Underprivileged Mumbai kids record Raazi song with Gulzar

DS High School students with Gulzar at the recording

If you enjoyed hearing the song 'Aye Watan' from the latest Bollywood film, Raazi, pay more attention to the chorus the next time. It is sung by six children from Sion's D S High School, a government-aided Marathi medium school, which caters to underprivileged children from Dharavi and Pratiksha Nagar. The students' achievement was possible thanks to the robust music curriculum that this school offers.

The students prepared the chorus in just an hour, and it was recorded in a day. The school runs the music curriculum in association with the Shankar Mahadevan Academy at a very nominal charge, just Rs 500 per student annually.

"We trained the children for an hour. Most of it was recorded in just one take," said Archana Kamath Hegdekar, music teacher associated with the Academy. The students are also happy to have got the exposure. "When we reached the recording studio, Shankar Mahadevan was there along with lyricist Gulzar, and singer Sunidhi Chauhan. We were so excited and happy to perform in front of these personalities whom we admire a lot," said Soham Vavekar, a class IX student. Another student, Advait Ramshankar, told mid-day, "I hope to make a career in music because this one experience was really very exciting." His mother, Pallavi Ramshankar, said, "This was a golden opportunity provided by the school."

Trustee president of D S High School, Rajendra Pradhan, said, "Around 20 percent kids are very strong academically. The other kids mostly end up getting skill training for survival. But we realised all of them have inherent talents. If these talents are honed, these children can hope for a much better future. We tapped this need and started various co-curricular activities at affordable rates."

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