 |
| Saturday, November 2, 2002 |
|
|
Bibhuti Mishra talks to Anup Jalota about his growth as a singer par excellence over the past four decades. Your father Purushottam Das Jalota is a renowned bhajan singer. Why did you take up singing ghazals? My father also sang ghazals.
My father and Begum Akhtar would sing together in Lucknow. Since I
was brought up in Lucknow I could not have remained unaffected by the
beauty of ghazals. |
|
Yes, it was. Bhajan singing pleases the soul, while ghazal singing offers momentary pleasure. Bhajan is connected to God, while ghazal is connected to sharaab and shabaab. Besides religious functions are held round the year, so there is always an audience for bhajans. I can release 12 bhajan albums a year; that is not possible with ghazals. Some ghazal singers have also turned to singing bhajans. A few of them like Jagjit Singh have done well. He is a fine bhajan singer. Jagjit Singh is the finest artiste in India in the non-film category. The 80s’ craze for ghazals has gone. Is the interest of people in ghazals on the wane? Ghazal can only be saved if Hindi and Urdu are taught in schools. The ghazal audience is definitely going to go down because one must understand Urdu to enjoy listening to a ghazal. When people today do not understand good Hindi how can they understand good Urdu? Everywhere our children are learning English and the regional language, be it Marathi, Gujarati or Punjabi. Even the shastras say that shabda (words) come first and then comes nada. Language is more important than music even in bhajans. So I must say the future of ghazal is not very bright. What do you have to say about the craze for music videos? In the ’80s non-filmi music was a craze. Now music has become visual. We see music. Earlier we closed our eyes and listened to music but now we open our eyes and watch music. But watching Daler Mehndi is not listening to him. These video artistes come and go, but I feel if a good pop artiste comes, he can stay. Has this personally affected you as an artiste? No this has not affected me. We sold in the 80s, we’re still selling. Maybe now they are buying our names, and not the albums. I feel the buyers today buy new albums but listen to the old ones! Media has helped us to become household names. When you began as a bhajan singer, were you scared of being compared with your illustrious father? No I was not scared. But I knew my responsibility, which was that I could not have let him down. My father told me that I could change according to the times but should always maintain the basic purity. Since you have a grounding in classical music and belong to Shamchaurasi Gharana, why did not you become a pure classical vocalist? I never wanted to sing pure classical as I wanted to reach out to the mass. But I draw from classical and use taan, alaap, sargam, etc in my renderings. My compositions have a classical base and I do sing ragas in between. Do you feel the gharana concept has relevance today? Every gharana has a different style. But the new-generation singers are trying to adopt goods things from every gharana and are moulding those elements into their singing. A case in point is Rashid Khan, who is a great artiste and has adopted various elements from different gharanas and made a heady mix. Why have you been off films. You dabbled in them for a while. There is little freedom in singing. I must be allowed to do something special. I must feel that they do not take my name only but also my work. Your orchestration is very minimal and simple; you just make use of a santoor, a tabla and may be a guitar. Words are more important, music just provides the backdrop. You present hundreds of concerts in various countries round the year. How do you combine your role as a busy performing artiste and a teacher? Igive guidance to students wherever I go. I spend about 10 days in New York every month. Iguide students there. The new generation singers are very hard working, technically sound and sharp learners but they have no patience. I ask them to go slow, perfect their sadhna. We never hurried into anything; that’s why we are still there on the scene. Teaching has been important for my own development as an artiste. Poets like Bashir Badr, Qateel Shifai and Saeed Rahi wrote excellent ghazals. What’s the scenario today? Even today lovely ghazals are being written but unless Hindi and Urdu are taught in schools, we will have a generation which will not appreciate good Hindi let alone good Urdu. You have gone deeper into devotional music by working on the Ramayana, Bhagavadgita and the Vedas. What next? I am planning an album
with Javed Akhtar. Besides I have to take up thumri and dadra
and do some work in those forms too. |
 |
|
OVER
a span of a quarter century Anup Jalota has released more than 200
albums and most of them have cornered gold, silver and platinum discs.
He sings in six languages and has toured most of the countries in the
world, with the USA perhaps having his largest fan following after
India. Son of noted singer Pandit Purushottam Das Jalota, Anup began
singing on stage at the tender age of seven. The ghazal maestro
and the bhajan samrat has not looked back since and has made
way into the Guinness Book of World Records for cutting the maximum
number of platinum discs.