Mansa Jimmy: ‘I got replaced in 12 songs, it’s very common in Bollywood that you get replaced’

Mansa Jimmy. (Photo courtesy Pravin)

Seldom does one think of the smell of damp air as a beautiful fragrance. But for singer Mansa Jimmy, it reminds her of home and is worthy to be written into a song. “Even if they are sad ones, every song that I have been singing or I will sing will be a love song,” says the full-throated Mansa Jimmy, 29, over the telephone. Her deep-textured voice and wiser-than-her-years words reflect a thoughtful person, who pauses to gather her thoughts before replying. That thairaav she brings to her songs, her words evocative and voice is therapeutic, it has an embalming effect on jaded souls in a rushed world. She has a busy calendar and speaks to me in between her two recent shows in Delhi. An indoor set at Piano Man on Valentine’s Day and an outdoor stage show on the last Sunday of February, the annual KNMA in the Park, at Sunder Nursery, that ushered in spring with an eclectic musical evening, which marked the Delhi debut of Beat Route, a percussion spectacle, the brainchild of music composer Roysten Abel and theatre director Ranjit Barot. Youth icon Mansa Jimmy, aka Mansa Pandey, opened for them.

In the nippy air of the February evening, Mansa played a few originals, some unreleased tracks, songs she’s never performed before, reimagined and modernised folk songs and a little bit of covers. A rendition of Kadi Aao Ni, a Punjabi folk song by Pakistan’s Chakwal Group. The Begum Akhtar thumri Hamri Atariya became a reggae anthem. And then a bit of AR Rahman and Gulzar. And songs like Seelan ki Khushboo and Kaise from her forthcoming album, which is due to release in March.

The lockdown was a boon for her. Her music found its audience on social media and her niche grew and drew more in. The stars aligned. She released her first original Tu Na Aaya in June 2021. While she loves Delhi, where she moved to 10 years ago from Nainital, Uttarakhand, to pursue music at Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and English Honours at Delhi University, Bombay audiences excite her because “they hold on to your every single word and it’s magical,” she says. In a recent dream-meeting with Gulzar, an animated Mansa cried copious tears like a child as the legendary poet-lyricist consoled her. In this exclusive interview with Moneycontrol, ahead of the release of her first album, Mansa Jimmy talks all things music. Edited excerpts:

I’m curious about the Jimmy in your name. Is there a story behind it?

I don’t think it has a lot of significance, but at the same time, it came from John Osborne’s play called Look Back in Anger (1956), one of its protagonists, his name was Jimmy. His rebellious nature and view towards everything in his life stood out for me. It resonated with everything that I hold close. So, that sort of stuck around when friends from college started calling me by that name. And I decided to keep it as a stage persona.

Your art is also sort of rebelling against the system.

For sure. Everything that we create sort of gives out the message that I do not like where I am, and this [an alternative] is where I want to be. In a way, it can be rebellious.

Going back to your childhood, when did you first realise you wanted to pursue music?

The other day, I was speaking to my uncle and he said that ever since you were very little, it was our hobby to bring you out before the guest and you would sing a song. I think ever since I was extremely small, this was a habit that was inculcated very, very young. Seems like I always wanted to do this.

Any personal favourite song that you keep returning to?

There’s a song by AR Rahman and Gulzar called Chupke Se. I make time for it every single day. Every single day. It’s one of my absolute favourites.

When you met Gulzar recently, did you talk to him about lyrics writing and did he say anything that you hold close?
Yeah. It was so emotional. I was in tears. He was trying to comfort me. And I kept telling him that because of your lyrics…not because of all the great things that you said, but the simple placement of a word, say, like yaara, which we might feel as insignificant, even as a lyric writer, but he has used every little nuance, every word so perfectly in his songs… whereas when you write lyrics or compose, you often tend to think of bigger things, the grand scheme or the big message, but for him, words like yaara or geela, geela paani holds all the significance. So, I told him about that and he was giggling throughout, he was very amused. That’s about it. But the day was remarkable. It gave me so much hope. It filled me with a new enthusiasm. I returned and my parents said, now that you have his blessings, it will help you in many ways.

You also write lyrics. Has anything from Gulzar’s body of work inspired you when you’re writing songs?

