A new voice in the music world
By Vimla Patil

WHY do people from other countries yearn to settle down in India? Carlyteo Mohini has no answer. "I was born in India and have a Latino, Brazilian, Bengali and Punjabi parentage. I belong to a complicated Latino-Indian lineage. I am a Latino singer but I was always drawn to India," she says, "I love the musical heritage of India and feel I can sing Indian film songs, Indipop and even ghazals. I came to this country in 1994 to look for opportunities and am happy that my voice and singing style has won me immediate appreciation."

Mohini is very enthusiastic about Brazil and its beauty. "This country is not heavily industrialised as yet like other South American countries. It has thick forests and some of the areas still have a vast variety of wildlife. The high mountain ranges with dense forests are beautiful and the people are relaxed and friendly. It is a peaceful country and does not feature often in international news. I love Brazil and go there as often as possible. I speak Spanish and love the Latino music of South America."

Mohini, who adopted this Indian name to enter the market in this country, flies from city to city today, performing stage shows with Bollywood stars. She has performed several times in Calcutta and Mumbai and participated in a major concert in Delhi with famed VJ Sofia Haque around Republic Day. "My father was posted in Calcutta in the mid-nineties and I was lucky enough to get opportunities to sing jingles in advertising films and commercials. The first playback opportunity I got was for the film Military Raj, in which the music was created by Bappi Lahiri. The song, Balle Balle, was a popular hit though the film did not do well. It was the hit film Biwi No 1 and the song Ishq sona hai, ishq chandi hai which gave me a taste of success. I also sang the hit song Akhiyon se mare goli which was filmed on Raveena Tandon and Govinda and became the ‘Akhiyon Se Mare Goli’ girl in many musical shows held thereafter.

"I have been trained in semi-classical music by Sukhdev Chaturvedi and in jazz and blues by Carlton Keito. I can sing in any language and can manage light classical, folk, ghazal and pop singing. I have performed in several countries. South Africa, Fiji, Hong Kong, Singapore and Germany are some of the countries which I have toured. I won the Talent Award for the 1999 Festival of Music and Dance in Hyderabad and was recognised as the debut playback singer for the movie Military Raj. My album Dil Ka Mazhab with compositions by Talat Aziz has been released by Times Music.

"At the moment, I am doing an album with Rajesh Jhaveri. I am also singing for N. Chandra’s film "Style" and for a film by Mukesh Bhatt, which is not yet named."