G hazal maestro Pankaj Udhas

IN SPIRED BY HT CITY GHAZAL MAESTRO DEDICATES ALBUM TO DIANA ROSS

Pankaj Udhas's name needs no introduction. He is responsible for changing the world of ghazals as we know it now. The time he appeared on the ghazal scene, the masses had started to lose interest in this form of singing. His arrival not only brought ghazals back from dead but also made people have another thought about ghazals. His beautiful voice, combined with good lyrics and melodious music is capable of making anyone fall in love, with ghazals, again and again.

He is not only a ghazal singer but also he has sung a great number of songs for Hindi movies as a playback singer. Knowing his popularity, a lot of movie producers have asked him to make special apperance in their movies to sing songs onscreen and songs such as Chithi aayi hai have proved to be a major hit.

Pankaj has done concerts in every part of the world singing his movie hits along with the ghazals. And inspite of being so busy with his concerts abroad, he hasn't stopped singing new songs and making new albums. Because he knows that his fans are waiting.

We indeed are!

Edited by Qwest - 16 years ago

Pankaj Udhas

Pankaj Udhas is a pre-eminent Ghazal singer from India. He is credited with bringing this unique singing style where Urdu verses of poets are set to music to the mass audience across the country along with other musicians like Jagjit Singh and Talat Aziz.

Pankaj Udhas was born on 17 May 1951 in Jetpur in the Gujarat State of India. He hails from Charan community. His older brother Manhar Udhas achieved some success as a Hindi playback singer in Bollywood movies.He had studied in Sir BPTI Bhavanagar. His family moved to Bombay and Pankaj attended St. Xavier's College in Bombay, Pankaj was first noticed as a professional singer in the film Naam (1986 film), in which his song Chitthi Aayee Hai became an instant hit. He recorded several albums since then and toured the world as an accomplished Ghazal singer. He has also composed music for many films and performed as a playback singer for others.

He received the Padma Shri, a Government of India civilian award in 2006.

Edited by Qwest - 16 years ago

An ode to melody ANJANA RAJAN

Pankaj Udhas on his new album and coping with technology.

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We have gone into an era globally, where the importance of poetry and melody is lost.

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Photo: R. Ragu

Happiness is a sad song Ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas With the number of talent hunt shows mushrooming on television, you would think they would spawn some variety too. Alas, everyone in the nation who queues up for an attempt at instant stardom has only one path in mind: through the playback channels t o Bollywood fame and fortune.

Celebrated ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas, who was in the Capital to launch his new album Yaara, brought out by Music Today recently, says these hunts should bring out the different genres of music.

Focused shows

"They should focus on singers who will sing folk, or be future classical singers, or ghazal singers. Why should they be only playback singers?"

Perhaps because that is where the money chiefly is to be made? He looks thoughtful. "Well, I guess we've all survived by not being playback singers," he counters. Maybe. But then, his famous "Chitthi Ayi Hai" from the Sanjay Dutt-starrer "Naam" is engraved in filmgoers' memory. Of course, it wasn't merely playback, since he was playing himself in a cameo.

A different side

There's no denying though, that his fame is multi-pronged. As for diversification, Yaara promises to reveal a different side to the maestro.

A collaborative effort with Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, an old friend, the songs in Yaara have been composed by the sarod maestro in various ragas, "from Bhoop to Bhairavi". Besides, "The format is not ghazal. They are geet. It's a pleasure, doing something I've not done before."

Something he will never do, though, is to abandon the melody and poetry that are the soul of his songs. "We have gone into an era globally, where the importance of poetry and melody is lost," he says.

"This is my personal opinion. I'm not talking as a representative of ghazal singers."

Earlier, he says, a song was identified by an entire musical package of poetry and melody, including the singer's voice and style.

Describing some of today's chartbusters as "random songs," he points out, "There is actually no melody. What we are losing is the basic structure. We all grew up with songs that had, say, an asthayi, an antara, etc. Nowadays songs don't have that. There is no definite format for the music that is being created."

'Soothing balm'

But even as he unflinchingly describes the demise of what could be called the essence of vocal music, the ghazal maestro continues to hold his own. His star aura is intact, his audiences eager.

"At this stage I think the ghazal is doing the job of a soothing ointment or balm," he explains. "There are so many scars, or wounds, created by the current music. This is one kind of music which doesn't deviate from the poetry and melody."

But ghazal singing has changed too. This coming Saturday, when he performs under the aegis of the Begum Akhtar Academy of Ghazal in New Delhi, Udhas will be singing in a style quite different from Begum Akhtar and her contemporaries. "Yes," he concedes, "It has also changed, but that is more to keep in the race, or stay in touch with the audience. Because the moment you give a sound which is not identifiable, they reject it."

