Venue: Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. My conversation with the maestro continues…

Few people know that Amjad Ali Khan’s family gets its music lineage from Miyan Tansen, the maestro has never talked about it. He says that the future of Indian classical music will always be bright because we are fortunate to have had strong pillars of music as in Swami Haridas, Swami Purandara Das, Swami Mutthuswami Dikshitar, Syama Shastri, Swami Thyagraja, Swathi Thirunal and the Baiju Bawra of our country.

“Indian classical music has always been and continues to be an integral part of our identity. It does not belong only to the world of entertainment, music is in fact a way of life, it is based on surrender, on faith, on spirituality and most important on discipline, which is the reason why the guru shishya parampara is a part of our culture.

It is impossible to learn music without first submitting to your guru. The Amighty comes after the guru because it will be the guru who will lead you through the dark tunnel and make you see the sunlight at the end of your training”.

To be continued

It is my privilege that I was asked to interview sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan at the Kala Ghoda Arts Festival. We were asked to assemble at the David Sasoon School at 530 pm and as expected Khan Saab was present before time. After a brief chat over lemon tea in the adjoining room we were escorted to the Garden decorated with art and fairy lights.

Amjad Ali Khan began talking about music and emphasized that India is the only country in the world which has two traditions of classical musc- those of South or Carnatic and of North or Hindustani. The basis of all music in the world is the same seven notes- Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Dha Ni in Indian classical music and Do Re Me Fa So La Ti in Western classical.

And the beauty of music is that it connects the whole world, it does not belong to any one race or religion.

To be continued

I met Abhishek for the first time when he was literally knee high. He was playing with his friends in the garden of Pratiksha, their bungalow in Juhu when I entered the house with his mother, Jaya Bachchan. Abhishek spotted us and came running to meet his mother and then looking at me shyly folded his hands into a polite Namaste.

A year later, I met him again when we were shooting a family picture for the magazine I then edited. The shoot was conducted at their home and the photographer and I both that out of the four members Abhishek was the most self-conscious in front of the camera.

When Amitabh Bachchan’s company, ABCL at that time went through a rough time, Abhishek took the decision to opt out of college and assist his father in production. The film was Major Saab and we got to spend a lot of time chatting at the location shooting in Bangalore.

Soon he was launched by J P Dutta in Refuge and in the years to come did all genres of films. A decade later he got married, became a father and continued to   do films.

Today Abhishek has expanded his canvas beyond cinema and is the proud owner of Kabbaddi and Football teams.

The beauty about Abhishek is that after all these years and so many films, he is still the little boy I met in the 90s and even today wherever he meets me, he folds his hands into a Namaste and becomes a little boy again.

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Amjad Ali Khan is one of the undisputed masters of the music world. Born to maestro Haafiz Ali Khan, he gave his first performance at the age of six and is credited with reinventing the technique of playing Sarod.

Over the course of a distinguished career spanning more than six decades, he has won numerous accolades including a Grammy nomination and three Padma awards. He has performed all over the globe with the best of artistes and remains as passionate about music as when he started as a little boy.

Many books have been written on Amjad Ali Khan but in the latest published by Penguin Master on Masters Amjad Ali Khan talks about the influences on his life.

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Today the graceful Waheeda Rehman of the Black and White and color movies turns 80. In an interview to me she said her generation of artists was not exposed to advanced technology and only relied on their instincts. “We worked at a slower pace and prided in our spontaneity.  “In those days it was unthinkable for a director to start a new scene on the same day. It was always a new mood and a new scene on the following day. Today so many disconnected scenes are shot on the same day and competently so. The post-production happens simultaneously at different places in different stages but this hasn’t diffused the magic of cinema which is wonderful. I feel we are making great films today and have terrific actors and technicians. I feel proud to be a part of Indian cinema that has completed more than 100 years and it is indeed a privilege to be born as an artist and lived such an enriching life.”

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Show business had a restricted interpretation when I became a journalist but today it has a wider appeal and wider connotation. It involved the media, the celebrities and the star brands. I have been writing about the film world for more almost four decades now and feel that insecurity is an overwhelming emotion in any creative profession.  In the media and the film fraternity, it is more so. Film stars are peddlers of emotion and, therefore, there are more emotional wrecks in the film world than in any other place. There is shame and scandal, exhibitionism and eccentricity, but there is also energy, a fatal attraction about the world of cinema that is obsessive. Once you’ve been a part of it you feel incomplete without it.

In the olden days the media meant just the print today we have electronic, digital, radio and more. I had never imagined that I would engage my audience in any other language except English but  2009 took me to not just another language/ Hindi but another medium/ Radio and though it was initially very difficult I eventually made friends with the microphone and love the idea of reviewing films/ talk shows on 92.7Big Fm.

Post my talk I drive to our Hyderabad studio and Jyoti has lined up an interview for me that goes but it is not all work and no play because post interview Jyoti treats me and my friends to an awesome lunch.

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The students have had an overdose of lectures and the professors feel they need to be entertained so Dr. Chinnadevi Singadi has worked on an audio-visual presentation of the lyrical journey of songs from Ghalib to Gulzar.  For the first time in all day, the hall is house full and every song is welcomed with claps and whistles. They are having a good time and it does not matter to anyone that the show has gone beyond their dinner time. That’s the power of entertainment.

During dinner, everybody is happy and still discussing the film scenes and songs. One of the students asks me what is my subject of talk the following morning and I say that since I am from the show business it is natural that I will talk about show business.

This is the third time I am sleeping in a university campus. The first time was at FTIII in Pune and the second time at JNU in Delhi, both large campuses surrounded by trees. The trees look very beautiful during the day but at night if you are not used to such quiet surrounding it can be rather scary.

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I am introduced to more Plenary Talk, this time on Indian and world theatre: classical, modern, contemporary. Prof Aparna Dharwadker, Dept of English and Interdisciplinary Theatre Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA discusses the detailing on stage and what makes theatre classic.

Dr. Mini Krishnan, Editor – Translations, Oxford University Press, India has a more interesting topic to elaborate and finally, there is a discussion on The Road Ahead for Indian Literatures joined by all the prominent guests invited from all over the country namely Prof Graham Huggan, Prof Vinay Dharwadker, Prof Aparna Dharwadker, Dr. Mini Krishnan, Prof T Vijay Kumar, Prof T Nageswara Rao and Dean EFLU, Prof Ramadevi Murru.

The world and life of these academics is a far cry from the world I live in and much as I am attracted to a life at a university campus I discover it is not easy. If you need anything from outside or from your guesthouse you have to walk a mile. The guest house though comfortable don’t have the amenities available even in a 3-star hotel and for those unexposed to austerity, this is a reality check for sure.

@bhawanasomaaya