Cross-border music mergers

Baiju Mageshkar’s grip on Shah Hussain’s poetry and his dexterity in singing the Sufiyana kalaam in Punjabi makes one wonder how a man, living almost 1,400 kilometres away from Punjab in the Indian state of Maharashtra, could achieve that so perfectly. And yet Baiju does it with exceptional command of craft. This, he has inherited.

Coming from a celebrated family of artistes, he’s mostly known as Baiju Mangeshkar. As I interacted with him some time ago, I found him the blue-eyed nephew of Lata Mangeshkar and son of music director Pandit Hridayanath Mangeshkar – the man behind some of Bollywood’s most melodious compositions. While Baiju inherits the talents of singing, composing music and understanding the essence of poetry from family, he’s a fine arts graduate and hence a trained painter too.

Before going deeper into Baiju’s recent achievements, it’s quite pertinent to reveal an amazing part of his personality. He’s an Indian artiste with an extraordinary knowledge of Pakistani art and film industry. As we started the conversation, he straightaway asked if I wanted to test him.

“Who’s Waheed Murad?” I asked. “The chocolate hero; I know the best romantic songs were filmed on him,” he promptly responded.

My next question, in my perception, was too difficult to be put to a young Indian artiste. “Who sang ‘Tum Sang Naina Lagay’?” I asked.

He cut me short. “That’s Rubina Badr,” he said, asserting, “Not Rubina Qureshi!” Totally surprised, I asked him how much he knew about Rubina Qureshi.

“She’s a Sindhi folk singer and the wife of actor Mustafa Qureshi,” he said. That was the moment I decided to change the topic and talk about his work.

Baiju has always been in love with different genres of Pakistani music; primarily film music, ghazals and later with the Sufiyana kalaam. He didn’t take a short cut though. He developed an interest and knowledge about the diversity of Pakistani music; he and his younger sister Radha extensively listened to Noor Jahan. “We both are her biggest fans.”

“I have vinyl records, a massive collection of LPs and cassettes from various genres of Pakistani music mainly the works of Mehdi Hassan, Salamat Ali Khan, Ghulam Ali, Farida Khanum, Iqbal Bano, Runa Laila. It’s a long list,” is how he describes his rich collection.

Baiju also recognises the contributions of Pakistani composers mainly Khuwaja Khursheed Anwer, Rasheed Attre, Master Inayat Hussain, Khalil Ahmed, Ustad Nazar Hussain, Nisar Bazmi and Sohail Rana and wishes he could have met Ustad Nazar Hussain when he was alive.

Baiju was also exposed to Western mysticism from American Gospel music while experiencing ka’afiyaa and more of the Sufiyana kalaam.

“I heard this genre only on the periphery; can’t say that it led me to Sufi music. I was already exposed to Sufi music.”

Once he got into the genre, he made music on selected pieces from Hussain’s works. To him, this rare exposure led to phenomenal experimentation; he made four songs and launched his first album based purely on Sufi poetry. Two of the songs, ‘Ranjhan’ and ‘Rabba Mere’ were duets.

“I still can’t believe I got to sing with Lata ji. Even today, almost three years after the album was launched, I can’t believe it actually happened.” He remembered. “The greatest feedback I received was a phone call from Abida aapa (Abida Parveen). She praised my work, my selections as well as the quality of mixing on the technical side. She was deeply impressed by Lata ji’s contribution.”

“I hadn’t worked with Lata ji ever before this way,” he recalled. “I’d seen her rehearse; I’d participated in some of her music tours abroad and contributed to patriotic choruses with her. But working with her as a composer and as a co-singer was an entirely different experience of my life.”

Baiju shared how it took him three years to convince Lata ji to sing with him. He eventually had to involve his cousin Rachana Shah, daughter of Lata ji’s younger sister Meena Khadikar, to get the job done.

Sharing details of his memorable experience, Baiju says: “Lata aunty allowed me space; she treated me like a respected composer.”

Of the post-Western classics, Baiju prefers The Beatles, John Lennon; Marvin Gaye, Harry Nilsson, Dinah Washington and Dusty Springfield, to name a few, for their quality contribution to the music of their respective eras. And this is why his exposure to orchestration, harmony and arrangement help him in music experimentations.

“These are my influences from the West that I have infused in this particular album; I have for the first time made Lata aunty sing in harmony,” is how Baiju explains the patterns he adopted. “I opted for harmonizing in ‘Rabba Mere’ as the composition goes through varying scales; that’s something new to this particular genre.”

Baiju has also learnt to read and write Urdu as has been a tradition in the family.” Yes, I can read Urdu, not very fluently though.” And he’s all set to visit Pakistan. “I would love to perform in Lahore and other places. I also want myself to get further exposed to the heritage of Sufism and poetry irresistibly connected to that side of Punjab.”

He’s recently released a Marathi ghazal video in his father’s composition. “It’s my first directorial venture too!” He’s currently involved in making solos one after another in Urdu, Punjabi, Marathi and Hindi languages mostly based on the Sufiyana kalaam. The album will be launched soon.

Baiju is a fan of Pakistani actor Nadeem for the latter’s versatility. He prefers Salim Raza over Ahmed Rushdi as a playback singer. “I know Rushdi is more popular among Karachiites; but my choice is different from theirs.” Of the new Pakistani acting talents, he admires Aamina Sheikh. “My mother too is a big fan of her.”

He also reads Faiz, knowing almost every musician who has worked on the revolutionary writer’s poetry. While he admires Rasheed Attre’s ‘Mujh se pehli si muhabbat’, he finds Arshad Mahmud’s works on Faiz par excellence! “Arshad sahab has simply vitalised Faiz’s poetry in ‘Ham Ke Tehre Ajnabi,’ ‘Kidre na paindiyan dassan’ and ‘Aaj bazaar mein’.”

At this point I realised that I had to inform Arshad Mahmud that he has a big fan in Mumbai! The composer is currently serving as Director Programmes at the prestigious National Academy of Performing Arts (NAPA) in Karachi. I called him for an appointment and stated the purpose. The same evening, as I entered his room at NAPA, he was listening to Baiju’s music on his cell phone. “I would love to make music for this young talented man,” the musician exclaimed. In the meantime, I received a call from Baiju as he responded to my earlier messages. So I connected the two and on my request, Arshad Mahmud promised he would surely compose for Baiju; Baiju said he would love to sing for the maestro’s composition.

Originally published in The News