Sing along with the melody makers

Ignite the passion of music this Sunday with Agnee, Parikrama and Shilpa Rao on a part-documentary and part-travelogue music television series

Sing along with the melody makers

Ignite the passion of music this Sunday with Agnee, Parikrama and Shilpa Rao on a part-documentary and part-travelogue music television series

The Dewarists is a new original television series, part-music documentary and part-travelogue, featuring inspiring musicians collaborating to create original music while travelling to locations across India.

Music bands Agnee, Parikrama, Shilpa Rao and Monica Dogra.
Pic/ Kunal Kakodkar

Three episodes old, the series has featured Indian and international artistes including Imogen Heap, Vishal Dadlani, Swanand Kirkire, Zeb and Haniya and Indian Ocean. The show is all set to showcase its fourth episode which was documented in Pune and features Rock icons Agnee and Parikrama and talented singer Shilpa Rao.
Speaking about the concept of this particular episode, Vijay Nair, co-founder, Babble Fish Productions, shares, "We wanted to do something involving Rock music and according to me, Parikrama has been in the scene for the past 20 years and have stuck to what they wanted to do. They have also evolved with time. They are equally potent in their own way and perfectly fit the bill."

We quiz Nair on why they chose Pune as a location, "In the series, apart from the music and the musicians, we also select the place. Most importantly, it needs to have a connect with the artistes. And if you have seen the earlier episodes, one musician introduces the other to his city. For example ufffd music composers Swanand and Shantanu Moitra started off their career from Mumbai, so we chose the city for the same. As for Pune, Agnee is a major band that came from this city. Hence, we chose to shoot in Pune," he informs.

The making of I Believe
The collaboration between the artistes led to the creation of the song I Believe. The variety of textures in the vocals brought in by Nitin Malik (Parikrama), K Mohan (Agnee) and Shilpa Rao takes the song, I Believe, to a new level. Sonam Sherpa (Parikrama) and Koco's (Agnee) guitars complement each other; Subir Malik's (Parikrama) keyboard tones, Jamir's (Agnee) bass and Datar's (Agnee) booming drums all came together to make the song a great live experience as well as a compelling track.

A blend of English (written by Rachna B) and Hindi lyrics (penned down by Mohan), the song brings out the idea of love in a mellow, soothing Rock ballad. "When I spoke to Subir from Parikrama, he wanted to try something up-tempo and crazy. But I suggested we work on it. Nitin made it sound very different with the English vocals and Koco and Sonam have given a different feel to the lyrics. As for the Hindi chords, they happened after Shilpa came into the picture," expresses Mohan.

Behind the scenes
Another interesting aspect of this show, are the candid moments and interactions between the artistes. One such moment is when Mohan gives an insight on Koco that he never misses heading to Hotel Vaishali (Pune's favourite South Indian restaurant) to have coffee and how he gets wild at Shilpa and Subir when they forget to get him his coffee. Another incident shows how Subir visited Kayani Bakery to gorge on yummy Shrewsbury biscuits. The final performance was shot at Shisha Caf ufffd in Koregaon Park.