Rendering every note to perfection

Today an Indian vocalist has the opportunity to perform in a variety of ways. A trained vocalist can sing in Carnatic, Hindustani or sugama sangeetha (light music) style, sing devotional songs or record songs for films as a soloist, duet partner or a chorus singer.

With the advent of digital technology, one can even be a track singer, that is, record songs accompanied by music to enable an established or well-known singer to  re-record the song. A vocalist also has the opportunity to sing in a number of languages. Nagachandrika Bhat, a Bengaluru-based singer, has done all of the above and some more for over 18 years.

 Having trained in Carnatic and Hindustani vocal, her first big professional break came when she sang for a patriotic album in 1995. Her first break in Kannada movies came with the ‘Mungarina Minchu’ in 1997 in which she sang for the music composed by V Manohar. Thereafter she has lent her voice to over 50 Kannada music for movies including ‘Excuse Me’, ‘Chappale’, ‘Srirastu Shubhamastu’, ‘Kothigalu Sir Kothigalu’, ‘Parva’, ‘Rakshasa Ambi’, ‘Varasdara’, ‘Manasina Maatu’ and ‘Jai Hind’.

She has sung for the music composition of eminent film music directors like Hamsalekha, V Manohar, Guru Kiran, RP Patnaik and K Kalyan. She has also performed with renowned light music artistes like C Ashwath, Raju Ananthaswamy and Puttur Narasimha Nayak.
She has sung several songs as a duet partner of SP Balasubramaniam.

In ‘Parva’ she has rendered the vocal ‘alaap’ in raag ‘Ahir Bhairavi’ for a song sung by Hariharan. In the film, ‘Chappale’ she has a duet with Udit Narayan. Her song ‘Yogi Manege Banda’ from the movie ‘Jai Hind’ was nominated as one of the best songs for the State Government’s film award in the year 2012-13.

Nagachandrika has sung songs for devotional albums in Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and the language of the Lambani tribals. She has sung Tamil classical poetry in praise of Shiva accompanied by Western music symphony of Ilayaraja.

Her stage performances has been held across the State on important festivals, both government sponsored and private programmes. She performed at the World Kannada Sammelan in Dubai in 2009 and at the Kannada Rajyotsava celebration organised by Dubai Kannada Sangha in Dubai in 2011.

She acquired ‘A’ Grade in light music category at the All India Radio, Bangalore in 2011. Nagachandrika is also the founder of Gaanachandrika Cultural Foundation, where she trains students in sugama sangeetha (light music).

Her album of sugama sangeetha titled, ‘Kavyachandrika’ with music composed by Upasana Mohan to the words of well-known Kannada poets was recently released in the City.