Introducing Arthi Muralikrishna

Arthi is classically trained in Carnatic music and Bharathanatyam. She has been performing on many stages in the San Francisco bay area and around the country. She has a very distinct voice and style. She is also a very hard worker. Murali, her husband plays the mridangam, tabla, ghatam etc and performs regularly with the maestros in the area. Their daughter Apoorva is very gifted in playing violin and is a disciple of Anuradha Sridhar (The niece of Lalgudi). That is something huh?

Arthi is the main vocalist for the theme song "kanmani" in the album. I asked her if we could do the track for the album songs and she agreed. Her first attempt in Malayalam was a disaster. We first tried "Venal" which did not fit her voice. But Arthi is a hard worker. She managed to break those language hurdles. Only Malayalam had two different "Na". Then there was the "Nja" sound, as in Manja(yellow). That was another tough nut to crack. So was the soft "Ra" (as in raagam).

We managed to record Penkutty in one sitting. It took a lot of hard work. I was not sure Arthi was going to be the singer for the two female songs in the album. However, the feedback for penkutty song was tremendous. No one could tell that this was not a Malayalee singing. People only had praise for her singing. So I decided to keep the take. Arthi also did the track for "kadal" which was later sung by Manjari. She also did the background chorus and aalaps for all the songs. The alaap in the song "Kaattil Aadiyulayum" is very noteworthy.