ADITI SARAWAGI
GHAZAL
IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Rains pouring, hot tea piping-and all you need is a soulful ballad
playing in the background. The romantic in you plays a poignant
tune by the Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh. The wafting notes make
you think about the future of ghazals. When you think of ghazals
the names which pop in mind are Jagjit Singh, Pankaj Udhas,
Ghulam Ali, Talat Aziz, Mehdi Hasan, Begum Akhtar and Chitra
Singh. All these names are familiar to the 80’s and 90’s generation,
but what about the current generation? Over viral videos and live
streaming, this generation is spoilt for choice, but yet ghazal is an
evergreen genre and one will find new age singers dabbling in the
genre.
Today, new-age musicians are not only singing ghazals, but
reinventing the genre with their own new touch. Rashmi
Agarwal, trained by Shanti Hiranand who herself was a pupil
of Begum Akhtar herself, transforms the ethereal words of
a ghazal by merging it with jazz melodies. Agarwal thrives
on experimentation and is working on bringing together the
improvisation techniques of jazz and ghazals, aiming to create
music no one has ever heard before. Her band is known as the
Z Factor and she wants to reach out to as many listeners as
possible.
Tauseef Akhtar, another young ghazal maverick has created a
completely new genre known as ‘ghazalaw’ which basically mixes
ghazals with celtic folk music. He has also released an album
‘Ishq Karo’ wherein he has experimented with ghazals, basing his
music on western harmony, performing across Britain and India.
Rekha Bharadwaj is another singer who has grown up singing
and learning the genre of ghazals. Though she is known for her
Bollywood playback, her love for ghazals and her support to
Khazana is widely known.
Shruti Pathak, who has sung a number of Bollywood numbers
is also seen actively performing ghazals with her band. She
even had her own YouTube show ‘Guzzler’s Café’ where she
attempted to popularize ghazals amongst the younger generation.
She wanted to present ghazals with a twist and played new age
renditions of ghazals. When talking about new age ghazal singers,
one has to mention the ghazal singing duo of Raaza Razaq and
Imthiyas Beegum, who have been engrossed in this genre since
childhood and grew up to become ghazal singers. They came
together to form the band Raaza and Beegom in UAE which is
now in Kerala. The couple currently performs around the country
and abroad.
A milestone event in the ghazal arena today is Khazana,
organized by none other than Pankaj Udhas which celebrates
classical music and is one of the biggest events in the music scene
in India. Khazana always puts the spotlight on young talent and
the maestro has taken it upon himself to preserve the rich culture
of ghazals. The event is supported by the likes of Anup Jalota,
Javed Ali, Rekha Bharadwaj and Pandit Ajay Pohankar amongst
others. It has in the past highlighted up upcoming ghazal singers
like Aishani Banerjee, Rashi Harmalkar and Varenyam Pandya.
All these young ghazal artists want to promote ghazals but they
all stress on one thing. Ghazals are in essence poetry, and poetry
can be performed in any way as long as it respects the genre and
the words. These young artists are confident of promoting ghazals
by not diluting its essence. At a time when ghazal is witnessing a
somewhat diminished patronage, these artistes are trying their
best to keep the magic of this genre alive and making it more
appealing to today’s generation.
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
25