"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough
for music”
- Sergei Rachmaninov
I have to say that my becoming and admitting to being a diehard
Shafqat Amanat Ali fan is a pretty recent happening. I have admired his voice
and work in since his debut album Sagar as a part of the Fuzon band and I
welcomed his entry into Bollywood with the very endearing Mitwa, like any other
music lover, but it’s only recently that I realized what a beautiful body of
work he has managed to do in the past few years both in Bollywood and outside
it.
What is it that makes Shafqat's voice and work so special for
me? And before I put forward my reasons I would like to add the disclaimer that
I am no expert in critiquing music. I talk like a lay person, an average music
lover, who can attribute the ear to music to many a winter evening spent
with my granddad- him playing his harmonium and singing his favorite folk
songs. He was a good singer and his enthusiasm was infectious. Or could it be
my dad? Two walls of his room are lined with his massive collection of music
tapes, the titles of which include pretty much all the greats of the
Hindustani classical music. The tapes would be played religiously each morning
and evening for hours (I even protested, sometime) and the music still
reverberates inside me.
Coming back to the reasons why I think Shafqat‘s voice is special:
the number one of course is his rigorous training in classical music. And then
there is the spiritual element of his personality which gets reflected in the
words that he writes or the music that he composes. And last but not the least
is his ability to keep up with times, to experiment, fuse and reinvent his music
to make it more in tune with the times- The way he chooses his songs when he
sings for the others in Bollywood also reflects that. While the latter two
might become topics for later blogs, for this one I want to stick to his
background in classical music.
When I searched for his non Bollywood music, I stumbled upon
this video.
It sounded interesting – both the words the music. And then it led
me to discover the other star of his family, the much loved Asad Amanat AliKhan, his elder brother who passed away, relatively young in 2007. This was one
of his most loved song. A Punjabi song written by Mazhar Tirmazi interspersed
with some lines of Ghulam Farid. The YouTube comments and the reactions of the
audience say it all. But more than everything it’s the joy on his face while he
sings which reflects the passion that this family has for their music.
It is not fair not compare the two renditions as the one by
Shafqat is done on request in a live concert, impromptu, with a rock band as an
accompaniment, while Asad Amanat Ali performs in a studio mehfil with
traditional instruments. The quality of sound and video are also vastly
different (Shafqat’s is probably captured on phone)
But the point is that these two stars come from the same
family. They were taught and polished by their grandfather, father and uncle
who are stalwarts of music. Both the brothers’ singing has the ability to
surprise. While Asad’s voice for me is like a playful mountain brook which can
make you marvel at its ability to change its course at will, Shafqat’s comes
across as a placid lake that makes you wonder what is coming out next from its
depths. That’s the power of classical discipline, the might of the musical
genes! It gives a singer the authority and the control that sets him apart form
an untrained voice.
"Umran Langiyaan", when translated form Punjabi, means
“lifetimes have passed”. It definitely takes more than one lifetime for
listeners like me to even begin to grasp the might of this music which has
transcended through generations in this musical clan…
