Reading Father: Abba, the Legend

He enjoyed giving music in films, but at the same time, he was a very busy performing artist. He did not have the time to confine himself to a studio environment. For him, live concert, with its grandeur, was more stimulating, with the adrenalin rush of spontaneity. Moreover, live interaction was so much his forte and character. He also brought in popular light music into the “classical” foray, like introducing Baul/Bhatiali style — the folk music of Bengal — on the classical stage, performing it at classical platforms, which was unheard of then. Likewise, he introduced Maand (kesariya balam), the folk music style of Rajasthan, Sindhi Bhairavi Punjabi pieces in Pahadi, etc, performing them during the second half of his concerts, including Sufi music, thumris, qaul, qalbanas, kajris, etc. He said, “You don’t have to deviate from your path to make classical music popular.” I understood this. So, when I stepped into the Sufi world of music, I did exactly the same: I unfolded popular music into my Classicism and made it classical. Today, that is why people feel my Sufi singing is authentic yet reaches the masses. That is an important lesson in performance I learnt from my father. His philosophy was that you didn’t have to dilute your music to make it popular. You could stay a purist and yet have lots of fun. That was the essence of Ustad Vilayat Khan’s style of music. In earlier days, during his concerts in Kolkata, along with the connoisseurs, even masses — the rickshawallahs, bus drivers and pedestrians — would stop by the pandal to listen to his classical music. Such was the style and appeal of his music. The masses adored him. Sometimes when a scribe would take a jibe at him, he would retaliate in the “arena” of his concert and through, even more brilliant music, he would say, “My pen is my mizraab (plectrum). More than my words, my mizraab and sitar speak for me.” He was a sensitive, dynamic and refined man, perhaps even more refined as an artiste.

Though he came from an aristocratic family, he was not greatly exposed to the luxuriously varied tastes he developed later in his life. His interests in western culture and other such things came from his own learning. He was a lover of everything that is beautiful. His love for things beautiful transcended from metaphysical to physical. He developed an interest in a varied range of things, such as chandeliers, his own style of kurta and sherwani cuts, sports cars, ballroom dancing, Persian carpets etc. He appreciated not only a beautiful mind and beautiful heart, but also a beautiful body: he did exercise every day and took care of his weight and health efficiently. 

He had a lot of fan following, especially from the fairer sex. There were and are women who were crazy about him. In one sweetly weird instance I remember a gorgeous lady sitting in the front row, listening to abba. She couldn’t hold her emotions and told me, “I am going to have an orgasm just looking at your father.” He always underplayed that part of his life and never flaunted the attention he got.

When he was in the last stage of fighting cancer at Jaslok Hospital in Mumbai, many great musicians came to meet him — from common men to the greats, from the humble to the extremely rich — everyone met him not just with respect, love, affection and adulation, but with such reverence in their eyes that it stunned me. I think to be able to make the kind of music that he did, with the variety and abundance of colours and emotions, not to forget the “thinking process” in his music, that’s life lived well enough.