Divas together: When Usha Uthup, Aruna Sairam and Shubha Mudgal work magic on stage

Two trail-blazing singers making music together is difficult enough, but to have three of them, and that too from different arenas, can be chaotic. To achieve a syncretic whole calls for a brilliant vision. It took an experienced musician like Bickram Ghosh to pull it off, but the stars of the show were the three divas — Usha Uthup, Aruna Sairam and Shubha Mudgal.

All three have carved out their careers defying norms. They have broken new ground musically, individually achieving heights in their fields not attained before. Usha Uthup, jazz and pop icon; Aruna Sairam, Carnatic vocalist; and Shubha Mudgal, North Indian vocalist, are at the peak of their careers, epitomising star power as well as standing as powerful female icons.

Putting them on stage together was an impossible dream, given the fact that each is a star in her own right, with a singing style that is individualistic. They also bring their unique perspective on music. Managing the expectations of each artiste on stage, creating a balance between the three singers, thinking of a repertoire that would take the concert forward — all these were significant issues. Celebrated composer-percussionist Bickram Ghosh not only conceived the project, but convinced each of the divas to agree. This was only possible, he says, because he had worked with each of the three greats, and earned their trust.

Produced by Serendipity Arts Festival, the event was organised last month by the Ludhiana Sanskritik Samagam, both promoted by SK Munjal.

Uthup, honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2024, is the eldest of the trio. Born in Mumbai, her ‘karmbhoomi’ has included Kolkata and Delhi. Sairam, a Padma Shri awardee, was raised in Mumbai but achieved stardom in Chennai. Mudgal, a Padma Shri awardee, was born in Allahabad, lived in Delhi, and achieved fame in Mumbai.

All three have been innovating collaborators throughout their careers. Not every great musician chooses to collaborate on stage as it requires a certain discipline, openness to explore the others’ musical thought as well as self-confidence to hold one’s own on stage.

The stage is a very competitive arena and it is only musicians at ease with their music who can shine in collaborations. It also requires a lack of ego to consciously hear another’s music on stage and then enhance it. Uthup, arguably India’s first rockstar musician, made her mark singing for films, night clubs and shows of all kinds, in a career spanning more than five decades. For her, it is not the genre of music that matters, but connecting with the audience, as she has always called herself a communicator rather than a mere musician. In her characteristic humble style, she says, “The song is always bigger than the singer.”

Incidentally, she had sung a duet with Mudgal in Delhi years ago. For Uthup, coming together again “was a dream come true”. She says, “I have not been trained in music formally, I learnt through listening. Here I was a middle-of-the-road singer with these highly-trained singers on stage, and holding my own. For them, it was perhaps OK, they are learned people. I remember how in school, my music teacher, Miss Davidson, could not fit my voice in with the others, so I ended up just playing the tambourine and the clappers! I was never disheartened, and just carried on.”

Aruna Sairam is known for her collaborative work with musicians from different backgrounds. An unlikely musician was French tenor Dominique Vellard with whom she explored medieval church choral music, combined with Tamil poetry from ‘Thirukkural’, variously assigned to 300 BCE-500 CE. The government of France honoured her with the Chevalier award in 2022.

The Carnatic musicians she has sung with include veena exponent Jayanthi Kumaresh, vocalist Sudha Ragunathan and mandolin maestro, the late U Sriniwas. She has sung with dancers Padma Subrahmanyam and Malavika Sarukkai. The North Indian musicians she has shared the stage with include vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty and Jayateerth Mevundi, flautist Ronu Majumdar, sitarist Gaurav Mazumdar and sarod player Soumik Datta.

She has sung earlier with Mudgal at the Kala Ghoda festival, and NCPA in Mumbai years ago. “But this concert was special, beyond our expectations,” she shares. “All three are my dream artistes; both Ushaji and Shubhaji are such people’s persons. The accompanists were so amazing too. The absolute trust, respect and love we had for each other resulted in genuine goodwill, which was a hallmark of this collaboration. Bickramji, being a performer himself, understood we needed to feel comfortable on stage with accompanists of our choice. So each of us had our own team, and felt totally on safe ground.”

Shubha Mudgal has effortlessly straddled the world of khayal, thumri and folk-based pop music. Despite her varied musical experience, she found the event “enriching”. Of course, collaborations with other musicians is nothing new for her; she has sung with elan with singers as varied as Carnatic vocalist Bombay Jayashri.

Despite the strain it imposes on a musician, collaborations, she feels, are important. “I have been fortunate to have received several opportunities to work with artistes of the highest calibre. I not only got the opportunity to perform with Aruna Sairam and Usha Uthup, artistes of great eminence, experience and brilliance, but also had tabla maestro and composer Bickram Ghosh curating and directing the collaboration. It was also wonderful to have an ensemble of stellar accompanying musicians, each colouring the music with their own skills and virtuosity. Many of the accompanying artistes were well known to me, but I was performing for the first time with many too, each of them just splendid, whether it was the experienced mridangam vidwan BC Manjunath or the young Rhythm Shaw on the guitar, or Raja Narayan Deb on the keyboard. It was an absolute pleasure to work with them, including Padma Shankar on the violin, Hrishikesh Datar on the drums and Mainak Nag Chowdhury on the bass guitar,” she says. With such an artiste lineup, including 10 accompanying musicians in addition to the three stars, interpersonal dynamics mattered. Luckily, each had a good relationship with the other — Usha Uthup had spent time with Aruna Sairam on a barge on the Ganga recently, Sairam has known Mudgal for decades and sung with her earlier too. Ghosh recalls how “there was a lot of good humour, giggling and laughing, insightful suggestions to each other on what could work best”.

Interestingly, the accompanying artistes, in actuality three separate sets of musicians, collaborated well together too. During the concert, there was one piece only by the accompanists, each a master in his own field.

The concert was put together with just a day’s intensive rehearsal, lasting more than seven hours. This was preceded by four or five Zoom calls together when logistic details, concert content and the like were minutely worked out. The fact that none of the trio sang the other’s song made the entire concert very different. Sound engineer Nitin Joshi is considered the best in the field. Even the visual aspect was carefully thought of. Aruna shares how the three of them exchanged images of the saris they planned to wear so they all looked compatible on stage.

Each of the three singers has a ‘big’ voice, bass with enormous power and sound well together. But still, their pitch of singing was not always the same — Sairam says each of them made minor adjustments so the accompanists did not have to retune their instruments. “We managed with three tablas instead of five!”

Lasting two-and-a-half hours, the concert started with all three singing an ode to environment, composed by Ghosh. Each then sang a solo, in their own musical genre, followed by three acts — each singer with the other, as duos. The instrumentalists came together too. Eventually, the trio came together with third pieces; the final piece was a new song composed by Ghosh — ‘Ab bas’, highlighting abuse of women.

“Thanks to Bickramji’s handling of the entire group, we came together to perform in a spirit of easy camaraderie and mutual respect. Yes, there was a lot of spontaneous fun and laughter too,” says Mudgal. For Sairam, “the energy in that space was phenomenal, it was truly a memorable experience”. According to Usha Uthup, “Because it was Punjab, I specially chose to sing ‘Laung gawacha’. Punjabi audiences have always been very kind to me, one of the best. Asa Singh Mastana himself taught me ‘Kaali teri gutt te paraanda tera laal ni’, which the audience requested, but there was no time.”

Ghosh says it was because none of them had any ego at all that the concert went off so well. ‘Three Divas’ is due to perform again, in Goa at the Serendipity Arts Festival in December.

— The writer is a music critic