Manonmani is an extraordinary sarangi player from Chennai, the daughter of didruba player Saroj and a student of Ghulam Sabir Khan in Delhi. She began playing sarangi in 2009, imitating YouTube videos, but now she has reached such a level of prominence as to be working with the peerless film composer AR Rahman, She excells at colourful fusion adventures with high production values. In her own words:
"Actually, I began learning the sarangi only in 2009, out of my own interest. I began by watching videos online. Five years ago, I joined the Gurukulam of Ustad Ghulam Sabir Khan in Delhi and I’ve been training under him since.
Previously I learnt the dilruba and Carnatic music but I wasn’t encouraged to play in films by my family. Later, after I got married, I decided to learn and explore more out of my own interest.
What encouraged you to pick up this instrument in particular?
Many years ago, AR Rahman had gifted the Chinese erhu to my mother. I began playing the erhu first. I’ve played the instrument for Yuvan Shankar Raja for the song Ennamo nadakkiradhe (from Sandakozhi), Chellame Chellame (from Sathyam) for Harris Jayaraj and a few more. But somehow this instrument did not pick up too much in the industry, may be because it sounds very solemn. Then I picked up the sarangi and loved how it sounded." Read more here.
We begin with a melodious cover of AR Rahman's Aga Naga:
