MUMBAI: A musician and playback singer, Parul recently released a music album, conveying the essence of the city of Banaras and its folk music

Parul Mishra started her journey in the world of Bollywood as a playback singer with A R Rahman's ADA - A musical journey. After having sung the title song "Ishq Ada" from the film, Parul has performed with AR Rahman in his concerts. Apart from this, Parul has appeared on various reality shows such as MTV Rock On and Zee Tv Sa Re Ga Ma Pa, and has succeeded to be amongst the finalists of both the shows.

The singer recently released a music video, from the album 'Streets of Banaras'. The song reminds you of the narrow streets leading from the ghats to the various temples, and the extreme spiritualism that is all pervading, one that explains the essence of Banaras. She says, "Banaras is the most ancient city in the world, renowned for its learning centres and heritage, the Banarsi saree, the Banarsi paan, the Kashi Vishwanath Temple and so many other things and importantly for being the Banaras Gharana (lineage) of Hindustani Classical music, as also the birthplace of the folk music of Uttar Pradesh". She adds, "Unfortunately in the past few decades, due to increasing westernization of contemporary music, interest in classical or folk music has been waning and limited to an extremely niche group of music aficionados. This has lead to fear that the folk music of Uttar Pradesh will gradually lose its place.

This album is an effort by Parul Mishra, to revive the dying art by combining the traditional with the contemporary so that it is appealing to the generation-next without losing its quintessential Indianness.

The album consists of six songs, sung by Parul, with each being a part of Hindi Folk Music, giving a different feel, a different mood and a different texture.