In the digital age, 'identifiable' takes on increasingly uniform parameters.

Notes Udhas, "The advantage of technology is that everything can be enhanced."

Digital effect

Even the voice of the most off-key singer can be digitally corrected, he says with his customary candour, but there is no smile to soften the blow. "Which makes it more in the nature of the assembly line," he adds.

On the other hand, technology has also brought music making within reach of a larger population. Yet for an aspiring singer or composer, cutting an album is still not easily affordable, and without the exposure an album brings, they struggle to be noticed.

"Currently the whole scene is dominated by reality shows," he points out. "They are good and bad. Good in the sense they provide a platform for aspiring talent. Bad in the sense, they don't provide for those who don't have the support of SMSs."

Thanks to these televised shows, he says, "We've seen there are a whole lot of talented people. But unfortunately they get voted out. The onus is on the organisers of these reality shows so that the good ones don't get voted out."

To the dearly Beloved Music Today's new album Yaara (meaning the Beloved) features Sufi music compositions. Ghazal king Pankaj Udhas says sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, a long time friend, "believes a lot in simplicity". That's why he recommended Ud has' name to sing, because "he wanted a singer who can express and is less gimmicky." The music video of the title track visualises the lyrics against a backdrop of West Bengal in the late 1950s. The theme is love and longing. Album name: Yaara Voice: Pankaj Udhas Music composition:

Amjad Ali Khan

Musical arrangement: Hitesh Sonik Lyrics: Sufi scholar Madan Gopal Singh Genre: Sufi geet Songs: Bolo Ji Bolo, Jagi Jagi Raaton Mein, Hole Hole, Chalte Chalte, Woh Baat, Chhaliya, YaaraEdited by Qwest - 16 years ago

Pankaj Udhas Dedicates 'Endless Love' To Diana Ross

Monday 21st of January 2008
American singer Diana Ross clearly has a profound influence on ghazal maestro Pankaj Udhas, who has titled his new album 'Endless Love - Kitni Yaad Aati Hai' after her 1981 hit 'Endless Love'.

'The song 'Endless Love' by Diana Ross is one of my childhood favourites. I still continue to listen to it on my iPod. My album, like her song, is for lovers and you could say that this is my tribute to her,' Pankaj told IANS in an interview.

He has given an English title to his album for the first time.

'This album was earlier being titled 'Ehsaas' but it was a collective decision of the entire team to incorporate some newness in our offering, hence the English title - 'Endless Love'. It was the most special name I could give to the album,' he said.

Newspapers carrying messages on love inspired Pankaj. 'I read four to five newspapers every day and I come across posts by various young people, who use amateur poetry in an attempt to express their love and emotions. I tried to target and capture the attention of such people using romantic literary verses which had a deeper meaning to them,' he said.

Is there really a market for ghazals amid the cacophony of loud, rock and pop music?

Pankaj certainly thinks so.

'Ghazals have their own charm and will never go out of fashion. Besides, in this album, the sound is very contemporary - we have used several traditional instruments, various 'ragas' and have still tried keep the spirit youthful,' he explained.

A Padma Shri winner, Pankaj achieved stupendous success in 1986 with 'Chitthi aayee hai' in Mahesh Bhatt's 'Naam' and continued thereafter to sing for movies.

But ghazals have been and always will be his first preference. 'I have not paid attention to cinema for a long time now and I plan to focus on ghazals only,' he said.

Regarding his upcoming projects, Pankaj said: 'I have recently sung a ghazal for Sanjay Chhel's 'Maan Gaye Mughal-e-Azam' which is due for release around April this year. Besides that, I plan to complete an album, which I left midway because of the demise of fusion maestro Anand Shankar with whom it was being made.

Edited by Qwest - 16 years ago

Three cheers for ghazal...

The Devdas at heart or the self-styled Casanova, the shy college girl or the much-married matron, there are not many among us who can resist the allure of the ghazal. Pankaj Udhas, credited with having revived the ghazal as a popular medium, was in Delhi recently to launch his latest album, "Muskaan". ANJANA RAJAN catches up with the maestro who is not only armed with a smile but also hopes to lighten the common man's load... .

