Catching Up With Kavita!

Though absent from playback singing from a while, Kavita Krishnamurthy, the Pandora’s box of talent and humility, and one of the foremost playback singers of the ‘90s, still rules the heart of an entire generation through her pleasant voice…

- Vinay Agrawal

As a child, born in the early ‘90s, I grew up listening to the songs sung by Kavita Krishnamurthy like the countless others born or growing up in that period. Despite certain portions of the lyrics sounding incomprehensible to me at that time, I was instantly drawn to the affable quality of her voice. It seemed personal, comforting and speaking to me on an individual level. Later on, when I saw the ‘voice’ for the first time on television, I could easily extend these traits to the face in front of me on the television screen.

Kavita Krishnamurthy, at that time, was quite a sensation, big enough to generate hysteria. Still, it was the ‘voice of humility’ that struck a chord with many (me included) - a thing that immensely worked in her favour to grow an all organic fan base, at a time free of ‘likes’, ‘shares’, ‘posts’ and ‘re-tweets’. It was a no-filter voice, resulting in no-filter adulation.

From 1982 to 2004, Kavita used to sing almost two songs a day in different languages. Then, it gradually started thinning out, and so began the next chapter: her increased foray into live shows and music education. She comments, “I am grateful to Bollywood for giving me some of the best songs of my career. However, I strive to keep spiritual music alive in me. Indian music is largely spiritual, it’s about introspecting and searching for the truth and not just about entertainment. For me, it’s important to connect to that spiritual aspect of music, whether I get fame and glory from it or not.”