The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Chandigarh boy makes it big
By Pradeep Sharma

AT the age when most of the talented youngsters are battling it out to find their feet in the fiercely competitive Bollywood film industry, a young lad from Chandigarh — derisively dubbed as a culturally a dead city — has made it big on the small screen.

Meet Jagmeet Bal, a 27-year-old handsome young man with sweet, innocent looks, the director of the upcoming musical show, “Sa Re Ga Ma Punjabi” and half-a-dozen other programmes on Alpha TV— the exclusive Punjabi channel of the Zee network.

In fact, his is the story of a small-town boy making it big in the city of dreams — Mumbai. A product of Government Model School, Sector 22, Jagmeet joined the Bachelor of Fine Art (BFA) course at Chandigarh College of Architecture. But his mind was always set on doing something “creative” and he started doing advertisements for the MTV while still in college.

Finding his creative urge stifled in Chandigarh and in a typical scene from a Hindi blockbuster, he took the decision of his lifetime — left for Bollywood in 1995 for greener pastures even when his BFA result was not out.

Sans any godfather in the dream city, Jagmeet slogged his way up to his present position. Assisting directors of the several serials, including “Positive Health Show”, “Colgate Gel Yoodle Do”, “Casper Kya Scene Hai” and “Zandu Filmi Batein”, honed his inbuilt talent and perfected his editing skills.

His strong editing skills, coupled with inherent talent, helped him to don the director’s cap pretty early. “Archie Top of the Top” , “VIP No 1” and “Meri Marzi” brought him in league with the mainline small screen directors. Seeing immense potential in the young man, Zee TV involved him in the promotion of the network in London.

And in the wake of the tercentenary of the Khalsa, he embarked on his dream project of popularising Anandpur Sahib as the “eighth wonder” of the world. The prestigious project, in which peace marches from the seven wonders of the world were to reach the holy Sikh city and in which world personalities like Bill Clinton, Dalai Lama and Kofi Annan were to be interviewed, unfortunately could not see the light of the day on account of division of the Shiromani Akali Dal between the Badal and Tohra factions.

But Punjab’s loss proved to Alpha TV’s gain. By that time Alpha TV had started and he directed several successful serials like “Ayur Take it Easy”. Guudi Chardi Jaandi”, “Shandy Diyan Chalaanga”, “Sunehe” and hugely popular “Sundar Mundriya O” live show at the Parade Ground in Chandigarh.

But the high point in his career came when he was picked up by Gajendra Singh, director of the highest rated programme, “Sa Re Ga Ma”, to be episode director of its Punjabi version. Patterned on the Hindi programme, it was intended to revive the rich musical heritage of the land of five rivers which had taken a backseat in the current phase of Punjabi pop, Jagmeet told The Tribune.

Jagmeet, who was in Chandigarh recently in search of talent for the second schedule of the “Sa Re Ga Ma Punjabi”, said that now he wanted to concentrate on quality rather than quantity. He said he was open to any kind of direction whether film or teleserial provided the assignment was creative and challenging.

The director is comfortable behind as well as in front of the camera. He will soon be seen in an ad film made for a multinational company.

