Poignant Song: The Life and Music of Lakshmi Shankar

by Kavita Das

Dancer, film actor, Hindustani classical singer - Lakshmi Shankar was all this and more. Starting her journey as a teenager in Uday Shankar's breakthrough troupe, she ventured into playback singing after a tragic illness cut short her dance career, going on to be the voice behind films such as Richard Attenborough's critically acclaimed Gandhi. But her ultimate artistry lay in Hindustani classical music. In this book, Kavita Das, who has known her since childhood, traces Lakshmi's fascinating story that culminated in a Grammy nomination in 2009. Poignant Song explores the journey of Indian music to the West through the remarkable life of a great artiste.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography

Unknown Binding

About the author

Kavita Das writes about culture, race, feminism, and their intersections. Nominated for a 2016 Pushcart Prize, Kavita’s work has been published in Tin House, Longreads, The Atlantic, Off Assignment, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Washington Post, Kenyon Review, NBC News Asian America, Guernica, Quartz, McSweeney’s, The Rumpus, and elsewhere. Her first book, Poignant Song: The Life and Music of Lakshmi Shankar, a biography about the Grammy-nominated Hindustani singer, who played a pivotal role in bringing Indian music to the West, was released in June 2019 (Harper Collins India).

Reviews

[LibroReview]

Genre - Non-Fiction (Biography)
No. Of pages - 261
NO RATING.
When we look at a celebrity from any field, we see lights, camera, fame, spotlight and applaud & respect them for their achievements. What we don’t see is how they are emotionally connected with their work, what gives them actual happiness is not the fame but the authenticity of their work and how they go through loads of ups and downs and dark times to bring about the change they bring in the society.
Poignant Song is the biography Lakshmi Shankar who was a singer, a dancer and an actor. She started her journey as a dancer, but due to a few events (read the book to know), she had to give up on dancing and slowly turned into a singer. However, she was not “just another singer”. This lady took Indian music to the west, was nominated for Grammy Awards in 2009 emerged to be known as one of the best Hindustani classical singers of all times. She achieved many more things, in her personal and professional life (again, read the book to know.) Well, this is the bright side of her story.
The cover of the book has her beautiful, juvenile face. It gives us a definition of utmost beauty in the previous times looked like. However, the title and the shade of the cover give off a dark vibe. This is because this singer’s life was not just “all happy-go-lucky”, but actually, filled with darkness at certain points in life too. From a very young, she lived her life without a father, got cut down from resources to continue with dancing and lost her daughter. Her journey has not been an easy one.
The language of the book is a little complex for beginners but perfectly fine for avid readers. It is very well structured, coherent in a different manner with interesting titles.
I felt emotional at every point in the book. At some places I felt happy, at some I felt proud, and at others, hurt. This book cleared my head of all the assumptions I had about celebrities and artists. It made me realize that the most important factor for an artist is the positive impact of their creative art. Nothing matters to them as much as their art does and they rarely care about fame and spotlight. I learnt a lot from this book. Therefore, I do recommend it. However, I am not giving it a rating to pay respect to the author and Lakshmi Shankar herself.

[Shanthi Ramabhadran]

Completely new book for me.

This book talks about a woman's success in music whose name was nominated ( first Indian woman vocalist ) for Grammy award.
Lakshmi born in a South Indian family , learnt dance. Due to her illness , she was forced to quit dance. Since her childhood , she was keen to learn carnatic music. Her concentration moved to music. She travelled many places and learnt hindustani music(North Indian form of music). She married rajendra Shankar who was much older than her and has 2 children. Due to her husband and her mother's support she managed to perform all over the world. The children were taken care by her husband and her mother.
She was very popular in France. She rendered her voice for the most popular movie , Gandhi and many more Bollywood movies.
She was performing until her age of 85!! Amazing. The most tragic happened in her life was loosing her daughter.
She was multilingual, very adaptable and focussed.
This book talks more about music and Ravishankar (brother in law of Lakshmi) .
In those days in India, for a woman, this kind of success could happen only with the support of her family members.