Malhaar -The Music of the Monsoons

The monsoons arrive every year but I can never get tired of waiting for them each time. The fragrance of the damp earth after the first showers, the mystery of the dark overcast skies, the flash of lightening followed by that short moment of anticipation before the thunder rumbles and echoes above, raindrops gliding off the leaf blades of ecstatic plants that seem to be dancing in the rain- ever so grateful for the pouring heavens from above- the magic of the rains could ever cease to amaze me!

No wonder then, that for centuries poets have been inspired by this magical season in our part of the world. Some have talked about the romance of it and some are overwhelmed by its sheer beauty.  There are some for whom the monsoons are a reminder of the power and glory of the creator and that also fills them with a certain kind of grief of being separated from the supreme and a longing to be one with Him. Tulsidas says –

“Ghan ghamand nabh gartjat ghora/ piya heen tarpat man mora”

The thunder echoes in the overcast sky/while my heart pines for my dear one….

Raindrops often become an analogy for the tears of “virah” or separation. Like Surdas wrote:

“Nisdin barsat nain hamare/Sada rahat pavas ritu hum par/Jabse Shyam sidhare

Tears flow constantly/like the never ending rains/ever since my beloved walked away

The rains have also inspired our music. The ragas of the Malhaar group are born form the parent Raga Megh and present different aspects of the rain. So we have, for example, the DhuliyaMalhaar that is about the start of the monsoons, when the first breeze carrying the rains blows over the parched lands marking the end of the dry summer.  And then there is Mian ki Malhaar, created by the maestro Tansen himself, which is inspired by the heavy downpour and the sonorous sounds of the thunder.

If there is any popular song of our times that captures the essence of the rains for me it has to be Shafqat Amanat Ali’s Malhaar from Fuzon’s album Sagar.

   

The powerful voice connects you to the Divine as it laments about the distance between the eternal lovers- the soul and the Supreme…

Raiin Na jaaye, ab din nahin aaye/ tum bin kucch nahin bhaaye

The long night refuses to end, the dawn never breaks/ Everything pales into insignificance, without you by my side

Barkha rut hai shor machaye/kahe yeh mujh pe yoon jal barsaye

Door ho tum mere pas nahin ho/koi use samjhaye ….

The downpour creates such a din/ why does it leave me drenched

You are so far away from me/ why doesn’t it understand

The wonderful blend of modern beats and rhythms makes the perfect package to present the timeless Malhar to the current generation. Just like the magic of the monsoons never fades away and remains a subject of fascination for people of all ages, our musical legacy- of the ancient, season-inspired ragas and such- will also continue to enthrall music lovers in all age and times. And we have artists like Shafqat Amanat Ali to thank for that.

Umra Langiyaan

"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…