	From cricket to music to films By Utpal Borpujari EVER since he set the music world alight with “Maachis”, there has been no looking back for Vishal Bhardwaj who has already won the latest National Award for his haunting score in “Godmother”. Yet, music is only his second love. For a man, who as a young lad dreamt of representing India in cricket and had represented Uttar Pradesh in the C.K. Nayudu tournament, it has been a short but eventful journey to fame since he composed the catchy jingle Jungle jungle pata chala hai ... for the popular teleserial “Jungle Book”. A journey which Bhardwaj wants to make more eventful by turning into a film director in the very near future. “I am working on a story and this year-end or early next year I should be starting my directorial debut. But, definitely it will not be a musical as people will expect me to do,” says Bhardwaj, who composed music for films like “Satya”, “Chachi 420”, “Hu Tu Tu” and “Jahan Tum Le Chalo”. It will be on human emotions. And if I am able to make my second film, I will make that a musical, but the first film I consciously do not want to make a musical,” he says, pointing to the fact that he already has a little directorial experience, having handled the baton for two episodes of teleserial “Gubbare”. In his typical unassuming soft-spoken tone, Bhardwaj says the secret behind his success in cinema music lies in the fact that he loves cinema. “My love for cinema makes me different. My interest is not only in songs, it is for the music as it will be heard in the overall scheme of things in a particular films — the story and the characterisation,” he explains. “I never keep a tune ready as stock songs like many do. First I hear the story and the characters and only then I compose the music exclusively according to the nature of the film,” says the composer of Chappa chappa charkha chale... in “Maachis” which made him a household name. Talk about “Jungle Book”, “Maachis” and “Hu Tu Tu” and Vishal will talk about his Gulzar saab. “After Jungle jungle pata chale ... became a big hit, we just carried on. In ‘Maachis’ we struck the right chord again, and now we are inseparable,” he says about he man with whom he did a non-film album, “Burhe Paharon Par”, which, however, suffered due to lack of proper marketing. “We are now doing another non-film album with Sony Music, to be sung by Bhupinder and Chitra, in which Gulzar saab will tell a story the characters of which will sing the songs. If it’s a success, it might be turned into a 45-60-minute telemusical,” he says. Undoubtedly, Bhardwaj considers “Maachis” as his best work till date. “Of course I was expecting the success it met with because I knew this was the chance I was looking for all my life and gave everything to it. “It had everything — it had emotion, it had youth — there was tremendous scope for a background score. But still I did not get the National Award for it, which now I have got for ‘Godmother’, another very dramatic story with lots of scope.” Among his other works, Bhardwaj considers Venugopal’s Malayalam film “Daya” as “very good”. “I am very proud of that music. I wish they (the film’s markers) dub it into Hindi,” he says. Modesty is writ large on the man’s face despite his successes at a young age — Bhardwaj is just in his 30s. On why he does so few film, he says, “It may be the other way round also — very few people might want to work with me.” A product of Delhi’s famous Hindu College, Bhardwaj ranks “Bhagmati”, India’s first full-length animation feature film from the stable of Zica, Zee network’s animation wing, as one of the projects he is eagerly waiting for .... “It has a tremendous scope for music and I am looking forward to it, along with Hanslal Mehta’s comedy “Dil Pe Mat Le Yaar” starring Manoj Bajpai and Tabu. “Bhagmati’ is a very difficult subject because there is a blend of modern music as well as ethnic music. It is a very difficult yet very satisfying project,” he says. Bhardwaj is also happy that Indian cinegoers in the last few years have learnt to appreciate other aspects of film making too, apart from only the acting or songs. “Now with improvement of cinema and technique, people are looking for better sound. I think we are going ahead with it,” he says referring to the background scores of films like “Satya”. In fact, he recalls, “There used to be man called some Nayak in Mumbai who used to background scores for all films earlier. He had stock music for various emotions and just used to play them according to the director’s choice. “For example, for emotional scenes he would bring out, say, cassete No. 23 which had all the emotional pieces in it, while cassette No. 2 would have all the fight sequence music, and so on. But times have changed for the better now.” Bhardwaj rates S.D. Burman, R.D. Burman, Salil Chowdhury, O.P. Nayyar and Naushad among his favourites, but Madan Mohan and R.D. as his inspirations. “It is really an honour that after the passing away of R.D. Burman, Gulzar saab has taken me as his music director.” About Gulzar, he says, “It is both very easy yet very difficult to work with him. Easily because we understand each other perfectly, and difficult because we are perfectionists. Of course, in the end it is always his views that prevail, because he is the director and has the final word.” Bhardwaj, who is right arm leg-spinner and a middle order batsman, says he still practises cricket every morning. “Before, playing music, every morning I play cricket to start the day. It is my first love, even ahead of music.” — PTI
