Singing for a cause

Suneeta Rao’s latest album Waqt is an emotional appeal to check female foeticide,
writes Nutan Sehgal

Suneeta Rao has been reigning as a singing diva for almost two decades now. Her voice, coupled with her fiery performances, had put her in the forefront of Indipop in the 1990s. She continues to remains a force to reckon with. Eight years after she hit box office gold with Ab Ke Baras, Suneeta is back with Waqt, a raga-based album, parts of which are devoted to the girl child. It has eight tracks and has been partly funded by the UNFPA (United Nations Fund for Population Activities). The singer is the official spokesperson of the Laadli campaign of the UNFPA that focuses on issues related to the girl child.

"The video of the first song Sun Zara addresses the issue of sex determination tests. It is an emotional appeal to check female foeticide," says Suneeta. In the video, she plays a fairy (inspired by her hit number Paree Hoon Main) who comes to save a pregnant woman being forced to abort the girl — played by Suchitra Pillai who was actually pregnant at that time.

It’s been eight long years since Suneeta’s last album. So, apart for appearing on an occasional television show — as she did recently when she participated in Dhoom Machale on NDTV Imagine — she has been penning the lyrics for Waqt and, then, putting them to the music created by the group Nexus, comprising musicians Gino Banks, Sangeet Haldipur, Sheldon D’Silva and DJ Gaurav Issar.

"The album will justify the time I’ve spent on it as it has lots of messages. It is inspired by my experiences. It is also about the people I have met over the past eight years and who have made a difference in my life. Apart from Sun Zara, my other favourite in the album is Punjabi track Ishq Da, which is about a Punjabi girl and the song is based on raga thumri.

Suneeta’s stature as a multifaceted singer has been reinforced over time. Her debut album Senorita Suneeta, which was released in 1990, was a package of pulsating rhythms composed and arranged by keyboard master Louis Banks. The album had Suneeta performing vocal acrobatics on the high-energy soundtrack as she sang to an amalgam of pop formats — from rock ’n’ roll to hip-hop, along with touches of flamenco.

Suneeta made waves with her next album Talaash. This time there was a marked shift in her style. Though pop remained her first love, she entered the area of folk music and her first number Kesariya Hai Roop Maro became a hit. Such was the impact of the song that whenever it was played in discos around the country, crowds went into a frenzy.

Coming from a family of musicians, Suneeta began working in theatrical musicals like Grease, Evita and Bottoms Up. Soon enough, she switched over to advertising and started doing jingles for companies like Bombay Dyeing, Vimal, Thums Up, Milkfood and Vivaldi. That’s when record companies sat up and took note and she was contracted to HMV.

Says Suneeta, "Indi-pop is still big in the country. It is an indigenous answer to Western pop. In the coming years, we will see more and more Hindi pop albums released as the trend is on the upswing".

Today, almost two decades after she burst on the scene, this singing sensation is on top of the Indi-pop pile all over again. It was her mother, a classical singer herself, who initiated Suneeta into music. Suneeta learnt the basics at home and did not feel the need to go to any professional school for training. Trained also in dance, she entered the music scene at an early stage and catapulted to the top with her successful albums. Her song Paree Hoon Main went on to become a mega hit.

Suneeta has sung for prestigious film banners and performed at top stage shows. She was also a part-time VJ doing stints for Channel V. She prides both in her style of singing and her curvaceous figure and fine tunes her body with a regular exercise regimen and does weight training to maintain that perfect waist. Her future plans? "To sing, sing and sing and release a string of blockbuster albuams." — NF