Five years since he last performed at the Club Mikanos (now shut) at Lower Parel, Ravin put in a rare appearance at Juhu nightspot Aurus on Wednesday. Soft-spoken and shy, the French artiste gets vocal when we ask him to review the standard of lounge music today.

“Ethnic music has become boring, abused by producers who take to it only because it is trendy. The production quality is poor and the tunes are all linear,” he says. Scathing words from a man whose creativity has spurred a thousand imitations. And whose beginnings point to a humble record store in Paris.

“My mother (she is French) wanted us to move to Paris. She believed the education system there would help us,” he says. It must have broken her heart to find out that her son dropped out of school and spent more time in a music store, but Ravin says that’s precisely where he found his calling — in the tactile and aural business of selling records. “I discovered all genres of music. From classical to R&B, funk and soul,” he says.

His roots, however, are still in Indian classical. “My father was a fan of Mukesh while my mother preferred Lata Mangeshkar,” he says. In fact, Ravin was noticed by Claude Challe at the launch party of Another Green World, featuring Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Peter Gabriel. “After a couple of interactions, he asked me to tape my thoughts on the concept of the Buddha Bar. I returned home at 1 am, spread my records on the floor and compiled it right then. Two days later, he called back saying he would like to work with me.”

An essential element of his compilations and deejay sets and a recurring strand in our conversation is ‘emotion’. “I’m always looking for fusion that is cooked in a different way. My stories are not like a long drive on a straight highway. A deejay and an artiste must surprise the audience,” he says. Precisely what he did five years ago at Mikanos, when, in the midst of a thumping dance set, the audience was left scratching their heads when Ravin dropped the tune, Kali naagin jaisi zulfain hain teri kaali kaali. He smiles at the memory. “I like to leave my audience with a nice souvenir for the next morning, not a hangover,” he says.