“You’re not your job. You’re not how much money you have in the bank. You’re not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You’re not your f***ing khakis. You’re the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world!” – Tyler Durden

We all have our ways of looking at the world. Janani’s way seems to be through the tools of music. Music came to her naturally with her father (a music director) and mother (also a singer) adding to the sheen. It came so naturally that she gave her first performance at the age of 5. While most of us were probably counting frogs.

The focus in this interview is not the just songs she sung, but the intent behind the content. And that we shall seek with Spartan flurry. 

One Direction – Music!

She once wrote in her blog that as in a movie which requires events to precipitate for staging the climax, we may require events to churn out the natural course for us. She points out: “There is only one direction in the dimension of time for us”.

Ask her if she sees herself doing something else, she gushes, “As clichéd as this sounds, I cannot imagine myself without music.” We should give her the credit, she did work in an MNC as an admin head (cue dramatic gasp) but it didn’t feel right for her (and back). Her hypothesis is, the makes of music lies in the head.

“All of it happens up there. If it’s registered accurately in the head, the voice aligns itself [to the prescribed knowledge]. Like tuning an instrument.” Very physiological of her. As she knows it, music has an impact. Economically, financially, socially and spiritually. All of them “alles”. She is a non planner, taking things the way they come. No kiss and tell here. She’s a total youth types singar! Likes to enjoy life and as most others, likes leaning back to savor the richness of what each moment has to offer. That magical stop we all await. 

Commercially Speaking…

What’s cool is she explained the almost impregnable cycle of commercial music making. It goes like this:

Singer sings what the Music Director wants, the M. Director does as Director wants – D. man does as Producer wants and P. man does what he thinks the masses want. In that hierarchy, the singer has the least contribution as our singing beauty sees it. Says she “ I would like to see serious music from the current scene. Our lives are now based on ready-ment. There’s a reason it’s called Classics- it feels deeper and more permanent. Getting into music is not that difficult (long pause) It can be more! You don’t have inspiring music and inspiration does make people want to do things”. 

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One of her commercial hits from Tamil film Thoranai

Ouch much? Not really. She plans to head her own production unit soon, where she will actively contributes & provide a platform for others settling into the scene – prospective collaborators – ensuring that talented others don’t go through a London weather in their profession. 

She’s a lot of things; actively seeking to not fuss or putting herself in the bromide box. Typical to creative people, she swings between the extremes.  “We all are human and it’s good to know that”. She adds to this a slightly altered version of the mission message from Fast Track “Whatever happens, move on”.

What’s the word on…

We dabbled with word association. So fresh from ze Artist of The Month, here’s the dough:

Geometry- Difficult.

Lover beau (Psst. She just got engaged recently, Lots of happiness to her hippy dippy face)- Fun. (Now, you smirk)

Today – Photo Shoot.

Challenging – Parveen Sultana.

True Artist – MJ.

Inappropriate – … Don’t apply?

Madan Utsav – Ah, he’s many things but Father is the best fit. 

Musings on Music & Ms. Madan

We got around to talking about music itself. She deliberates that music is made for the corny everyday melody person. “Singers don’t usually appreciate each other. Being a singer, one tends to look into the finer nuances, the details, the direction of the song, the notes and lyrics and harmony… But someone who appreciates music without the barge of such technicalities, they can be considered true artist themselves. They just listen to the music.”  

We chattered cheerful about the magnificence of the ambitious Therukooth, the necessity for magical carpe diem moments, how she addressed herself for a while as J. Madan because her namesake was preparing to hit the scene with a big bang but went back to Janani and the inherent pleasure of all things bright, beautiful and melodious.

And that my friend, is a wrap. Of sorts. Good music, to y’all.

Written by Supriya Talapuru

Photo Credits: Srii Rama Santhosh

Styling: Vijayanthi Rajeshwar