NACC honour for Poonwassie

He was honoured by the NACC, the cultural arm of the National Joint Action Committee, during its annual award ceremony on Monday night at NAPA in Port-of-Spain.

Poonwassie, who has been composing and singing Pichakaaree and chutney for the past 20 years, has composed over 100 songs for himself and other artistes in TT. Many of these songs have been well received by the fans at Pichakaaree, Chutney Soca Monarch and local song competitions.

An elated Poonwassie said he was happy that the committee was looking at “persons who are into creating songs that are not only entertaining but those that are nation building”. He emphasised that he has struggled for many years to put his songs on CDs and to perform at national competitions with little or no reward. He noted that the award shows that those in authority the NACC had recognised his work.

Poonwassie, who is from central TT, says he has been working along with members of the Hindu Prachaar Kendra to improve the lives of young people by teaching religious studies.

“One issue that contributes to the growing crime situation in TT is that of neglect for the youths of this nation by parents and guardians,” he said, adding that a lot more needs to be done to promote the youths here.

“I believe every singer should be like an inspiration to the people,” he said.

He said while people want to have a good time enjoying the music, composers and writers need to bring some positive vibes in their songs. He added that music has power and we need to use it to educate and uplift the various audiences. Poonwassie entered the Chutney Soca Monarch 11 times doing traditional chutney instead of the more popular soca chutney.

Speaking about this, he said, “An ideal chutney song must have some element of Hindi, dholak, harmonium, folk melody and good lyrics.”

Poonwassie has been participating in the competitions since 2000. Apart from winning Pitchkaree on three occasions, he won the 2008 Mere Desh Local Song Contest with “Proud of my Heritage” and “Live In Unity”.

A photographer by profession, Poonwassie juggles time between work, attending temple service and performing. He is now preparing for Phagwa celebrations on March 11. He is married to Jennifer Ramdhan, who is a school teacher, and they both have one son, Mandeep who is four years old.

He said he was pleased that chutney soca promoter, George Singh, insisted that this year’s competition focus on originality and positive lyrics.

His offering for the competitive stage this year is ‘Maito Dharti Puje’.

“This song is based on the traditions of the Maticoor Hardi Saffron or Friday night of the three - day Hindu wedding,” he explained, adding that it is in this celebration that chutney was more or less conceptualised in ‘breakaway’ (songs that were made for people to dance to) tunes. Composed by himself and Rukmini Holass Beepath, the song was given the appropriate music by Sunil Ramsook of KNS Recording Studio in Mc Bean, Couva. However, Poonwassie complained that a major problem faced by artistes each year was the unwillingness of some local Indian radio stations to play the work of all local artistes. In his view, the broadcasters and DJs should give each artiste their just due in airplay based on the quality of their work. He said this is a serious matter with the crossover frequencies.

“It is not fair on the artistes who have really good songs but are not exposed because their songs are not entertained by the radio stations,” he said.

Expressing his view on “rum songs” and local songs with Bollywood melodies, Poonwassie said they “lack creativity and promote plagiarism”, adding such material desecrates the Indo-Trini worldwide.