 |
|
| ARTS TRIBUNE | Friday, March 1, 2002, Chandigarh, India |
Safeguarding Punjabi culture AUDIOSCAN
Lucknow culture survives |
|
Safeguarding Punjabi culture THERE is a long list of Punjabi folk singers who have played havoc with Punjabi folk culture. They have brought it down to the level of vulgarity to make a fast buck. Unfortunately, vulgarity is being accepted more than elegance in this country. The rich tradition of Punjabi folk singing has seen its worst period in recent years. Fortunately, all is not lost. There are certain folk singers who have stood as guardians of the Punjabi culture to keep the banner of its richness and uniqueness flying. Pammi Bai, alias Parmjit Sidhu, is one such singer. Whereas many folk singers have gone astray, he has kept himself rooted in the basics of Punjabi folk singing. Hailing from Jakhpel village in Sangrur district of the Malwa region, known for its richness of folklore, Pammi Bai has been associated with cultural activities for the past 20 years. He is the son of the late Partap Singh Baghi, a famous freedom fighter. His father inspired him to become an artist. An outstanding folk dancer, Pammi turned a professional artiste only a few years ago. After doing MA in Punjabi literature and Public Administration, he also did LL.B to remain in touch with cultural activities at the university level. Since 1986, he has been to over 20 countries, including Thailand, Mauritius, Norway, the UK, Singapore, the USA, Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Denmark and China, to perform as a bhangra dancer and folk singer. He recorded his first audio cassette in 1987, along with the late Narinder Biba, who was blessed with the sweet voice. Then he recorded an audio cassette with Surinder Kaur, a renowned TV and radio artist. One of his songs was recorded by Jagjit Singh in his audio cassette “Ichhabal”, released in 1991. Two of his songs were recorded by Music Today. He has worked with music directors like Surinder Bachan, Charanjit Ahuja, Pandit Jawala Parshad and Ved Sethi. But the real break for him came with the release of Ji ne jan nu karda, rangli dunia ton.... It was an instant hit. The appeal of this song heralded Pammi Bai into the big league of Punjabi folk singers. From a famed folk dancer, Pammi has now established his identity as one of the leading folk singers. His latest audio cassette, “Nach Nach Pauni Dhamal” has added a new feather to his cap. Its video is ready to be released soon. Director, Jagmit Bal has filmed five of its songs. Bal has avoided showing scantily-clad models in the video. Pammi Bai has made it clear to the management of the HMV company, which has for the first time prepared the video cassette of a folk singer, that he would not compromise as far as the quality of visuals is concerned. One of his conditions is that the visuals should be free from all sorts of obscenity. And all this makes Pammi Bai different from several others. The new cassette has eight songs. And all these are based on different forms of Punjabi dances. Allah janne te yaar na janne-mera dhol jawanian manne..., is based on Jhoomer. Three generations of Punjabi folk artistes have been shown in the visuals of this song. The title song Nach nach pauni dhamal... is based on the bhangra-dhamal tradition of Punjab. Among other songs are Surmedani..., Do cheeja Jat mangda... and Ne tu gaani che paroke tangia.... Love, affection and rustic lifestyle are the strengths of the visuals of Pammi Bai’s songs. He has also worked in the Punjabi film “Bagawat”and “Dhee Jat De” and tele films like “Manas Ki Jaat”, “Mehfil Mitra Di” and TV serial “Vichora”. He was a member of the Punjab Sangeet Natak Akademi, Chandigarh, from 1995 to 1998, and has been a member of the Punjab Arts Council, Chandigarh, since 1999, besides being a member of Malwa Arts, Sport, Cultural and Educational Trust. It is his passion to rediscover eminent old artistes and support them. |
AUDIOSCAN LAL SALAAM (Universal): Whenever Lata Mangeshkar teams up with brother Hridyanath, we get to hear some outstanding melodies. This has been proved yet again like never before, because this album packs unalloyed magic back to back. Gulzar too has excelled himself for this special album. There isn’t one song which is below the merit list. Nearly all of them are based on folk tunes. Lata is there in all of them, except Jara sa aao na … (Roop Kumar Rathod and Ravindra Sathe). And each of them calls for superlatives. The pick of the lot are the singles Humkara jage … and Chand gufa mein … Rathod is her co-singer in two songs and has made a valiant attempt to rise to the occasion. He succeeds in Mitawa …, but does not in Beeta mausam … Tum asha vishwas hamare … has been heard before but gels seamlessly with the general tenor of this album, making it a bouquet of splendid six. The dust jacket calls the album “a work of art”. There is no exaggeration in the promos. AANKHEN (Universal): If it is Lata all the way in the previous album, here it is Remo Fernandes who dominates. He not only does the theme song along with Sonu Nigam, but also another equally racy number called All the best …. His yodelling is unique in both. The album opens with Amitabh Bachchan’s soliloquy which keeps you spellbound. The credit for music has been given to Aadesh Shrivastava alone, despite the fact five of the eight songs have been composed by Jatin Lalit instead. Jatin Lalit have also participated in the composing of another song, Phatela jeb…. So, one wonders why Aadesh Shrivastava has been mentioned as the sole music composer. The album gives a chance to several newcomers. Among them are Vasundara, Nitin Raikar and Javed as singers and Praveen Bhardwaj, Nitin Raikar and Astish Kapadia as lyricists. DIL VICH TU VASDI (Tips): Sahota brothers claim to be the number one bhangra band in the world and have tried to prove this by pumping up the beats red hot. They have produced six albums performed in Punjabi and one in English. This one has been composed and arranged by Mukhtar Sahota and Surjit Sahota and sung by Surjit. Most of the songs cater to Punjabis settled
abroad. Tunes are bhangra oriented. Two songs, Dil mein tu rehti … and Mahi kyon nahin aaya … are in Hindi.s Besides, there is an “ardaas” for world peace. Lyrics are by Chaman Lal Chaman, Dalvinder Sangha, H.S.Upashik, Baldev Deep and Happy
Bains.
