Kavyaragini :)
The poetic name of Nandini Borkar ! A Hindustani
vocalist and writer, residing at Navi Mumbai. Born to Shubhada and Premanand
Borkar Nandini remembers her childhood days, practising kathak and vocals with
her elder brother Durgesh who was very good at almost everything. Drawing,Tabla
and studies. Interesting! She is into anchoring, composing, writing articles and taking music workshops on voice culture. Some may call it multi-faeceted but she says it is all streaming from my roots! Parents :)!
Some childhood memories! A lovely hum that is lullaby in her mothers voice, her first tutor. Her parents identified her talent. Aptitude in acting, mimickry etc.whatever she watched in plays or musicals she came home and reproduced. Ofcourse, her Aai had a lovely volume and bhav or emotive element in her resonant voice.
Later, Nandini was sent to vocals and kathak classes to Anushaktinagar (where she has schooled); after 5 years of being in both she discontinued dancing. Since childhood the house used to float with music on radio and television. Old film songs, classical music and some good programs like Geet Ramayan, Sangeet Sarita, and Pratibha and Pratima on Doordarshan. Ayyappa pooja at Anushaktinagar had marathi stage dramas and thus such healthy environment resulted in Nandini getting inclined towards compositions with classical flavour. She also was a regular prize winner at school and college in music competitions and a regular performer at annual functions. One year prior to completing BA Psychology Nandini had obtained her Sangeet Visharad Diploma and in the next two years MA in Hindustani music from SNDT Mumbai ! From her 9th standard she had started performing film music old melodies in concerts too.
Nandini was quite good from school days at acting and languages from her school days .She always topped in hindi and aspired to be a lecturer in hindi. But a NET in Music has qualified her to be the same in music. Nandini has sung for films, serials, plays and Channel.( latest promo of & pictures is also designed and sung by her which is classical fusion)
Nandini is a fan of Asha Bhosle and Ustad Amir Khan.Reading and listening to good music has been another hobby.
She has a high pitched voice but agrees that classical music sounds better in A# thumris may be sung in D etc. She likes to give examples by showing how the style and not the voice of a great musician can be followed, when she takes workshops. That is a favourite with the participants many times. Trying to solve voice problems of fellow musician friends also is one thing she has been doing. She is a poetess so gives proper importance to lyrics both in singing and composing. She has also written on pre-composed tunes and sung her compositions on AIR.
She has also been working at AIR Mumbai as an announcer also doing recordings,dubbings and participating in programs. These anchoring jobs, she also continued with NCPA and music festivals like Maharashtra Darshan and Baaja Gaaja.
Nandini has performed full concerts (2&half to 3hr, khayal and thumri ) at ITC-SRA Youth festival, Pune festival, Paluskar Mahotsav (shanmukhananda sangeet sabha ) music conferences,P Madhukar Mahotsav, Jitendra Abhisheki Smriti Mahotsav, sharada sangeet Vidyalaya and at well known temples in Maharashtra,Goa and Karnataka .
She connects herself to Gwalior Gharana and learnt under Dr Sarala and Mukta Bhide and has learnt Banares ki thumri under Smt Shobha Gurtu and Smt Girija Devi ( in her workshops at Nehru Centre and NCPA). She has also learnt light music and Voice culture from Music director Pt Yashwant Deo and Natyasangeet and Harmonium from The Harmonium virtuoso Pt Tulsidas Borkar and was part of his Lec demo on Pt Dinanath Mangeshkar. She has been singing her own compositions with AIR .She acquired her grade in 2000 and sang classical and light music with AIR Mumbai.
Nandini has been active in translation work, articles,short stories and articles for music channels and institutions like NCPA. She is a regular poetess and writes lyrics on tunes. She has composed music for her sanskrit project Garbhakalyan mantra! (a part from research and commentry, and chants are also sung by her )She writes in Braj,Urdu,Marathi,English and Hindi. Sanskrit and Urdu are also languages that she studied. Some of her work includes (movies- Daulat, Reen Te Farikpanache,) Aradhana (kathak ballet by Nehru centre), Aparajita (serial), Movies (Mata Ramabai and Sanghursh ek satyakatha - singing and Lyrics )
Movies-1) ( Muththi Bher Sapne-with Nitin Kumar Gupta, Kailash Kher, Shaan, Javed Ali )
2) Bioscope ( Abhishek Mishra and Nitin Kumar Gupta )
Two of her CDS are released by Music today with Braj and Bhojpuri thumris.
She also has obtained an 2 awards one from NKGSB Sangh (Asmita), and Sur Singar Samsad (vishesh yogyata puraskar in film music )
thumris.
She was a part of Film and photo shoot for an advertisement of Canon movie camera July'2012 by Lt Shri Deepak Arya who passed away recently.
She also conveys gratitude towards Mayuresh Tendulkar Ad film photographer and Singer, her good friend who shared several khayal and thumri compositons with her and has done a lovely photoshoot on classical music as a theme.
Nandini wishes to walk hand in hand with her two frinds Shabda and Swar in future :)
