Of Music and Idols

It’s a Saturday night. The clock ticks to 11. With a sumptuous dinner sitting happily in my stomach, showing its effect as my eyes start to droop, I open a book - “Purchundi”. This is one of the (sort of) serious works – a collection of articles and interviews of the legendary Marathi writer P. L. Deshpande. A true versatile personality, P. L. has left his profound mark in various walks of life. A writer who has made the entire Maharashtra laugh, a Music lover, a Harmonium player himself, a composer, a great speaker, a director and moreover a man who truly understood and loved life in all of its forms.

Good food, and now a good book. To complete one of my ideas of a great weekend, music is a must. So in goes a newly bought album “Piya Bawari Again” into the CD player.

I can listen to any sort of music but haven’t been so keen a follower of Indian Classical music. However, the cover of the CD that read an interesting combination of “DJ Suketu, Electric Guitar etc.” along with “Pandit Ajay Pohankar” made me buy this experiment of fusing the “Raagdaari” with Western instruments like Piano, Violin and drums!

Along comes a piece of Piano and a dardbharaa “Ka karu Sajani… Aaye na Baalam” I don’t know what “Raag” it is. I’m least bothered about that. All I know that it is good and it just soothes the ears and the mind. The fusion doesn’t sound out of place at all. The orthodox listeners may cry foul but to me, it just isn’t…

And I read a line from the book, “Music can’t be ugly… It can’t be Besur” I say to myself, “Ah, Yes, you said it! Any sort of music – as long as it is good – knows no barriers… petty barriers of language, barriers of culture, barriers of rules” Of course, you have to get your ideas of what is “Good” straighten out. And when you do that, you go searching for anything that is good in whatever you get to listen. You find it while listening to a Raagdari like this, in a bhajan or even a Hard Rock, in a Billy Joel “She’s always a woman to me”, a ghazal, even in a Kannada, Tamil song may be.

Music can’t be besur… I repeat the line to myself and suddenly a thought hits me… An hour ago or so, before I shut down the TV for the day, there were a couple of news making quite a brawl on the entire dime – a – dozen news channels. “Bhai ne maari Bhaai ko Goli” The reporters, trying to prove their journalistic abilities and how “Tej” they are, were “updating” their viewers with all the same insignificant information repeatedly and irritatingly. And then there was this news “Sandeep bane Indian Idol”

And I laughed to myself… If P.L. would have lived this long, he sure would have modified his statement. Music can be made besur… It can be made ugly…

Thanks to mom, I happened to follow “Sa Re Ga Ma Pa” on Zee. While the tantrums thrown by the so called Gurus shattered my idea of what a personality of a Music artist should be, I was counting on that lad from UP. He could very well be blamed for copying an established singer but he was doing it quite well. He displayed the versatility and the range of voice that takes to even copy his idol. I thought, he would clinch the show by miles. Alas, it was not to happen.

Rounds after rounds, the trend was getting clearer. While the mobile companies, the channel was busy collecting crores and crores of rupees, perhaps least bothered about the quality and the future of music, the junta – the very Indian junta chose their “Aawaz”. A controversial decision but who cares? We all enjoyed that moment and forgot it after a couple of days of discussion.

Did he really receive those many votes? Who voted for him? Can the channel really show the stats? What happened behind the scenes?

Take a chill pill, dude. Don’t bother yourself much on that… “Kitne aaye aur kitne gaye!” But still many more would come, only to be forgotten. Shows go on… The music goes on…

Another “Reality” show… This time to choose the Idol! The comparison becomes inevitable. The set of judges changed… tantrums remained more or less the same. And what am I to say about the participants? Every Tom, Dick and Harry in the town made his way to the auditions and we all saw it on the TV. I particularly remember a guy who had come for the audition with a confidence that if there’s at all a future to Indian music, it’s him. In his inimitable style, he sang “Aashique Banaya…” The way he sung or may I say “narrated” the song surely would have given its original singer a serious nervous breakdown. Too much humor for me… I stopped watching the program.

And then after a few days, my curiosity sprang back. I wanted to check out what great voices these guys have handpicked from that lousy bunch. Again, the history repeated – this time rather too fast. The folks I thought deserved singing there were shown the way out, one by one. While two of the “Bottom 3” kept changing, one name remained almost a permanent member. “Suromein thodi galti hoti hai… but thik hai, You have a very charming personality and sweet way of talking… you can make it…” The Judge – a music director himself – commented. Excuse me, what do you mean by “Suromein thodi galti hoti hai…”? That’s the soul of Music… Iske toh fundamentals mein hi gadbad hain…! How can you compromise on that? How on earth do you think that he can well compensate them with his saccharine way of talking and that personality of his? Wasn’t it Bhimsen Joshi who was slapped hard by his Guru for missing a single Sur during his early days? Would he have gone this far, if the Guru hadn’t bothered to correct him?

People, though, loved this “package”, it seems… Funny, it just brought in an example that I read about speculation in share market somewhere. Suppose there is a beauty contest having 6 females. And there is another competition for the voters who are going to choose their beauty queen. Whoever guesses the “Beauty Queen – to be” correctly would get some prize. Now, it doesn’t matter who you like personally. To better your chances of winning the prize kept for the voters, you have to predict who most people would like and vote for. You voting for someone you like would do no good to you. You got to follow the mass if you want to win the contest.

The junta, as the channel claims, voted their mobile balance out to choose their idol. The other guy, even after singing much∞ better, finally lost out. (That’s infinity, if you can’t read the font). As the prizes were showered on the winner, the loser just stood in the sidelines with a plastic smile on his face. They said, the region he belongs to didn’t know about the show and so they didn’t vote for him. Oh well, then how come it makes it an “Indian Idol”? And what about those people who had the power to vote? How can they vote for something mediocre? Was it out of sheer narrow – minded regionalist attitude? Or is that attitude so strong that it overshadows the power of music? I question the credibility and the intensions of the people who organize such shows.

And then it dawned on me… You idealist fool, it’s a Reality Show… and that’s the reality. It’s the same old battle between Classes and Masses… The “Q” – quality factor doesn’t matter here… The X factor does. It's all about the cover and the packaging and not about the inside stuff!

I’m not Taansen, but I sure am a Kaansen – A lover of Music who sees it as a form of God – something that should remain beautiful. I’m least bothered about who wins the game as long as it’s someone who is capable to maintain the beauty of the music. And if the masses show their taste by choosing something mediocre, that sure is something to worry about in the longer run.

There’s a thin line between Sur and Besur… And I think, this difference holds enough power to make an “Idiot” out of that “Idol”. That difference has to be maintained…

Let the Good prevail…


Disclaimer: These are entirely my personal views, posted here just to share my concern. It was written not with an intension to point an individual or an event but the general trend – with the concern for the fact that the mediocrity is being idolized by the masses. As far as future of Indian music is concerned, there are a handful of Good folks who are capable enough to make it even brighter.