How music transcends conflict
Music is a mature companion, a wise friend, an influence that transcends conflict - be it cultural, religious, regional or even generational.
When you spend a teasingly-cold Delhi evening, listening to the Warsi Brothers of Hyderabad (video), render a Qawwali “Teri saanwli soorat Nandlala”, you tend to wonder how uninhibited their universe is - how tolerant, liberal and evolved. They are so unlike politicians who rarely miss a chance to politicise religion or communalise politics.
In the universe of Indian classical music, for instance, there is enough space for Amir Khusro, Tulsidas, Surdas, Kabir, Rahim, Nanak, Bulleh Shah and amongst them, there is a common thread of wisdom and spirituality that neither recognises nor nurtures, any caste, colour, creed. No wonder that artists, who render these beautiful lyrics day in and day out, get influenced by their spirit too.
Sitting through Pt Chhannulal Mishra’s recital (video) may introduce you to the Thumri, Khayal, Dadra, Kajri, Hori, Chaiti, Chaita and many more conventional streams of classical music, but backstage he is an artist on the roll. At 78, he understands the short span of attention that the youth can spare for any form of art today and is ready to reach out to them, the way they want to consume. It certainly comes as a surprise for a man who started his training at five and has dedicated his whole life to the discipline of Hindustani Classical music. His dedication to his conventional stream has by no mean, made him rigid. It has only made him compassionate. There are no over-baked conventions and he is ready to re-engineer the style that may not be relevant in modern times.
“Ek hi bandish pe atke rahenge to unko kaise mazaa aayega. Apni prastuti ko badalna hoga. Kam samay mein sab kuch dikha dena hoga. Pasand aayega unko. (If you get stuck with one bandish and sing it for hours, how will the youth identify with it. You will have to showcase all your wares in a short span of time for them to appreciate it.)"
This generational sensitivity and maturity also comes through in another versatile artist, who chose a sporadic brush with pop music and even Bollywood, to get youngsters hooked on to his silken voice. Later they naturally drifted to his Sufi magic. When Hans Raj Hans (video) gets into the rythm with Dama Dam Mast Kalandar –the Punjabi Sufi Kalam by Baba Bulleh Shah, written in honour of Shahbaz Kalandar, who worked for Hindu-Muslim unity in Sindh – he triggers as much ecstasy in youth as he exudes on stage.
Even the much younger protagonist like Krishnakumar Kunnath, KK for you (video), would tell you that his number "Tadap tadap ke is dil se" was sung after he felt a special oneness with his creator, just outside a Mumbai studio in the wee hours. “I asked the Supreme artist in the heaven to help me do justice to a beautiful composition”. The artist supreme did grant his wish and how. The song is a musical masterpiece.
One wonders what is with the artists that makes them rise above the limits of body and mind, of religion, of fallible and breakable human nature. Last week-end, the three days of Swar Utsav in Delhi, organised by Music Today, a division of the India Today Group, was another brush with the artists par excellence – an occasion to revisit the magic of music and rediscover the positive power that sur and taal wield on the human mind.