For playback singer Shweta Mohan, the opportunity to lend her voice to all four melody-driven love songs in an album composed by S Janaki was nothing short of a blessing. Around a year and a half ago, she visited Janaki amma at her house in Hyderabad. There, Janaki told her that she had created many tunes over the years and wanted Shweta to release them in her voice. Shweta was absolutely thrilled to get that offer from such a legend, adding that she considers it one of the biggest blessings of her life.
Recordings Made Decades Ago
From a list of around 25 songs, Shweta had to shortlist a few of Janaki's compositions to release. Janaki casually played rough recordings she had made with her tape recorder maybe 20 or 30 years ago. The recordings were in her voice and were beautiful to listen to. She played around 25 songs, all written by her. Many of them were written in collaboration with PB Sreenivas. Shweta chose four and took the help of two Kerala musicians—Sachin Balu and flautist Josy—to work on them.
Gangai Amaren Writes Tamil Lyrics
Though Janaki had written all four songs in Hindi, Shweta knew the songs had to reach the legendary singer's core audience in the South. She requested that most of Janaki's fans are speakers of southern languages, so the songs should be made in Tamil as well. This led to Gangai Amaren coming onboard to write the Tamil lyrics. Shweta called him, and he was over the moon. He said he would love to write the songs for no remuneration, just out of his love for her. Janaki amma sees him as her own little brother, and she knew he would do it for her.
Trust Bigger Than Any Award
Shweta shares that she was touched by Janaki's trust in her capabilities. Her telling Shweta that if she sings these songs, it will come out well made her day to hear such words from her. Her trust in Shweta and her singing is bigger than any award. During their sessions, Janaki taught her line by line, which never really happens in song recordings nowadays. Shweta adds that she is totally smitten over Janaki amma. Janaki even played a lot of Lata ji's songs that she had recorded in her younger days, sounding just as magical singing those songs as Lata ji.
