Amrit Ramnath is the son and disciple of the legendary Carnatic musician “Bombay” Jayashri Ramnath. Raised by a music legend, Amrit Ramnath was exposed to many different forms of music from a very young age. He started his musical journey under the tutelage of the legendary Carnatic violinist, Padma Bhushan Shri Lalgudi G Jayaraman. Amrit Ramnath has also trained in Western Classical music on the piano and violin. Aside from his musical pursuits, Amrit Ramnath is also a student of fine arts and he creates paintings alongside creating songs.

Now, Amrit Ramnath has collaborated with his uncle Shri Sabesh and released his rendition of the Salil Chowdhury and Rajinder Krishan classic, “Aansoo Samajhke” from the 1961 movie Chhaya. The original was sung by the legendary Talat Mahmood and Amrit Ramnath’s rendition of that song is what we will be reviewing here.

First things first, both Amrit and Sabesh have incredibly rich voices. You definitely need that if you are trying to cover a song performed by Talat Mehmood. Both Amrit and Sabesh infuse the words with a lot of emotion. You can feel everything that they sing. The expressive and heartfelt vocal delivery is really stunning. There are no theatrics, but everything is beautifully balanced throughout. The performance quality never wavers and stays top notch throughout the song.

The song has been musically arranged by Amrit Ramnath. It’s a more stripped down, minimalist version of the original song. Amrit has played the piano and acoustic guitar on this version. The playing suits the song’s mood perfectly as it’s driven by its vocals and the instruments do a great job complementing it. Every strum of the guitar, every key pressed on the piano, adds to the track’s emotional atmosphere. Less definitely is more here. The track has also been masterfully produced by MT Aditya Srinivasan. Everything is perfectly balanced. 

Amrit Ramnath grew up singing this song with his uncle Sabesh and now he has recorded and released it with him. Life has definitely come a full circle.

The thing is, Amrit and Sabesh could’ve overdone it. They could’ve loaded the song’s arrangement with one instrument after another, layered their vocals and added lots of digital effects and made it sound like a completely different song. Instead, they have concentrated on the essence of the original song, the melody, the feel and their memories attached to the song, and that’s what actually matters in the end.

Verdict: This is more than just a cover song or a tribute to the classic, it’s a love letter to it.

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