Pankaj Udhas... . looking for 'sukoon' - peace - through 'Muskaan'. Photo: V.V. Krishnan. THAT ALL the world loves a lover is exemplified not only by the pan-Indian theme of romance to be found in the commercial films churned out by the various regions of the country but also by the ubiquitous popularity of the ghazal, a kind of song that - in spite of being couched in Urdu, with liberal doses of Persian and Arabic, and bound by intricate rules of poesy - is on the lips of every youngster and golden oldie with pretensions to even the smallest dose of emotion. These two worlds - of exalted language and high thought on the one hand, and of the ordinary citizen toiling for a livelihood while living out burning human passions on the other - may be far removed, but the credit for bridging the two is plainly laid by many admirers at the door of Pankaj Udhas, whose hallmark it would seem is the ability to choose ghazals comprehensible to lay listeners not familiar with abstruse words. Though some may criticise his selection of simple lyrics as even bordering on the pedestrian, this king of the popular ghazal retorts, "Ghazal mein zyaada Pharsi shabd daalne se accha nahin ban jaata." - Merely introducing Persian words does not raise the poetic value of a ghazal. Singing since his childhood, Pankaj Udhas made his first ghazal album "Aahat" in 1980. As a young boy growing up in Gujarat, he received many musical inputs from his father who played the dilruba and brothers who also liked singing. Winning several prizes at the school level, he later learnt from Master Navrang - who incidentally also taught Asha Bhonsle and the eminent classical vocalist the late Jitendra Abhisheki. Pankaj Udhas is profuse in his praise of this guru, who was from the Paluskar tradition but was in possession of many shers of the Gwalior gharana. Diehard advocates of the ghazal as immortalised by "Mallika - e - ghazal" Begum Akhtar have been heard to lament that with the emphasis on embroidered musicality introduced by vocalists like Pankaj Udhas, there has been an intrinsic dilution of the value and uniqueness of this form of poetry that has covered a historic literary journey from Iran to modern India. "I grew up listening to Begum Akhtar and Mehdi Hasan," concedes Pankaj Udhas. But between the '70s when he entered the field and this past week when his latest album of ghazals and geets "Muskaan" was released, the world of music has seen a number of technological changes that affected the genres of classical, popular, film, devotional or ghazal. The availability of the latest in sound technology has resulted in a great rise in the quality of reproduction - both in terms of live amplification at stage shows and in terms of facilities available in recording studios. "Over a period of time as this technology reached India we felt that in the 21st Century we should also produce equivalent sound quality. It becomes imperative for us to use these (electronic instruments) to create the ambience and compete with the quality of recordings available today. If I use only say, harmonium and tabla as accompaniment, the sound quality in the recording won't be the same. In the days of K.L. Sehgal, for example, no one would have expected this quality of sound. Therefore, the use of acoustic instruments alone is acceptable. In "Muskaan" I have made minimum use of electronic instruments." The fallout of these changes has been both positive and negative. On the one hand we have the peculiar phenomenon of remixes, on which Pankaj Udhas feels strongly that the copyright law's loophole allowing for 'versions' has led to a scenario where the original music director, singers and actors who may have performed in the film are forgotten. Till now the joke in educational circles has been students learning from guides and thinking that "Lal" and not Shakespeare is the playwright of "Hamlet". But soon, says the ghazal maestro, we will have a situation where children of the future may never have heard of stars like Rajesh Khanna, or renowned music composers, or singers like Lata Mangeshkar, but only their remixed counterparts! We have also developed a tradition of loud electronic music that makes indiscriminate use of effects and pre-set rhythms and tones. The amazing advent of the sequencer into which tones of all kinds of instruments can be sampled and then played as easily as a keyboard also brings up questions of musical integrity and ethics. There are also inherent contradictions - for example, in playing wind instruments or traditional Indian strings with their meend technique on a keyboard that is staccato by nature - that need to be handled with extreme care and skill. Indian popular music is still firmly under the sway of computerisation, though many musicians and rasikas - specially in the West - turn away from electronic music, calling the keyboard a "dead" instrument. The upside however is found in musicians like Pankaj Udhas, at ease with reconciling the pitfalls and advantages of the new technology. In fact, he likes to refer to the over-reliance on technological juggling as "manufactured music - one sample of sound, one groove of rhythm... !" Therefore Pankaj Udhas - who performs a range of genres including film playback and devotional songs - finds that acoustic instruments like sarangi, sitar, tabla, flute and others are still preferable, and "Yes, at the end of the day I think people are reverting back to their roots. My experience is that your body reacts to certain notes. If someone presents notes in a good way, then it has an effect." About "Muskaan" he points out that he has used ghazals and geets by a range of poets and each of the numbers is soothing. All over the world, he contends, it is hard to find "sukoon" - peace - in music. And what would an ordinary listener look for in a song? Simply, good lyrics and good music. "Something that touches your heart, jisse aapka bojh halka ho." And so he promises that there will be no sameness in the lilting tracks in the new album, which has some haunting flute and sarangi, as well as a judicious mixture of Western and Indian influences, making use of both melody and harmony. If Pankaj Udhas is known for his easy-to-understand ghazals, he has an academic side too. Remarking that he has been pleading with Urdu scholars to pull the language out of the museums - "not even the libraries!" - and make it accessible in Devnagari script for wider propagation, he mentions his work on poets of old, specially Mir, whose contribution to Urdu poetry is all the more significant in view of the fact that the language was not even highly developed in his time. Apart from planning a series - "Classics" - based on works of Mir and other "Ustads", Pankaj Udhas hopes he may soon be on the air with a programme similar to the popular "Adab Arz Hai" in which he used to appear on Sony TV.

