Speaking the Mind

Speaking the mind, the Amjad Ali Khan way

The lead story of The Economic Times dated March 21, 2010 was titled `Jugalbandi'. It was written by Amjad Ali Khan, the Sarod maestro. It was a wonderful piece. It was impressive for the way he spoke his mind. The words were expressive and the message was forthright. Shri Khan was indeed right when he said corporates were doing a great disservice to music and musicians in the guise of promoting the art.
He writes thus: ``I play around the world, but India, and especially Delhi, is perhaps the only place where there is no concept of ticketed shows. Here, sponsors claim they are helping you, but they would instead make money and score lots of brownie points by giving away free passes. When something is free, there is no value to it. I have performed at shows and seen people coming there to just be part of an eclectic crowd. They don’t love music. They just don’t want to miss an important occasion to be noticed. It is a great disservice to music and musicians. I hope corporate houses and sponsors will start promoting ticketed shows around the country. Nothing’s more satisfying to an artist than to know that his show is a sell-out.''
The maestro expressed his anguish over ``cultural destruction'' and ``uncultured aggression''. He could not have said these at a more appropriate time. Coming from an artiste of his stature, one need to sit up and take a serious note of these observations. Not stopping with these, one must also embark on course correction.
Reflecting on the current state of affairs, he writes thus: ``In recent times, our country has been obsessed with Bollywood music and dances. The western world always had Hollywood but fortunately it could balance the value of all art forms beautifully. So much so that the Western Classical music industry has grown to a multi-billion dollar industry, with artists of the calibre of Isaac Pearlman, Anne Sophie Mutter and Yo Yo Ma being the greatest examples. They still hold their traditional opera and symphony of legends like Bach, Beethoven and Wagner in the most spectacular presentations even while Beyonce and Michael Jackson grew up the popularity charts! In India, I am worried about a cultural destruction and an uncultured aggression.''
Even as he rues the `unhealthy happenings', he comes out with a solution. Says he: ``There may be a way out if some of our corporates and young leaders can come forward and promote the artists and their art. Today the whole world is interested in sports, mainly because there is an element of winning and losing in every game. Fortunately, in classical music, there is no such competition where one has to lose or win. It is only a long journey in search of excellence and perfection just like sports. Even here, you are as good as your last game. In this case, your last concert and there are no retakes! I hope that we have a counter part of IPL for the music industry soon.''
Nevertheless, he is convinced that ``corporate and political patronage is a must to promote music anywhere in the world''. ``Somewhere, I feel, we have slipped. And traditional musicians aren’t being given their due credit. Once the mindset changes, music will be a bigger industry,'' he, however, regrets.