|
SIGHT & SOUND THE portrait of a city has many colours. If, this week, the portrait of Lucknow is of hung Assemblies, horse-trading, caste and the despair of voters, there is the other Lucknow, the classic Lucknow of
kababs, of chaat at Aminabad, of chikankari kurtas, of polite people who speak an elegant language, are known for their beautiful manners and who are, without boasting about it, proud of their city. This was more than evident in the way the city and its people came across on television. Not one of the top politicians raised their voices, not Mulayam Singh, not
Mayawati, and even in defeat, Rajnath Singh spoke in one of the finest voices we now hear on the media, a deep baritone, in the most elegant Hindi. In this atmosphere, frequent TV personalities like Amar Singh, who rant and interrupt in Delhi, got tamed and spoke softly and smilingly. The local leaders and candidates also spoke without shrillness, whether in victory or in defeat. In this civilized milieu, Delhi’s TV anchors like Rajdeep Sardesai and the rest, who revel in bullying politicians, seemed totally out of place. They spoke in a different language and in a different voice from the locals and it stood out like a sore thumb. Whether it was Rajdeep conducting a contentious interview or Barkha Dutt bouncing vigorously about in “We The People”, the participants kept their cool, spoke in civilized tones, without raised voices even when asking hard-hitting questions, and the local politicians responded in kind. This is when the UP-bred anchors, commentators and interviewers shone. I have already mentioned Shikha Trivedi and her quiet effectiveness, although this time she was operating in other territories as well. But the one who really came into his own was Pankaj
Pachauri, confined for too long in NDTV’s studios although he has done excellent field work for the BBC and India Today and other papers earlier in his career. Pankaj is a Mathura lad and proud of it and his elegant Hindi is to match. His 24-hour chat with Rajnath Singh lapsed into homely political metaphors like khitchri over which they had a good laugh. In contrast Srinivasan Jain’s encounter with the paanwallah looked as contrived as it was. Lucknow-based reporters like Kamal Khan, equally fluent in Hindi and Urdu, and Rahul
Srivastava, even when speaking in English, kept up the Lucknowi
tehzeeb, and all kudos to them. The only parallel of this kind I can think of is when Prannoy Roy telecast his “Question Time India” from Bangalore. Another civilized city with its unmistakable cultural nuances and elegant people. Mr Hedge and Mr Krishna do not raise their voices either nor do its citizens even in controversial debate. Well done, Lucknow. Keep it up. I wish I could speak as glowingly of Aaj Tak as I did last time. But everyone agrees that their exit polls were not exactly on target this time, and the strange studio ploy of making their two election analysts stand opposite each other and talk at, rather than with, each other, each speaking strictly in turn, did not really help. And its mechanically smiling top interviewer was not exactly scintillating. Aaj Tak’s interruptory ads, which make it an advertisement channel with some election news and analysis thrown in is also getting on everyone’s nerves. Good for revenue but bad for news. Zee, as usual, came through with some solid, consistent coverage. The Oscars are coming and BBC World cleverly shipped its New York based commentator on Hollywood films, Tom Brook, of Talking Movies to India, first to give us a preview of the forthcoming Oscars awards, which he will cover from the spot. He naturally faced some searching questions about the chances of “Lagaan”, with which he had caught up in the nick of time a day before his press conference. He also told us about the month-long BBC documentaries in March, called the Hollywood Years, which will take us back in time to such greats as Lee Strasberg of Actors’ Studio, Frank
Sinatra, Alfred Hitchcock, Julie Andrews, John Wayne and a close peep at Hollywood itself. In fact, viewers are in luck with Star Movies also running a month-long programme of former Oscar-winning films. It will also carry the Oscar awards function. So it’s Oscars, Oscars all the way. |
|
 |
|
