Singer Unnikrishnan and daughter Uthra share a similarity that not many can boast of. They both bagged National Awards for their debut songs in cinema; Unnikrishnan way back in 1994 for the melody ‘Ennavale’ (Kaadhalan), and Uthra in 2015 for her debut song ‘Azhage’ in Saivam.
The two have now come together – for the first time – for ‘En Magaley’, an independent composition on father-daughter affection. “The idea was floated by Prahalad Raghavendran, a fan of mine who has been following my works for a long time. He had this idea of a song on the father-daughter relationship, and I was quite excited about it. Prahalad composed the music; it was quite simple and from the heart. I could completely relate to the song, and the prospect of singing with my daughter was exciting,” says Unnikrishnan.
‘En Magaley’, a song based on the Sahana ragam, was the result of a lot of back and forth, with the final recording taking place a month ago. “It was not very easy to get Uthra to sing – children have little patience, you know,” he laughs, “If I ask her to sing a line again with some minor changes, she’ll be like, ‘Ah, what acha, come on!’ But, she has a great understanding of a tune and can grasp things musically. Music studies is also part of the curriculum in her school. Though she goes for Carnatic music classes, she listens to a lot of Western music as well.”
The experience of working on the song in the GV Prakash-composed Saivam, which Uthra sang with the assistance of her father, helped. “We’ve been recording Uthra even before that actually. My son plays the piano and he regularly jams with Uthra in the studio. I hope that someday, the three of us will come together for a special song.”