Friday Review
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Flute’s timeless Silsila
ANUJ KUMAR
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In conversation Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia in a light mood.
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“When I composed for films, I never forced my classical background into music.”
Photo: Rajeev Bhatt
THE RIGHT VOICE Veteran flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia.
To me music is a prayer to the divine. People say Islam prohibits music. But why does the maulvi who gives the azaan call have a sur in his call?” asks Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia settling for a tête-À-tête on the sidelines of Rajasthan International Folk Festival in Jodhpur. Calling his instrument unique, the legendary flautist says, “Other instruments have to be tuned before playing; my instrument is such that the player has to tune himself before playing it. In fact flute is the only instrument which doesn’t require any tuning and has a two-in-one effect.”
“It is not only a source of music but a yog in itself,” avers Chaurasia who was born in a family of wrestlers. “I spent my early days in the wrestling ring and the sport has given me the lung power required to play the flute for hours.”
Bollywood sojourn
He spent his middle years in Bollywood, composing music for some of the great hits of the ‘80s and ‘90s like “Silsila”, “Chandni” and “Darr” with santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma under the name Shiv-Hari. “Few know that ‘Silsila’ was not my first film as a composer. I composed first for a little known film ‘27 Down’ with Rakhee and M.K. Raina in the lead. Yash (Chopra) liked my work and offered ‘Silsila’.” He was also the one who made Amitabh Bachchan sing the timeless ‘Rang Barse’. Amitabh wanted to sing but I told him first you have to make your father write for us. So when Harivanshji wrote ‘Rang Barse’ we decided to give him a chance. He improved so fast that we gave him another number ‘Neela Asman’ and used his voice as an interlude in ‘Ye Kahaan Aa Gaye Hum’.”
On his sudden disappearance from the film scene, Chaurasia smiles, saying, “One man can’t run two shops at a time. Particularly, when he has to run shops as different as a barber’s shop and a laundry!” However, he is not one of those classical artistes who look down on Bollywood music. “When I composed for films, I never forced my classical background into music. It was always Yash who told us the mood and the situation and we composed accordingly. That’s why I don’t agree when people say ‘Silsila’ was our best. To me ‘Darr’ was equally satisfying.”
Pet project
One of the reasons, he left Bollywood was his engagement with his pet project, a gurukul in Mumbai, where he teaches some 70-odd students on the lines of guru-shishya parampara. “The purpose is to have a bench strength to carry on the flute legacy.” Calling the audience as one of the ‘departments’ of music, Chaurasia says it’s the change in lifestyle that has affected the quality of music. “From the way we talk to the things we eat and listen, everything has changed. When we were young, music was part of everyday life where people used to sing and dance in the evening. Today, they watch television or go out to a discotheque.” Talking of changing priorities, Chaurasia shares the World Flute Festival, which is supposed to happen next year in India, is in limbo because of lack of sponsors. “If somebody would tell them that a starlet would also be there dancing the corporate houses will queue up.”
Somebody who has collaborated with John McLaughlin and Jan Gabarek, Chaurasia terms fusion as “confusion”. “It’s like having roti and coke together. I prefer words like musical interaction and collaboration which we do once in a while. But I see no reason in making a genre out of these interactions.”
It is said those who play the flute feel like Lord Krishna. Quickly understanding the pun involved in the observation, Chaurasia quips, “Lord Krishna had a thousand gopis around him, I don’t have a single one. It means I am not playing so well!”
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
