Shankar Mahadevan's band Shakti won the Best Global Music Album award at the Grammys 2024 when “This Moment” was announced as winner. Mahadevan bagged his first ever Grammy and was among the global music event that saw five Indians bag the coveted prize this year.

It was also a big ‘moment’ for the crooner, that besides the Grammy win, his authorized biography ‘The Musical Maverick’ released the same day 5^th February. The book is penned by Ashis Ghatak and published by Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd.

Ghatak, is no newcomer to the publishing world and has also written the biography of Indian jazz legend Louis Banks, around two years ago. Ghatak reached out to Mahadevan for the biography way back in 2012 during the pandemic. When Ghatak approached Mahadevan with the idea to write out his life history, the vocalist part of the music composer trio Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, readily agreed to let him take over. Mahadevan was touched by the author’s simplicity and passion, which he witnessed at the launch of Banks’ biography. The rest as they say is history… now penned into the book titled ‘The Musical Maverick - Shankar Mahadevan’

Ghatak has spent over two years working on the first ever authorized biography of the veteran singer who is known for his blockbuster film scores.

With a beautifully written Foreword by the legendary actor Javed Akhtar, the author takes the reader on a journey of the life and music of Shankar Mahadevan, getting deep into Mahadevan’s travails as his life progressed.

In 10 whole chapters, with sub chapters encapsulated, Ghatak has managed to simplify the road Mahadevan treaded on, chronically in a time bound manner. Be it the opening chapter of Mahadevan’s humble beginnings in Chembur in his home at Anand Bhavan, to meeting his future wife Sangeeta, the trail moves on from college days to his musical aspirations.

In the book, Mahadevan reveals that he trained to become a Veena artiste in his childhood. While teaching him to play a kriti, his Veena guru told him to also sing it in order to execute it well, thereby setting off his interest in singing. This put him in a new world, from his stint performing in fusion bands like Surya, jazz fusion in Divya and SILK, the latter on the invitation by the Godfather of Jazz, Louiz Banks, paved the way for what was to come soon.

The world of advertising had heard of him and in no time he was all over the place with offers pouring in. He was the most sought after voice in the cash rich advertising industry. Definitely the hook line that drove the nation crazy was ‘Yehi hai right choice baby, aha’ resounded on Indian television. Pepsi had its share of success due to Mahadevan’s voice. He brought the same magic to Reliance Vimal Sarees. 

His singing career was no less spectacular, with songs like Breathless commanding a huge listenership, so much so that he came to be known as the Breathless singer.

This eventually led to the formation of the legendary composer-trio: Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy (SEL). From there on, it was a smooth takeoff into Bollywood with hits flowing in films like “Dil Chahta Hai”, “Kal Ho Na Ho”, “Bunty Aur Babli”, “Johnny Gaddaar” and many more mentioned in the book. Read about the stories and the work that went behind the success of these films, not forgetting some equally amazing work in films like “Taare Za,eem Par”, “Rock On”, “Wake Up Sid”, “My Name Is Khan” to the super hit “Zindagi Na Milega Dobara”.

In the chapter 8 and sub chapter ‘Aman Ki Asha’, you read about Mahadevan’s desire to promote the immense treasure of Indian music around the world. Mahadevan went on to compose many patriotic songs like the inspirational anthem on Indian cricket in Himko Hai Pura Yakeen, besides on the occasion of India’s then 72^nd Independence Day, he lent his voice to another song titled Ye Desh Meri Jaan for Doordarshan. He also did shows titled ‘My Country, My Music’. His work with the legendary Gulzar must be mentioned here, where he travelled to Punjab and Delhi, where the duo performed a song with the commandos, doing an anthem with the Indian Air Force and one for the Indian National Flag. 

You cannot miss out the 16 color pages in the book that show the South Indian maverick from a young boy to rubbing shoulders with the cream of the music world. However, the cover picture of the book appears a bit out of taste for a biography. While Mahadevan is seen in a trance singing mood on the cover, more thought could’ve been given to the face of the book.  Surely a better concept on his illustrious career could’ve been thought of which could’ve been the focus for the book cover.

That aside, there’s so much more to read in this book, the formation of the Shankar Mahadevan Academy (SMA). Drawing on many hundred hours of interviews with Shankar, Ghatak brings out the essence of Mahadevan to the very core of who he really is, a singer, musician, composer, friend, family man, guru and, ultimately, iconic artist and man beloved by millions.

No matter whether you are a Shankar Mahadevan fan or not this book is a well researched work on the singer who we all love. You can bet when I say that once you’ve gone through with the book, you will find facts you didn’t know at all about the singer.

So if you love reading books on film and music you may consider this autobiography of one of India’s top singers, which definitely would be a great addition to your collection of music books, that to coming from an author known for his detail to facts.

Mahadevan’s story written by Ghatak will surely leave you….. what else Breathless.

Details:

Publisher: ‎ Rupa Publications India; First Edition (5^th February 2024);

Language: ‎ English

Hardcover: ‎ 392 pages

Price: 695/- (Also available as an e - book)

Reviewed by Verus Ferreira