Rikki entices with Hindi love songs

IT WAS somewhat unusual to hear popular soca/chutney singer Rikki Jai sing out a line in Hindi, from among his collection of singles. “Maine Pujhe Bhi,” a love ballad with Nadia Madoo, was one of them. He sings eight tracks Hindi/pop and seven chutney on his latest album and no one would tell that it’s one of our local boys singing Hindi love ballads. “A lot of people don’t know that I sing Hindi, and it’s something that I always wanted to do,” he said on the event of his first Hindi/Pop-fused-with-chutney album launch at Screamers, recently. The 15-track album entitled Aashish is available in stores and four of his tracks are currently in rotation on the local airwaves.

With ballads like that out of a Bollywood film, Jai’s music is gripping, enticing and has the far-reaching potential to attract, not only East Indian music listeners, but all music lovers. The meaning behind Aashish is twofold: it’s a dedication to life — a life lost with the death of his father earlier this year, and the birth of his eight-month-old son, Aashish. Track number 14, “Oh My Papa,” is dedicated to his father Pahalad Jaimungal, while the very first song on the album, “Ek Phool Do Mali” tells the tale of “a man who has no children and waited so long for this child to come into his life and bring warmth and to take away misery and strife. The son is now supposed to carry his (father’s) name on forever.” This fittingly describes Rikki’s welcoming of Aashish — “one of two of my loves” — into his life.

“Ek Phool Do Mali” is a remake of one of Mannadey’s (from India) original pieces and in it, Jai crosses Hindi with English. On Aashish, Jai has done collaborations with one of the leading male Hindi singers, Anil Bheem; top female singer Nadia Madoo; and another leading lady from Kuwait known in the music world as Salima. “I met Salima in the US. We had performed at the same event and I thought of including her in my album so I approached her and right away, after the show, we made arrangements to do the duet,” Jai said. Other tracks on the album include “Anything For You” with Bheem, “Mortor” which is a popular hit at East Indian weddings, and “Come Go Doo Doo.” The album was co-produced by Jai and Rishi Gayadeen at the TTEC Gayatones studio in Princes Town. Production work was also incorporated by Anand Yankaran and Malcolm Lythcott of the USA.