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We're his GHULAMS
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Ghulam Ali is not conscious of his own greatness. The inimitable ghazal maestro attributes everything to Allah
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`When I sang, people would say Bade Ghulam Ali Khan saab's son is singing. Did I need an award bigger than that?' — Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.
I WAS almost convinced this was going to be a wild goose chase, given my previous experience some eight months ago. The organisers had kept me on tenterhooks till the last desperate minute with the refrain "we're trying" each time I called. Of course it didn't work.
This time, they had also wised up. "You'll have to fend for yourself," they said categorically. Gulp. How on earth was I going to tell the living legend of ghazal that I, like many others, was a besotted fan and persuade him to meet me just like that? But Ghulam Ali is worth every try and try I did.
In full battle mode, I plunged into the hordes that mobbed him, braving nudges and shoves and positioned myself strategically. With trepidation I placed my request; and was flabbergasted when the mild reply came: "Can we meet the day after, beta? I'm very tired now. I took four flights to reach here."
Ghulam Ali was packing his toothbrush and towel, getting ready to leave as I entered his room. It was a bit surreal: the ghazal maestro doing something as mundane as that. Maybe we expect him to spout all that wonderful Urdu poetry during his spare moments. "I had visitors till 3.30 in the morning," said the visibly tired maestro as we sat down to talk.
Ustad's namesake
Son of renowned sarangiya Daulat Ali Jaffrey, Ghulam Ali chose to be a vocalist. "Allah had blessed me with a music sense and so I would pick up things very fast," he said almost apologetically. His father took great care to mark notes on leaves and placed them on the respective reeds of the harmonium. In less than three months, it was clear Ghulam Ali was a formidable talent, even learning to play the tabla and a bit of sitar. School didn't interest him much. So he studied privately even as he plunged into music seriously.
Jaffrey saab was keen that his son be trained by the incomparable Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. (He had even named his son after him.) When Khan saab came to Kabul, Jaffrey saab promptly turned up with his son. "I was quaking. Bade Ghulam Ali Khan saab asked me to sing. I sang the Pilu thumri `Saiyyan bolo tanik mose rahiyan na jaaye'. He was overjoyed and hugged me." The 15-year-old Ghulam Ali became his student. But since the Ustad was travelling back and forth for most part, Ghulam Ali was under the guidance of the Ustad's brothers, Barkat Ali Khan and Mubarak Ali Khan, themselves great musicians.
It wasn't easy. "I used to fetch buckets and buckets of water from the tap below; would mix sand and charcoal and wash the vessels till they sparkled. I would clean guruji's hookah, fill tobacco and keep it ready for him." Apart from this, he was constantly running errands for his guruji and his huge circle of friends. "I don't regret all that. At the end of it, I gained far more than what I did for them," says the maestro, who insists that nothing should come easy.
His big break came in 1960, during the Kul Music Conference in Pakistan. The 12 minutes that came his way changed his life completely. He was flooded with offers from Radio Pakistan and became a household name. "When I sang, people would say Bade Ghulam Ali Khan saab's son is singing. Did I need an award bigger than that?"
Unexpected turn
For someone who had a solid foundation in classical music, and for long known as a thumri singer, ghazals were an unexpected option. "During the course of my travels, I realised that if I need to reach a wider audience, ghazal is the best medium." Which is why one finds the earnestness of a khayal and the romance of thumri in his singing.
He had the good fortune of finding a mentor in Nasir Kazmi, the famous Urdu poet of "Dil mein ek lehar si" fame. He spent long hours with him everyday, polishing not just his Urdu diction, but also perfecting his understanding of Urdu poetry. "My relationship with Urdu poetry is about 50 years old. My house is full of Mirza Ghalib, Ahmed Faraz, Fiaz, Nasir Kazmi... and I read them every day. I sing only poetry that inspires me. If I don't like a poem I cannot be forced to sing it. My relationship with a lyric is very intense." Only when you read and re-read a poem will its true self emerge. "You develop a bond with the lyric and the tune emerges naturally. That's how I started composing my own ghazals," said Ghulam, whose chaste Urdu diction sends fans into rapturous sighs.
For "Chupke Chupke", one of his most famous ghazals, much as he tried, he couldn't arrive at the right tune. "The song is about memory and I didn't seem to have a good enough tune for it." It was after days and many attempts that he finally got what he wanted. Ghulam Ali argues that practice is not all, "thought it plays a vital role".
Ghulam Ali is an institution in himself. Like the ghazal tradition, he embodies traditional and liberal elements. Like his guru, he is a rare combination of greatness and simplicity. Ask him about other ghazal singers and he generously showers praises on all. But only Asha Bhonsle could do it with you, I insisted, recalling the '84 album, a masterpiece. He agreed. "She was very worried. She said the tunes were very complex and intricate and wasn't sure of herself. I told her not to worry. Saving your reputation is saving mine, I had told her. Look at the final result. We did something that was complex, good, and long-lasting."
In Ghulam Ali's singing one sees that intriguing blend of ecstatic spirituality and earthy desires. Remember "Gaye dinon ka suragh lekar" or "Faasle aise bhi honge"? His music is constantly acquiring new dimensions as he innovates with new rhythm patterns, new melodic phrases, each time he renders a ghazal. "Every time my father sat down for namaz he would say, `I want people of the world to recognise your voice, even without seeing you'. Allah ne unki sun di," he summed up with characteristic modesty.
DEEPA GANESH
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