Shailaja Khanna
Earth Day Network’s 50th anniversary has come at a time when the entire planet is facing one of the strangest times in memorable history. Being isolated in our homes, one suddenly appreciates the simple necessities of life that one has taken for granted – open spaces, pure water, sunshine, basic interaction with other living beings, animals included.
To commemorate gratitude to Planet Earth, nine outstanding artists from all genres got together and despite conditions of lockdown, separately recorded a tribute they entitled Dharti Ma. The track features Carnatic vocalists Bombay Jayashri and Abhishek Raghuram, North Indian classical vocalists Kaushiki Chakravorty and Mahesh Kale, Sufi singer Hans Raj Hans, and playback singers Shankar Mahadevan, Shweta Mohan, MD Pallavi and Abhay Jodhpurkar. The song has been recorded in Hindi Tamil Bengali Marathi Malayalam Gujarati Kannada and Punjabi.
Commissioned by Earth Day Network, the US based organization that operates in over 190 countries, the song was conceived by Karuna Singh, South East Regional Head, Earth Day Network to “unite people across borders, regardless of whether they speak the same language or not. My dream is this song gets sung in every existing language.”
The simple touching lyrics were written by Chetna Shrikant, a Mumbai based singer and writer. Dharti Ma, tujhe pranaam. Tujhpar nirbhar hum, sadeeyon se tumne sabhi ko dee jeevan.
Earth Day Network’s first Ambassador in India Bombay Jayashri shared “Composing the music was easy, it was writing the lyrics that were more a challenge; I was lucky to find someone whose ideas were in sync with mine. These words of Chetna’s moved me, and I sang Dharti Ma as a solo in Hindi last year. Recently, when Karuna Singh approached me again, and said it would be wonderful to record this in other languages too, I thought it was a great idea and a rallying song for all of in India who are facing a very challenging time. I truly feel the world as we know it will change forever. I was happy to record in Hindi, as I had done earlier. We put our heads together and approached other singers who we thought would be best suited to represent the diverse musical traditions India has, as also those who are known to be associated with a humane rather than strictly commercial approach to their music”.
Kaushiki Chakravorty, who sang in Bengali said “I feel happy and indeed privileged to be a part of this very special song, Dharti Ma. I think this lockdown period has taught us to connect with our inner selves; given us the time to introspect and see that’s the actual requirement for life. I hope this song and its message will inspire more people to introspect and do their bit to save the resources and protect Mother Earth.”
MD Pallavi, the very popular Kannada singer, and actress who has sung poignantly in Kannada agreed -“we need to recalibrate our equation with the earth. Hopefully we will emerge from the pandemic as more sensitive beings. It is an honour and privilege for me to be a part of this project for Mother Earth – Amrit’s music is really soulful and peaceful.”
Abhishek Raghuram who opens the song with a beautiful rendering in Tamil said “I do hope this song will go a long way in spreading awareness of how much Nature has given us.”
Twenty-one year old Carnatic vocalist Amrit Ramnath (Bombay Jayashri’s son) who composed the music, organised lyrics translations in the other languages, and also arranged and mixed the music, and video said “the entire song was composed arranged and produced remotely. I tuned each section, recorded at my studio at home, and sent each singer to record and send back. Then we spent many hours in the studio, placing each track, arranging instruments over them, and stringing them together to create the complete song. All my instrumentalist friends were so supportive; Sumesh Narayanan on mridangam, Sayee Rakshith on the violin, Abhinandan David on guitar, MT Aditya the tabla player and sound engineer”
Abhay Jodhpurkar, better known for his Hindi Tamil and Kannada playback singing, sung Dharti Ma in Gujarati; as he laughingly shared, “my first time singing in Gujarati. This multi lingual anthem, sung by such legendary singers, and that too for the best cause possible is really the need of the hour.
Hansraj Hans, “Sufi King” summed up the heartfelt desire of the musicians in collaborating musically under such conditions “we can only appeal to our Mother Earth to protect us; and being musicians we can only ask her through our music”.
Click here to listen to Dharti Ma https://youtu.be/VUi37kCC5ro