other alternative but to pen the lyrics because Gulzar Saaheb became very busy after writing themukda and it was he who suggested to me that I should write the notes in English”

Born to illustrious singing duo Roopkumar and Sunali Rathod,she has evolved her  own style of singing comprising of influences of Hindustani, Karnatic and Western music.Not many are aware of the fact that Reewa has also sung and composed the climax song for the Indo Spanish film RASTRE DE SANTAL featuring Nandita Das and Aina Clotet.Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Hariharan and Kay Kay are her favorites among the singers. Ne song that she likes to murmur whenever she gets the time to sing in her private moments is Albela Sajan, because she feels that it is based on a divine raga, which takes you automatically to great heights as a singer when you set out to sing a few lines of the song.

Reewa continues with gusto. “It was my idea to create a style of my own as a singer. I studied ‘A’ level from Cambridge and have studied piano at Royal School of London and I wanted to do something different and did not want to create something just for the sake of creating fusion, especially because I had learnt not only Hindustani Classical music and Carnatik Music but also piano. Right now, I want to focus only on International projects as an artiste. Though technically it is my debut album now, I do not know what exactly I will be doing after a period of say five years, because frankly speaking, I believe in only the present and do not at all have visions for the future as an artiste”

Reewa signs off by stating that she does not aspire to turn a music director and is contented with being an International artiste as of now, because she feels that it is the song that always touches her soul and also matters the most to her and not the music direction.