Mahadevan sings in Marathi

MALLIKA MULHERKAR

Marathi cinema is getting bigger, thereby attracting talents from the Hindi film industry

The latest is that Shankar Mahadevan is singing for Most Wanted, a Rajan Prabhu film in which the latter is the director, script writer and music composer. The film is being released by the end of the year, and Shankar’s participation will heighten the curiosity manifold for sure.

The film is a comedy of errors based on seven criminals, who come together in search of work when others refuse to let them lead a normal life. The track sung by Shankar brings back memories of their past. Called Tya pahate chi me vaat pahin (I will wait for a new dawn), the track set to bhangra beats turned out to be an awesome experience for those working on it. “When actor Milind Gawli heard the song, he said that if someone could do justice to the song and the music it would be Shankar Mahadevan. That is how we approached him. He liked it a lot, and found it very different,” recalls Prabhu.

Ask Shankar about this, and he sounds really happy. “I am a great fan of Marathi music as it is very melody based. The tunes and the taals are so catchy. My guruji hails from this music background, and it was a beautiful experience to be a part of a Marathi movie and sing a meaningful song. Last year, I also received an award for Mann uddhan varyache, a song I did for a Marathi film,” says he.

We asked Rajan about his experience of working with Shankar. “He is such a huge personality, and yet so humble. When I recited the song, he heard me without stopping me for a bit even though he knows much more about music than I do. Even though he had his hands full, he worked on our project and the song sounds superb!” says Rajan. With Shankar doing the singing, one can understand why.