I love your questions! Usually we get asked such un-interesting things. So, I wrote a song a few months back. It is one of the songs from my upcoming album. It’s called Seelan ki Khushboo (the fragrance of dampness). So, I often sing it to my parents, my siblings, and they tell me that it holds a lot of memories back home in Uttarakhand, where our clothes remain wet; and it’s damp all the time. So, I said, then it has a significance.

So, when I was going to perform this song on the same stage as Gulzar Saab, one of my professor-friends suggested I should perform Seelan..., he’d be somebody who’d really appreciate the words I have used. I loved that compliment and was very enthusiastic about it.

Mansa, you have such a unique voice and a personality. How did you evolve your style to complement them?

Wow! So, style is made up of something that comes naturally to you, and then you keep repeating it. So, for example, I wear a hat. I dress up in an androgynous manner. If I do it for three months and leave it, people won’t associate it with me. It won’t be something that comes naturally to me. Your style is something that you can do year after year, and then it feels natural to you. I like experimenting but I often go back to certain things. For example, I love hats, I love neckties.

You’d agree if I say that the lockdown and social media boom have been beneficial for you to launch your career; in pre-Covid times, would it have been a little difficult for you to break into these channels?

For sure. I often tell people that I’m one of the few people who took advantage and got the returns for it. I had been performing for four or five years before the lockdown with no breakthrough in a way. And I was at a point where I was rethinking everything. With the lockdown, I was sticking to a routine. I was making videos every day. And sort of miraculously, one fine day, I got a lot of following. And from there on, it has been very, very generous, very kind, and I’m really grateful for it. Of course, the journey would have been very different. I can’t say if it would have been very difficult, but very different. It had helped me a lot.

So, I was writing songs for these pan-Indian films, Kannada films (777 Charlie), for a long time, and I was treating it as an exercise. What happens is when songs are made for one particular language, they have a different flow, different meter and when you try to translate it, to write it in your own language, it gets quite tricky. I was treating it as a learning process. And then Coke Studio [Bharat] happened and Salim Merchant’s SoundChk (song series for independent musicians) happened. And very slowly things began moving. It wasn’t happening overnight.

I was getting good projects that I was really enjoying, that I had dreamt of being a part of. And I got to learn so much in these few years and I am learning still and it has been really fun.

Which one do you enjoy more: making music or writing songs?

I love writing. I love writing songs, writing prose, because I think it is a very singular job. You take your pen and notebook, and you can get the project done by yourself.

But when it comes to performing or creating music, it takes a team, a village. You have to keep up with everybody’s taste, temperaments, and timings. So, as much as I enjoy singing and other aspects of it, I enjoy writing the most.

Writing for other languages which you do not know, like Kannada, Tamil and other languages, how difficult is it for you to write in those languages? Do you write in Hindi and get that translated?

What I do is I try to listen to as many songs as I can in every possible language so that even if I do not know the words, if tomorrow I need to write for a big Tamil music director, I need to write the song in Hindi so that I do justice to it, because translation is often undermined. But it makes a lot of difference who is translating your songs. It can kill a song. Give it the same respect that it deserves. So, I try to get the feel of words, how they feel over your tongue, what can be the possible word in our own language that justifies that feel, etc.

Other than Gulzar, who all are your favourite poets?

For lyrics, I like Javid Aktar Saab. I like Irshad Kamil. But I think Gulzar Saab, his cinematic approach, his selection of words, the themes, I think they strike me even though I recognise all these poets, who are legendary in their own way. But for me, if I have to choose a personal hero, it will always be him [Gulzar]. His style and his moods and romance. I love it.

And what about poets?

I like this poet who goes by the name of Fernando Pessoa. And then I like Leonard Cohen. These are some of the poets that I like.

What do you make of the independent music scene in India? It used to be robust at one point in time, of course MTV and Channel [V] gave it a solid push in the ’90s. Do you think there’s a resurgence in indie music scene now?

I see a lot of people are trying to make independent music, but I won’t call it a resurgence. Many are trying to do their own thing. Also, a lot of spaces, opportunities have opened up for independent music.

Such as?

A lot of songs are being placed in movies from the independent section. A lot of young music composers are coming up. Directors are trusting the young crowd with their music. Otherwise, it used to be the same old, well-respected names, but now you can see in OTT platforms especially that a lot of youngsters who have just set out to make their own songs are getting placed.