	Sight & Sound We are all going “native” Remember those happy days when every housewife in Delhi, from Punjabi Bagh to Mayur Vihar was glued to “Shanti” Barbara? When MTV and Channel V were the Indian teenager’s escape to Phoren? When the BBC and others did not have ads for desi products? Ah, happy, happy days. Almost as good as going to phoren. And now, we have all become bakras. But there are bakras and bakras. But surely someone, such as Star, is making bakras out of us when they say they are going desi and the first thing they do is to remove its popular and modish 7 p.m. Hindi news bulletin, which was the answer to all those ex-NDTV employees who are writing real life novels and accusing it of not being really Hindi. Then what a shock to find that the most popular morning show, which has been slavishly copied down to the last detail, by every other channel, the elegantly bi-lingual Good Morning India, instead of being repeated at 8 a.m., has been substituted with the filmi frolic of the most pedestrian variety. How are the mighty fallen. For that matter, everyone is joining the desi rat race. The BBC has picked up India’s best known anchors for chat and other shows. And some of them are doing the same sort of shows on different channels. It seems that no one is interested in good, old-fashioned values like loyalty or copyright for channels, originality of ideas, as long as it is Indian. But is it? Is Kaun Banega Crorepati Indian? Picking up ideas long exhausted in the West, merely because they are American or British and one has seen them while living abroad, has become the norm. The fatuous questions, the embarrassment of Amitabh Bachchan as anchor, the easy money picked up by Delhi boys who do not know where Ferozeshah Kotla is located or the boy who has to ask his pitaji which actress is NOT married to a sportsman. The embarrassment is to us, the viewers who had respect for Star Plus and Amitabh Bachchan. One hopes, for Star’s sake, that the gamble does not pay off. When it started its decline into a desi channel not for the sake of better programmes but for joining the lowest kind of rat race, we had issued a similar warning. Now this desification has trickled on to CNN, which has adopted the rather more sensible idea of going desi, but in English. This it will have the impeccable Riz Khan doing his Q and A with Indian celebrities and not the locals going phoren. One wishes sometimes that the BBC sent Tim Sebastian on more stints to India rather than the imitation Tim Sebastians from Delhi (they never go beyond Delhi, do they?). And if CNN sticks to this agenda and keeps its Hindi and other stuff separate, it would be doing the viewers a favour. But just as a reminder of how great minds think alike, two channels have thought of making cricketers respectable again by looking into their domestic bliss, courtships (and no jokes about match-fixing please) and good luck on the BBC to Karan Thapar (who is always very soft with cricketers anyway and has a first-rate research team) and Harsha Bhogale on Star Sports, and may the best man win. A highly elite and appreciative audience watched last week at the India International Centre a film compiled by Saeed Naqvi of India’s peacekeeping efforts under the auspices of the UN, which he has been steadily and brilliantly covering, sometimes at great personal risk, for over a decade, right down to General Jetly in Sierra Leone and a valuable interview on the subject with the UN Secretary-General. For the Defence Minister, who was present, and General Nambiar, who has headed such efforts in the worst trouble spots, the film must have been a revelation. And, indeed, to the deeply moved and proud audience present. Because in its infinite and characteristic wisdom, DD, which has more recently commissioned these programmes — has been trucking them away — in obscure corners at absurd timings, without any publicity or news sense, instead of flaunting them at prime time to the nation and dubbing them in different Indian languages, not to speak of the Ministries of Defence, External Affairs and Information and Broadcasting not only projecting them on foreign channels through the United Nations, but commissioning Naqvi to do many more of the same. Because he is a rare specialist who is an asset to the nation and has been a modest loner for too long.
