Ghazal Concert for Pakistani and Indian Audience at Dural

I gave a ghazal concert to a mix of Pakistani and Indian audience after Eid-Al-Fitr in July 2015.  Here is a glimpse of the many songs that were sung on that day.

Thanks to Mustafa Vasi for arranging this concert.

Ye baatein Jhuti Baatein - Ghazal - A cover

Song: Ye baatein Jhuti Baatein 
Composer - Singer : Ghulam Ali
Genre : Ghazal 

Covered by : Murali Venkatraman

A beautiful ghazal which playfully convinces the beloved not to take the "rumours" but only "love" seriously.  A humble attempt from me.

Dil Mein ik Lehar - Ghazal - A Cover

Song: Dil Mein ik Lehar
Composer - Singer : Ghulam Ali
Genre : Ghazal 

Covered by : Murali Venkatraman

A ghazal that caresses you like a gentle wave of in the shore, one which distills the romance and admixes the solitariness with an exquisite tune.  A humble attempt from me.

Baharon Ko Chaman - A cover version

Song: Baharon Ko Chaman
Composer - Singer : Ghulam Ali
Genre : Ghazal 

Covered by : Murali Venkatraman

If ghazal is a poetic form which expresses the unrequited love of a platonic being and represents a monologue to one's beloved, the highest form of its human manifestation can be called Ghulam Ali.  There is none who would take a ghazal and present it such that the beloved would feel guilty and possible run into the hands of the forlorn lover.

In here, is a humble attempt to sing one of his signature ghazals - Baharon ko chaman.  The lyrics are reflective and contemplative in content.  Hence the master chooses a simple lilting tune with not many accidentals which could overwhelm the listener.

Hoshwalon ko khabar - A Cover Version

Song: Hoshwalon ko khabar
Film : Sarfarosh 
Composer : Jatin-Lalit
Originally Sung by : Jagjit Singh 
Genre : Ghazal 

Covered by : Murali Venkatraman

Thanks to Raja Govindarajan for introducing me to the wonderful world of semi-classical singing in Hindi, Bangla and Telugu in 2000.  He sent me two cassettes with the choicest melodies of Ghulam Ali's ghazals, Hariharan's Hazir, Ajoy Chakraborty's raagpradhaan and SPB's old telugu classics.  While gravitating to SPB's numbers was easy as my soul was nurtured in a south-indian family, I could not help but get severely attracted to ghazals and raagpradhaan. Thus over the past 15 years I have been predominantly into (self)learning the nuances of these genres helped amply by my wife Lalita and given some good pointers by my good friend Ramanan Moorthy (Dallas). In this process, I discovered a whole array of singers who made me crave for more and more of the melody genre where their deft singing embellished the gazillion accidentals which one could miss if a careful listening is not accorded.  Singers like Manna dey, Shyamal Mitra, Sandhya Mukherjee and Haimanti Shukla whose works I flirted with have now become the staple source.

However, both urdu and bangla are tricky languages with inflections, intonations and pronunciation that one needs to familiarize with, to an extent that he does not sound out of place or at times, idiotic. Both are north-indian languages which are similar to hindi in some sense ( urdu in grammar and bangla in vocabulary) but far different from it in many aspects as well ( urdu in vocabulary and bangla in pronunciation ).  Hence a singer constantly and consciously requires to examine his/her diction.  This had pretty much shunned me from singing and releasing anything in public for quite long.  However, I believe I have now reached a reasonable level where I do not at least sound downright out of place and this is probably the best I could hope for :)

When it comes to pronunciation, the master is Jagjit Singh.  Here I start with a famous ghazal of his from the film Sarfarosh.  Bouquets and brickbats welcome :)

Baahon kE Darmiyaan - Dedicated to my father

Song : Baahon ke Darmiyaan
Movie: Khamoshi
Singers : Hariharan, Alka Yagnik
Composer : Jatin-Lalit
Performed by : Sindhuja Bhaktavatsalam, Murali Venkatraman



It may appear unusual to dedicate a romantic song to one's father. But Khamoshi - the album has more connotations in my life than just music.

It was 1997. I was visiting home at tirunelveli from CECRI, my undergraduate college. My father was away for an official trip to Madras.

Hailing from a middle class (lower-middle class - sometimes I wonder how so many varieties of middle classes are there in India) family which stressed emphatically on education, moral values and minimal materialistic pleasures, it was really a struggle to do anything pertinent to music when I was growing up. Even the BUSH radio, which is still religiously serving us, was considered a luxury item. I was rarely allowed to listen to film songs since my father’s doctrine was, and is, that film music hinders studies. And with education being the only rudder to a better life, listening to music was considered a time-wasting-exercise. Nevertheless, my interest never ceased and I registered in my memory most of the songs I heard off and on.

Once I was in CECRI, in the absence of parental control, my listening and practicing of music grew to very high prorportions, however, I did not have a walkman or a transistor-radio to listen to songs. I had silently envied my classmates who had a walkman but told myself buying one of those was just the start of unending expenditures since cassettes were not cheap then (Rs 50 for CD-recorded cassette !). I had asked my father if I could get a walkman sometime and he had answered with a strong “No” since budget would not allow. also, in line with his doctirnes it woudl be a serious deterrent. A good AIWA walkman would cost more than Rs 1000 and he certainly could not afford it since it was a tight-rope walk for him every month with me going to college.

So, I had buried my desires. Dad came back from Madras to tirunelveli, and had reached home at night. I was just relaxing in the bed with some music played on the bush radio. He called me, handed me a package and said : “Open it” with a subtle smile.

And inside the package was a beautiful AIWA walkman.

My eyes gleamed and my heart skipped a beat. I said “thank you” to him (well.. real family situations are not melodramatic soap operas – that was my reaction) and found two cassettes given as a compliment for the purchase.

Needless to say one was Khamoshi. One could not ask for a better album. All songs were good but baahon ke darmiyaan was outstanding and I was really enslaved by Hariharan’s voice. Music and music players have become cheap these days and cassettes and even CDs are long gone, but what my dad bought me at a time he could barely afford will always remain etched in my memories and whenever I hear this song I get reminded of him. (That he has no idea about either the movie Khamoshi or the songs is a different thing altogether).

I also have fond memories of Khamoshi with my friends Srinath, Gump and Ravi in Columbia. In October 1999, I bought my first car, a 5 year old Nissan Sentra. Being the only guy with a car, it was normal to drive friends around. I had not forgotten the Khamoshi cassette. It was a usual routine to go for long drives in the night listening to Khamoshi songs and discussing some junk topics. Once on highway at 70 mph, probably overwhelmed by the gravity of the melody, Srinath remarked:

“indha maadhiri paattu kEttuNdE fast aa car OttiNdu pOy crash aagi seththup pOyidaNum” ( Translated – would like to drive the car fast, crash and die as I listen to these songs )

We looked at each other. I pulled over and stopped.

“Dei..arivu irukka ? ippadiya pEsuvE ?”

were some of the retorts we gave him. But later when I read in an article that Vairamuththu expressed his wish to be listening to “maalaip pozudhin mayakkathile” as he dies, I understood what impact those songs have had on Srinath. Unlike Vairamuththu, Srinath's expression of his admiration for Khamoshi songs was hardly poetic but certainly no less sincere.

Singing a song with Sindhuja is a difficult proposition generally with her razor sharp ears picking up even the most minute of slips. But it is always a good experience. And this is the first hindi song that I have felt mildly comfortable to attempt (As always, I am overly conscious about pronunciation and accent in any song / language). It is u for you guys to decide how good our version is.