New Year ‘Gift’

Jassie Gift fans might be in for a pleasant surprise in 2009.

By Anil Kumar Vijayan

Published: Tue 20 Jan 2009, 9:18 PM

Last updated: Wed 8 May 2024, 2:47 PM

The singer/composer of Lajjawathiye fame is planning Arabic and Hindi music albums with well-known singers.

Discussions are still on and the musician is not ready to divulge names yet, but he has already spoken to some Egyptian singers for the Arabic album.

Jassi spoke to City Times during a recent visit to Dubai for the Potpourri programme at Al Nasr Leisreland. He shared his views on music as well as upcoming projects. Reggae, he revealed, is one music genre, which has influenced his compositions. Probably unknown to music lovers, he first scored music for Bheebhatsa, a Hindi film made by National-award winning film director, Jayaraj. Saphalam, a film directed by Ashok, Jayaraj’s associate director, was his first Malayalam film.

Jassi has had no formal training in classical music, but has no regrets either as he feels such training often hinders creativity while composing. In his growing years he listened to all kinds of music including the works of Indian maestros like Pandit Ravi Shankar and Hariprasad Chaurasia. Rock idol Freddie Mercury has been an all-time favourite and so is Shankar Mahadevan.

“There are certain beats in every genre of music that have a universal appeal,” explained the composer. Not surprisingly, there have been appreciative listeners in the Middle East for his own hit composition Lajjawathiye (in the Malayalam superhit film 4 the People). Jassie has been equally successful as a singer and music composer in Tamil and Telugu films and has also composed the music for the Kannada film, Hudugaata.

He has scored the music for under-production Tamil film Pattalam and a Mamooty starrer, which is slated for release in May. Jassie prefers to work with veteran music composers, who are familiar with his range of singing. Not many are aware that Jassi holds an M.Phil degree and he spends most of his spare time working towards a doctorate in Advaita philosophy.

anil@khaleejtimes.com