Mann Ke Manjeere - An Album of Women's Dreams Downloads

Mann ke Manjeeré, featuring Shubha Mudgal, is a unique album - unique because it is a musical journey, which denotes a woman's dreams and aspirations for the new century. The album is dedicated to the new age women - a woman with dreams, a woman who knows her basic rights to life, education... Learn More »

Mann ke Manjeeré, featuring Shubha Mudgal, is a unique album - unique because it is a musical journey, which denotes a woman's dreams and aspirations for the new century. The album is dedicated to the new age women - a woman with dreams, a woman who knows her basic rights to life, education and most importantly, the right to make choices for herself.

Shantanu Moitra has directed the music for this album. A mix of popular and folk singers including Shubha Mudgal, Antara Chowdhury, Mahalakshmi Iyer, Rukmabai, and Diwaliben have rendered the songs. Produced by Mallika Dutt, founder and executive director of Breakthrough - an organization that raises awareness about social justice through popular culture - the album has been released by Virgin Records. The lyrics have been penned by Prasoon Joshi, new breed poet, lyricist and writer. The album sees the re-union of the Ab ke Sawan team of Shantanu Moitra, Prasoon Joshi, Shubha Mudgal and Virgin Records.

From the moment that Breakthrough conceived the album, it was clear that Shubha Mudgal would be the main artist. Who better to symbolize the hopes of Indian women. Shantanu and Prasoon were asked to join the team because of the sensitivity they had shown in their earlier album, Ab ke Sawan. Each song from Mann ke Manjeeré has a strong thought behind it. They are a tribute to women, their different moods and aspects of their personality. They communicate women's emotions while also pushing people to think about the status of women in India. The album challenges us to listen with our hearts and to participate in removing the obstacles to the realization of women's dreams.

Soulsearching, thought provoking, but never preachy, Mann ke Manjeeré is a unique and powerful blend of music, justice and equality.

The Mann ke Manjeeré video

The music video features accomplished actor, Mita Vasisht and has been directed by Sujit Sircar and Gary of Red Ice Films. The story of the music video was inspired greatly by the life of a young woman in Ahmedabad, Shameem Pathan. The only daughter among seven sons, Shameem was born into a well-to-do family. She fell in love, and much against the wishes of the family, married the man of her choice. That she had made the wrong choice soon became apparent. Her husband expected her family to support them and refused to work. When her son was three and a half years old, Shameem finally decided to fend for herself.

She went through a series of businesses, milk vending, kite-making and doing any job available to make ends met. Finally, she learned how to drive, an unheard of occupation for a woman in her society. She now drives her own matador van in Ahmedabad, ferrying passengers.

(In 2001, the Mann ke Manjeeré music video won the Screen Awards and was nominated for the MTV Awards)

ARTISTS on the album:
Shubha Mudgal One of the most versatile and popular performers of the new generation of Hindustani musicians, Shubha Mudgal was recently honored with the Padmashree for her contribution to the world of Indian music.

A renowned classical vocalist, she has also won acclaim as a composer with soundtracks like ‘Kama Sutra’ and ‘Dance of the Wind.’ Her versatility has seen her compose for dancers, ballets, documentary films and TV signature tunes.

Three successful albums of contemporary Indian music, ‘Ali More Angana,’ ‘Ab Ke Sawan’ and ‘Pyar Ke Geet’ have showcased the range and depth of her vocal performance. Shubha’s sensitivity to women’s issues and vast knowledge of music contributed greatly to the development of the ‘Mann Ke Manjeere’ album.

Rukmabai was the first woman from Rajasthan’s Manganiyar community to perform in public. Born with polio and unable to walk, she lives in a hut with her son and daughter-in-law. Rukmabai has performed extensively, including for the BBC in London. The recording for ‘Kesariya Balam’ was done live on the sand dunes of Jaisalmer.

Diwaliben Bhil is a renowed Gujarati folk singer from Junagadh. She has sung hundreds of Gujarati bhajans, garba and folk songs as well as playback for films. Awarded the Padmashree in 1990, Diwaliben is now 57 years old and also works as a nanny, escorting kindergarten children to and from school.

Mahalakshmi Iyer has the distinction of singing in 16 languages from English and Tamil to French, Russian and Arabic. She has sung under the baton of A.R. Rahman, Illayaraja and Telvin Singh and has recorded for numerous Hindi films including ‘Dil Se’, ‘Lagaan’, ‘Zubeida’ and ‘Dillagi’ among others.

Antara Chowdhury, Daughter of renowned composer and lyricist Salil Chowdhury, Antara is trained in both Indian and Western Classical music. Starting at the age of six, Antara has sung for both Bengali and Hindi films, and has also done albums in both languages. She plays guitar and keyboards and is currently compiling a book on her father’s music.

Shantanu Moitra found his way to a career in music through a job in advertising. After composing numerous successful jingles, Shantanu went on to represent India at the World Folk and Pop Music Festival at Almati, Kazakhastan in 1997. In 1999 his debut album as Music Director, ‘Ab Ke Sawan’, with Shubha Mudgal hit the stands. He has recently completed the music for Samarjeet Dasgupta’s film, ‘Pyar Ke Dhun’, where he has worked with Javed Akhtar.

Poet, lyricist, writer Prasoon Joshi is among that breed of young achievers that has very quickly made a name for himself in the fields he loves most: advertising and lyric writing. His maiden album as a lyricist, Silk Route’s ‘Boondein’ was a chartbuster, followed by an even more successful ‘Ab Ke Sawan’ with Shubha Mudgal. Although the author of three books of poetry, he feels that his poetry when set to music, reaches further out to the masses.

Mallika Dutt, founder and Executive Director of Breakthrough has a long history of activism in human rights. In her last year of law school at New York University, Mallika co-founded Sakhi for South Asian Women, which address the problem of violence against women in that community in New York. Prior to Breakthrough, Mallika was the Program Officer for Human Rights and Social Justice at the Ford Foundation’s New Delhi office.
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