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When `saaz' meets `awaaz'!

Sarangi maestro Ustad Sabri Khan and Hindustani vocalist Ustad Ghulam Sadiq Khan share their views on music, their `shagirds' and more

A FINE BLEND Ustad Sabri Khan and Ustad Ghulam Sadiq Khan believe in pleasing their audience with their touch of class PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

Their conversation is replete with the mellifluous sophistication of the Eastern Uttar Pradesh tehzeeb and peppered with similes that might seem over the top to the average Dilliwallah, but for them it is a way of life. A snow white cat who has borne five dainty babies recently flits in and out of a cupboard that houses a plethora of awards, and the ornate furniture looks strangely out of place even as the charming simplicity of the plaintive sarangi strains waft through the still air. The paandaan and the carved brass spittoon look well used and the walls proudly display the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan.

Alka Raghuvanshi shares a paan with the sarangi maestro Ustad Sabri Khan and the Hindustani vocalist Ustad Ghulam Sadiq Khan, as they have a converse about music, All India Radio and other memories that conjoin their long and lively association.

Sabri: Sarangi is said to have a hundred colours that is why from saurangi it became sarangi, but I think it has even more than a hundred colours! They consider a sarangi player an accompanist but then we ourselves are to blame. We get lured by the money that starts coming to us regularly as accompanists. But the positive side is that one learns a lot as an accompanist.

Sadiq: You are absolutely right! I too personally prefer the sarangi, for it is the only instrument that actually follows the human voice with its amazing tonal quality where the sargam and taan both can be replicated. Violin is the only other instrument that comes closest to the sarangi. Harmonium can fill up space, but not be really the shadow of the human voice.

Sabri: I remember Acharya Brihaspati banned it from the AIR, and harmonium ka bakayda janaza - a proper funeral procession - was taken out! It was considered an incomplete instrument and the fact is that it has only flat tones and can never emulate the human voice as a sarangi can. It (harmonium) was played along with light music. Then came singers like Naina Devi and Begum Akhtar and Mehdi Hassan who played the harmonium as they sang.

Sadiq: Aap to gavaiyon ki dil joi karte hain with the charming way in which you play the sarangi. But then any instrument can be a solo instrument, provided you have the ability to make it so. When I used to learn from Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, he would stress on the purity of both the saaz and the awaaz!

Sabri: In fact I learnt singing before being allowed on the sarangi. Our ustads taught us well.

Sadiq: The relations of the heart are so much more intrinsic than mere blood ties! We are often accused of not revealing all our kala to our shagirds. We have become badnaam but it is true that a lot of us share our special cheez (compositions) with only our family. But there is sense of betrayal when the shagirds with whom we shared our special compositions were unfaithful to us and went so far as to undercut the gurus.

Sabri: It reminds me of a horrible incident. Once I saw an old bent man huddled together under a sackcloth who would intermittently break into a song and at other times start mumbling things like a demented and tormented soul. He was Ustad Bakshan Khan, a student of Ustad Chajju Khan of the Bhendibazar gharana, who had betrayed his ustad and later lost his mind like a curse from his ustad.

Sadiq: But I do know one thing: that if today shagirds who had betrayed us, come back and ask for some particular bandish we will never refuse - after all, if a person sings a bandish associated with our family wrongly, it reflects poorly on us. But a guru always has more than any student can ever hope to get. Just like: jaaye ustad khali ast - a Persian saying which means that the ustad's space can never be filled. And we have a khazana of amazing other cheezein that can completely bedazzle any listener.

Sabri: It is not as if we have given `duplicate' stuff to our students - unko bhi khalis maal diya hai. But there are a few pieces that we perform only among the guni jan. It is sometimes difficult even for them to recognise what we are performing. Once I performed the Ritwai Malhar for a very august audience - but they were unable to recognise it!

Sadiq: You have been witness to some very historic moments - both musical and otherwise. I would love to hear about them!

Sabri: Two such moments I shall never forget: The night India became azad, I was in the Parliament House when Lord Mountbatten walked in at 12 midnight and signed the papers at 12.01 to make India independent. All the top leaders like Sardar Patel, Pandit Nehru, and Rajendra Prasad were there when we played Saare Jahan Se Accha in front of all of them. The second was when Yehudi Menhuin expressed a desire to play with an Indian musician, I was the person chosen to play a duet with him. So many great masters one has played with. But the other day my grandchildren were most enthused when I told them that Hrithik Roshan's grandfather and I used to perform at the AIR together!

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