But, whereas some people who are magical have inspired me so much, at the same time, in terms of quality, I see a lot of people just trying to do independent music for the sake of it, a lot of it is just very insignificant. At this point, it is also because we collectively lack the patience, experience and time. Earlier, people used to learn their art so well. Spend years and years polishing their craft. Even if you take live music, people used to go out there, perform and really get the hang of it and then start creating their songs, cut albums, polish their craft. But now, we see that they don’t have that experience, that depth, a lot of them. Though, among them, there are some names that shine bright.

Have you got offers from Bollywood in terms of making/writing music or singing/doing playback?

Yeah, I’ve got. I got called for a couple of playbacks. There were some tracks that I did not like. There were some tracks that I did, but I wasn’t too proud of. And there were some tracks in which I got replaced. I won’t lie. I performed. I have done songs for my all favourite music directors.

There were 12 songs that I got replaced in. And, I think, it’s a very Bollywood thing that you tend to get replaced. It’s very common.

But do they inform you beforehand or you just find out?

No, no. You have to wait till the release/premiere day. The struggle is real.

Unlike old Hindi film songs, which we still remember, their lyrics and melody, the new songs from Bollywood films now hardly even register, they are forgotten as soon as they are released. Quite a few are remakes/remixes of older songs. And then there are new-age ‘singers’ singing on Auto-Tune.

As I said, earlier we took our time with everything we created. There was a certain discipline, but at the same time there was so much learning. If I listen to somebody like AR Rahman or Kumar Venkatesh, for instance, then whenever I sit down to create something of my own, that will come to me, I will be naturally imbibing my own feelings with their expertise. So, whatever I create, it will have a sense of a certain quality. But now what is happening is that we are rushing into things. I say we because even I have that sense of urgency. So, we are on a timeline and just trying to create, create, create. We aren’t turning to our own emotions, we are not looking within.

You are trained in Hindustani classical music, in the Gwalior gharana. Do you think younger people are pursuing Indian classical music or has that interest waned?

I think the past decade has seen people passionately turning back towards the classical arts. I see a lot of youngsters who are very good at what they are doing, especially when it comes to their classical roots and everything. So, that is also something that I have to look at.

Sufi music and ghazals seem to have a hold on you. But those genres were part of the bygone era of Hindi film music. How do you see you will be able to take that music ahead and in what form?

I think when it comes to Sufi and rock and all, every genre has its decade. Earlier, it happened with rock music. A lot of bands came up, they did wonderfully well, and then suddenly fizzled out. The wave of Sufi started hitting. But now I think the Sufi music has also been divided into two. Some people who are making the tracks contemporary and some people who are actually taking their time and studying as to what it is, where lie its roots, and try to reach that. I think, I will be very blessed if I can add anything significant to it, even if it’s one song or a single line. It will be a dream being fulfilled, if it ever happens.

What did you collaborate on with Salim-Sulaiman?

They have curated this thing called SoundChk, of all the upcoming acts in the country who are independent. They ask you to create one song for their show. And then you perform it with all the 10 bands. We did it a few months back. I created a song called Mera Yaar Purana for them and had the best time doing it.

Do you feel the kind of voice you have might not fit on any of the current crop of Hindi actresses?

I think, the things that I want to say, significant things, that is something that is lacking. I don’t care if it’s an item number, if it’s a religious anthem, but I want to say something that I resonate with. And then only, when everything aligns, everything can shine. I am not getting those opportunities and I don’t know if songs like that are coming up or not, but I would really want to sing a song which, irrespective of genre or theme, should be something that I can be proud of, that will resonate with me.

Any music director you dream to work with?

AR Rahman is definitely the No. 1. I adore Rahman. Then there is Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

When are you cutting your own album?

March. Hopefully mid-March, that’s when the first album will be out. I’m trying to get it done by then. Everything that I’ve done so far, I feel, it wasn’t me altogether but this time it is going to be my own experiment. It is going to be a five-track album. Two English tracks, three Hindi tracks and, most probably, one narration.

I still don’t have an album title. I was struck by the word Khair, because there are some lyrics which are around that. But I don’t think they have a linear thought or one particular message. I’m still thinking.