	Buskers, roadside musicians By Trevor Barnard BRITAIN’S equivalent of the roadside madaaris and snake-charmers who seek the attention of tourists along the road from Delhi to Agra are the “buskers” — musicians of varying talent who perform for the coins dropped at their feet by passengers at railway and underground stations. They are a feature of everyday life in London and other major cities. Public reaction to them ranges from enthusiasm to outright disapproval, but mainly is one of tolerance, touched by the satisfaction of giving a trifle to help someone down on his luck who is trying to work for a living rather than resort to begging. Some are talented musicians, whose “takings” reflect their accomplishments. Others are no-hopers who sing tunelessly and strum a guitar to the backing from a CD player and receive money out of pity or habit. Foreign tourists are fascinated by them. But they have a problem. They are operating illegally. A bye-law rules that no one “shall tout for or solicit money, reward, custom or employment of any kind” on railway property, and the buskers are often “moved on” by the transport police and other officials. For the most part, however, the authorities turn a blind eye to their activities, and now it seems they are to be made legal. According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, new bye-laws to be approved by the government will allow railway operators to license buskers on their property. They will have to pass an audition to prove their talent, sign an undertaking not to harass travellers, and pay an annual licence fee or about £ 20. They will be assigned a marked pitch, where they will be allowed to perform during designated hours. It is argued that this licensing system will remove the problems associated with the buskers, who frequently cause congestion in passageways and at the bottom of escalators, and have also been known to commit crimes and attack passengers. A licensing system would bring them under control. It is also felt that organised in this way would improve their status as a tourist attraction. Passengers are likely to welcome the scheme, provided the audition process ensures a reasonable level of talent. But the buskers as a group are not too pleased. They are concerned that many of their fraternity will lose their means of living by being refused a licence - and they also want to know whether successful applicants will have to declare their earnings for income tax. — ANI
	Audioscan ‘Bichhoo’ packs a string BICHHOO (T-Series): Anand Raj Anand’s film music has a peculiar problem. One or two songs are thrilling but the rest are equally insipid. He has finally gotten over this trait here. This is perhaps the first album from him which is packed with thrilling tunes cover to cover. The USP, of course, is Dil tote tote ho gaya …. The Shweta Shetty- Hans Raj Hans number has the making of a rage. Hans may not be your idea of a pop icon, but there he is, dancing to glory with lissome Shetty. Small wonder that the song is included in the cassette in an instrumental version also. The producer of the film is Guddu Dhanoa and it is not surprising that he has included several semi-Punjabi numbers. In fact, it won’t be wrong to call them pure Punjabi, especially Ekwari tak le … which has been competently rendered by Sunidhi Chauhan and Harry Anand. Jeevan mein jaane jaana … has been sung by Jaspinder Narula and Harry Anand and is there in an instrumental version also. Pyar tu dil tu … (Alka Yagnik, Vinod Rathod and chorus) is rather halting but Pyar ho na jaye … (Ram Shankar, Shankar Mahadevan and Raj Bhatt) flows well. Among the sugary variety are Tere honthon ki hansi … by Swarnlata and Hariharan. RANN BABEY DI (Times Music): Vikrannt Singh has been on the music scene of Europe for quite some time. He tried his hand at western rhythms in his earlier forays here but without much success. But he seems to have hit paydirt with his first Punjabi pop album, Oh Rann Babey Di. Lyrics are traditional but the music is not. This and five other songs have been penned by Vikrannt himself (the extra “n” in the name is apparently because of numerological reasons). One song, Veh sajana …, is by his late father Piara Singh, while one, Naa dil lage …, has been penned by Sham Balkaar. Not all songs are fast-paced. Music has been arranged by the late Dheeraj Dhanak. The cassette mentions Hat jao hat jao … as the “hit track” but to my mind, it is the title song which has the potential to make it big. SHAAYAD (Venus): Music runs in Mehmood’s family. His father was a classical dancer and singer. While he himself confined himself to film comedy, his sons are branching out into singing. Lucky Ali is already a big name. And now Makki Mehmood has also joined the bandwagon. Unfortunately, he has neither enough talent nor enough riyaaz to stand him in good stead. As such, most of the songs are flat and dull. In fact, he sings almost like an untrained child in a few songs like Main chala … and Tumne to … The quawwali genre that he has chosen requires a highly controlled voice that he does not happen to have. Lyrics by Arif Dehlvi and Khaled are also a disappointment. His co-singers, Vaishali, Sanam-Nobina, Madhushri and Suzzane, do not give a very good account of themselves either.