On Lux Junoon Dikha De - a strange contest

Sometimes, though very rarely, I do get some time on hand and so it was today... like a silver lining on dark clouds, my strange illness gave me a surprise chance today to be just myself - to watch TV, to rummage through incessant channels, to play remote footsie and to see those so-called 'reality' shows .... (I find most of them completely unreal; the participants mostly immature but then as my friend is wont to say ... Art imitates Reality.. maybe we all are quite unreal in our expectations and behaviours..... at times - melodramatic like our movies!)

What interested and surprised me a lot today was a program called 'Lux Junoon Dikha De' or something with a nomenclature of something to that effect.

To explain further - it's a musical show with a format that interestingly shows a competition between three different diverse schools of Music - Sufi, Lok Sangeet and Hindi Film Music..... very interesting, very novel, but in my opinion..... very foolish!

I firmly believe that Film Music is a genre in itself; that it's unique though it's true that it is not born of it's own different tradition. At it's best it is a melodious synthesis of different strands and strings of world music; at it's worst a cacophony of noises that has it's own roots; in other words it's not a so much of a style in itself as it is a comendium of all ....

Film Music is a collage, a meeting point, a 'Sangam' of so many diverse strands of music..... so many different styles, so many different snatches, so many different roots - it's like an ocean that has obtained it's sustenance from so many different sources - to ask it to compete with it's own roots is ridiculous and childish. All these different strands, whether Indian or foreign, whether classical or non-classical, whether folk or non-folk, whether urban or rural have all contributed to making this great edifice and so it is somewhat immature to ask it to compete with two of the strands that make it..

Admittedly Sufi and Lok do not enjoy a great influence in today's Western-influenced world, but still they do have their pockets of influence.. Quawwali, a form of Sufi music, still sells like hot cakes in and around Dargahs and as far as Lok Sangeet is concerned, you need to only visit Bombay during the Navratri festival.... the truth is that the heart of India still listens to sufi and folk but there is no doubt that the progeny is streets ahead in terms of popularity.

If popularization of Lok Sangeet and Sufi is the avowed mission of the program, then I have no issues with it.... In fact, I would be the first to support such a noble cause - not because I am one of those fascist Indian only pseudo-intellectuals who refuses to see beyond itself but because I believe that Indian music has it's own charm, a charm that cannot be replicated and bettered.... of course I respect and appreciate both the Western and the other strands of local music but maybe I think we do have our own beauty.

However, both Sufi traditions and Indian folk music are too rich and original to be compared to film music, which has it's own identity - one that reflects the sources but stands on it's own! Like the Indian Ocean that receives tributes from both the Ganga and the Brahmaputra (through the Bay of Bengal) and the Indus and the Cauvery(from the Arabian Sea) but still maintains it's own distinct fervour.

One of the main reasons why I think both the musicians and singers of the Industry are more versatile and talented than the ones practising their own art is to look at the sheer volumes and differences (the variety) in their throughput!

To quote an example, Mohammed Rafi is equally divine as he modulates his sonorous 'Voice of God' for different purposes ... whether it be the soulful Bhajans of Baiju Bawra (1953) set to pure Hindustani Classical music by the great Naushad or the Quawwalis of Roshan in Barsaat Ki Raat (1960) set to Sufi influences .... whether he uses his skillful playful throw of sound in rock and roll for Shammi Kapoor in Shankar-Jaikishen's 'An Evening in Paris' (1968) or whether he uses it to deep effect for the great Madan Mohan singing a soulful and deeply tragic Persian invention - the ghazal for 'Sangdil' (1952) ........ as if this is not enough one only has to listen to him in Gunga Jamuna (1961) as he weaves his way through a tune from Bhojpuri folk music; there is even a rap song before rap became popular in Love in Simla (1960) and of course who can forget those songs of anguish from Pyaasa (1957) or those songs of love from Guide (1966); the songs of philosphy acquire a new meaning in his voice like the ones set to N Dutta's labour of love 'Hum Dono' (1961).... Just too Good!

And why only Rafi Sahab, look at any of the masters, haven't they proven themselves in different genres while remaining within the ambit of Film Music - doesn't it show the respect that film music has for all the varied genres of musical virtuosity! And at the same time, doesn't it speak volumes for the talent and capabilities of the Singers Fraternity of India!

Similarly a film like Amar Akbar Anthony can have a Bhajan (Shirdi Wale Sai Baba) and a Quawalli (Parda Hai Parda); it can have a pseudo-rap like the starting strands of 'My Name is Anthony Golsalves' and a pure romantic song like 'Dekhke Tumko Dil Dola Hai' .... it can even have a snatch of a Bombay Street Eunuch effect like 'Tayyab Ali; Pyaar Ke Dushman Hai Hai" - how then do you classify this album?

Or any of the great ones - the examples will go on increasing - a silent proof of the resilience of Indian Film Music - we have appropriated everything in this Indian Ocean of Melody and so my personal apathy to comparisons of the different musics of India

But then this is just my opinion.... nothing else