The evening of October 6 at Lord of the Drinks in South City Mall saw singer Iman Chakraborty’s dulcet voice and a performance full of energy along with her band, entertain the crowd. Iman has been performing with her band for the last 12 years and the members — Ayan (on keys), Arijit (on drums), Bibhas (on guitar), Ramkrishna (percussionist), Sohom (on bass), plus her husband Nilanjan Ghosh (on drums in the first half) — complement her soothing-cum-powerful voice impeccably.
At LOTD, she offered a mixed bag and started with Aigiri nandini (a track she often likes to begin her performances with) and did a mash-up of the same with Shiva Tandava Stotram to set the mood of Durga Puja. Then she impressed with numbers like Majhe majhe, O jibon tomar sathe, Prithibi, Tapa tini, Zara zara, Pataka guddi, Senorita, Tumi jake bhalobasho, and Rangabati, among others. The multilingual line-up included Odiya, Hindi and Bangla numbers. t2 sat down for a quick chat with Iman. Excerpts:
What’s so special about performing with your band?
When it’s playback singing, I generally follow what the director suggests and try to bring out the emotions they’re expecting. There I’m just a student but when I play with my band I’m the queen because this is my forte. Live music and stage are my forte and they’ve been playing with me for the last 12 years, and the fun part about today is Nilanjan, my husband, played the drums and it’s after a long time that he agreed to play with us.
In the beginning, we only used to perform Rabindrasangeet and lok sangeet but after that when Praktan happened, we started including my hit playback numbers as well. I’ve started doing a series since this year called Tuesday Tunes. It’s a series where I only sing covers and those are Hindi covers. I love music and it can be in any language. One of my reels, Saiyyan, went viral and since then we have performed everything.
What’s your favourite number from your track list at Lord of the Drinks?
My entry song Devi Stotram is a favourite. I’ve been busy with a shoot since morning and I was extremely tired, but the moment I perform the number and I usually always start my performances with that number, I get very energised and I get all the shakti from that. The songs by Rabindranath and Tumi jake bhalobasho from Praktan are also very special.
Which was the first Hindi cover which made you realise you can do it as well?
I performed Ore piya by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan saab at a Vasant Utsav and it got around 10-12 million views. So you never know which number connects with the audience. Pataka guddi, Duma dum mast kalander, and songs with Sufi flavours sound good in my voice and people also enjoy them.
Are any Puja numbers in the pipeline?
This year I’m going to release a Rabindrasangeet Alor amal kamalkhani from my production house. And this year it’s really exciting because three of the films I’ve worked with are releasing in Pujo — Raktabeej, Bagha Jatin and Jongole Mitin Mashi. I live in the moment and I relish it. Three Pujo releases and three of them have songs sung by me, so I think it’s like a blessing from God.
What do you enjoy the most about a live performance?
I love interacting with the audience. I think if you perform very honestly, your audience understands. So I try to be very honest while I’m performing and I try to be myself.