And while we wait, we can smile, because "Muskaan" is both on the air and in the air.

Edited by Qwest - 16 years ago

pankaj udhas chupke chupke



[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPMjysbenMY[/YOUTUBE]

Yeh alag baat hai - Pankaj Udhas




[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ism7lXOHJ8[/YOUTUBE]

Mahol Bemaza Hai - Pankaj udhas



[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fG8dbD9XYWg[/YOUTUBE]

Captivating listeners

Pankaj Udhas has embarked on popularising the works of lesser-known Urdu poets.

HIS VELVETY voice has the mesmerising quality that captivates listeners. For more than two decades, Pankaj Udhas has held his own in the field of ghazals. Totally committed to singing ghazals, Pankaj is now in the process of reviving the poetry of relatively unknown poets. His latest album, 'In Search of Meer', is the first in this direction. Released by Universal, this album is a collection of nine ghazals rendered by Pankaj with music composed by Ali and Ghani and arrangements by Bhavdeep Jaipurwale. For Pankaj Udhas it was love at first sight for Urdu. "I am grateful to the person who taught me Urdu. Maulvi Saeed Mirza used to teach my brother Manhar. When I started learning, I did not realise that the bond will be so strong. I share an amazing relationship with the language." In his sessions with Maulvi saab, Pankaj Udhas used to hear him mention two poets, - the celebrated Mirza Ghalib, and the not-so-known Meer Taki Meer, a full-fledged poet who preceded Ghalib. In fact Ghalib himself acknowledges being inspired by Meer. Over time Meer's poetry got scattered in various books." Was it just the lyrical beauty, which fascinated him to work? "Yes. When I heard of Meer, I wanted to work on him. I happened to obtain a copy of Quliyat-e-Meer (a rare compilation of his works), printed in early 1900 and then with the help of Janab Zameer Kazmi, a noted Urdu poet, I got an insight into the works. Meer's poetry showcased different moods. The beauty lies in the theme of unfulfilled love. He wrote at a time when Urdu was developing so there are tones of Sanskrit, Persian and the local dialect. And he perfectly blended all the three." This album is the first on Meer but Pankaj Udhas is prepared to dedicate 10 albums on Meer. "I want to bring him to the people. Ghalib has been talked about but Meer deserves recognition." While Ghalib remains popular the reasons for Meer's obscurity is surprising. "I think one could attribute it to many factors: lack of information, non-availability of his poems in print and his style of poetry may have been overshadowed by others." He informs that this interest in Meer kindled his interest in working on a series of unsung poets. "I want to show there is something beyond Ghalib - there are poets of equalivalent calibre like Daagh, Sauda, Phana, Momen and Sahir Ludhianvi, Firaq Gorakhpuri and Jigar Moradabadi of the 20th Century. I want to bring them into the limelight. My next album after Meer will be on Daagh (will be released by end of this year). I plan to do works of two poets a year after systematic research. There is a definite audience willing to listen to ghazals and there is a new generation of listeners as well." Pankaj Udhas has been around for more than 20 years. How difficult is it to sustain audience interest? "It is a demanding situation. There are different kinds of music today - all kinds of music videos. It means a lot more work to keep the ghazal genre alive and afloat. In fact, I had done 'Stolen Moments' in 1998. I did not compromise on either the poetry or the music, but the album had a contemporary feel and was well received." The singer feels Urdu poetry is not accessible to all on account of the script. He feels there is a "need to reprint Urdu poetry in Devanagari." When asked about his taking up works of contemporary Urdu poets he says, "There is no shortage of poets. Unfortunately there is no addition of new singers. Therefore, the works of contemporary poets is being left untapped." Besides the series on Urdu poets, Pankaj Udhas has revived works on an album he had started with Ananda Shankar before Shanker's death. "Ananda's trademark was fusion music - primarily instrumental but in this album there will be a voice. I will be singing the works of Zafar Gorakhpuri, Zameer Kazmi and Kaisar-ul-Jaffrey." After completing his album on the works of Daagh, Pankaj Udhas may choose between Momen or Phana and he plans to do albums on at least 10 poets in five years. In a scenario where different kinds of music - good, mediocre and bad co-exist Pankaj Udhas is optimistic and wants to give ghazal a wider base. "I want to take ghazals to an international audience like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan did with the qawwali. I want to take it to a new generation of listeners." With such dedicated singers, ghazal, as a genre, will surely stand the test of time.

RADHIKA RAJAMANI

Edited by Qwest - 16 years ago