A man learns all his life

'I don't know what to do with Anu Malik'
Suparn Verma
Nusrat Fateh Ali KhanIn Bombay, the Shiv Sena will not allow him to perform or record music, in protest against the Pakistani ban on Indian artistes. It is an attitude which deeply confuses Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, a simple man whose art knows no national borders.

Suparn Verma met the international superstar on his last visit to Bombay.

At first glance, the man who has taken the music world by storm in recent times looks more like a Sumo wrestler than Sufi singer.

Spend time with him, though, and you realise that whatever else Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is capable of being, one thing he could never be is violent. A monumental calm characterises his periods of repose, and every movement of his hands -- whether to underscore a melody as he sings, or to underline a point as he speaks -- is infinitely gentle.

That same monumental calm characterises his speech patterns -- words are sought for, tasted on his tongue, and then delivered with due precision -- even when he speaks of his passion, his junoon, for music.

We meet him after the Ustad of Sufiya Kalaam has spent an all-nighter with lyricist Javed Akhtar, composing songs for the under-production album Kaache Dhaage. "Asian music," he says in his trademark thin, reedy voice, "has a depth and a stability which even the western audiences understand. The reason for that is, my qawaali is so powerful that it reaches out to you. That's also the reason why the biggest singers in the world want to collaborate with me. Yes, there is definitely going to be a rise in the demand for Asian music."

He doesn't say so in as many words, but the implication is clear -- it is Nusrat Fateh Ali himself who is fuelling this newfound interest in, and demand for, Asian music.

The Ustad's pedigree would do a Boston Brahmin proud, stretching back as it does for all of 600 unbroken years. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan belongs to the Qawwal-Bachon Gharana, a tradition which specialises in two classical streams -- dhrupad and khayal. Interestingly, he may end up being not only the highwater mark of this line, but also its end -- his only child is a daughter and, under the canons of Islamic law, she is forbidden from practising the art that has made her father a figure famed throughout the world.

"My daughter is 13 years old, but girls cannot sing professionally as it is not allowed in the precepts of the Islamic culture," the Ustad agrees. "Sufi music has those restrictions. Though she does sing at home, she cannot sing qawaali professionally. So my daughter might end up becoming a doctor or an engineer," he says, that trademark smile creasing his cherubic features.

Nusrat Fateh Ali KhanEqually interestingly, he almost didn't make it to the pantheon of singing greats -- if his father, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, had had his way, Nusrat would have become a doctor. But then, fate intervened, in the form of a dream.

"The dream occurred to me sometime in 1964," recalls the singer. "I must have been 12-13 years old at that time, I never used to sing before that, although I did play the tabla. I had this recurring dream that I was singing in the holy dargah of Moin-ud-din- Chisti in Ajmer. After that dream, I became obsessed with singing and finally, even my father had to relent."

Among those who have had occasion to bless that particular dream are a bevy of Bollywood music composers, who have been routinely 'inspired' by the famed qawaal's songs. The Ustad for his part accepts the rip-offs with a fatalistic shrug.

Ustad Fateh Ali Khan with Anu Malik and Bally SagooHis phlegmatic tolerance, however, stretches thin when Anu Malik's name comes up. "What Anu Malik has done is too much," he protests. "This is just not the done thing, he has taken my devotional song Allahu and converted it into I love you. He should at least respect my religious songs."

The comment brings up the obvious question -- who does he regard as talented among today's music composers? "India has a lot of talented music composers," he says. "There is A R Rahman who is very good, Nadeem Sharavan, Anu Malik -- no I'm not joking, he is a very talented composer, but he has lost his direction somewhere along the way. He could have gone far ahead in life, but there is a lot of the commercialisation in music industry today, the producers force him to do it, to copy other songs. That way a man's credit gets lost. If one is dedicated to his work he can go far ahead in life. I don't know what to do with him, every time we meet he says that he loves my music so much that when he lifts my tunes he is actually showing me his admiration. But what he has done with Allahu by making it into I love you is the limit. I do plan to do something about it, let's leave it at that for now."

Interestingly, Anu Malik will team with the Ustad and Bally Sagoo to compose for Firoz Nadiadwala's under-production film, Kartoos. And Nadiadwala makes no secret of the fact that it is the Ustad himself who will be in total command of the troika.

"Firoz is a good friend of mine," says the Ustad, "and he had approached me when I was in Los Angeles. But I was very busy at that time, so I accepted to do only four songs of his film Kartoos. But I am the one who is in full charge of the entire music," he adds, grimly.

 

'A man learns all his life, and dies the day he thinks that he has learnt everything'
Nusrat Fateh Ali KhanAnother query that has the Ustad unusually animated concerns Night Song, the album he has produced in collaboration with Michael Brooks and for which he has been nominated for this year's Grammy, in the best world music category.
"Night Song is a brilliant album," he says. "It is a combination of the East and the West, a combination of classical and folk music. The beat is Western and Michael Brooks, the producer of the album plays the guitar. Frankly, though, I did feel limited doing the album because my songs are mood pieces -- I can sing one song for an hour, improvising all along, but you can't do that sort of thing in albums of this kind. Basically, when I perform I do not follow any guidelines, I improvise on the spot and reach the peak. But in the album the song has to be timed. The West is shocked that we sing from our raw voice,we do not create music using instruments and gadgets."

His tryst with international reknown, however, began much earlier, when he sang on the soundtrack of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ. Another of his sound tracks, Dead Man Walking, earned him another Grammy nomination, and his voice has also been used in the Michael Douglas starrer The Ghost in the Darkness. However, he confesses himself less than pleased with the way Oliver Stone used one of his religious qawaalis in Natural Born Killers -- where the song was used as backdrop for a rape scene.

"I did the music for Natural Born Killers," he says, "at the instance of (rock star) Peter Gabriel. The Westerners see music as layering, they only understand the rhythm of the music but they do not understand the poetry. I did not like the way my religious song was used in the rape scene in the film, but later Oliver Stone came to me and told me that he did not mean to hurt my sentiments. He said he did not know what the lyrics of the song meant, he just thought the tempo matched the scene."

Nusrat Fateh Ali KhanThrowing up his hands in the air -- an expression that is quite a Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan trademark, he exclaims, "So what can you do? After that experience, though, for my next film Dead Man Walking I had my lawyers draw up a contract specifying that my songs could not be used for any scene without my prior approval."

Another grouse emanates from his hit song Afreen Afreen, the video of which has a scantily clad Lisa Ray filling the small screen. "I do disagree with the way videos of my songs have been made. Afreen Afreen is a very powerful song, it did not require such a video. The emphasis should be on the song. Again, I have told my recording company and in the future they will screen the video only after my approval."

But such irritants are of the past -- for now, he is busy with a major international project being put together by Peter Gabriel.

"It is still in the planning stages and should take shape sometime in July. Gabriel will be bringing together a stellar cast of international performers like Luciano Pavarotti, Madonna and me, we will be collaborating with various other international artists. I'm also singing on the sound track of The Saint. along with some Arabic singers."

Experimentation is very much a part of his musical mindset. "I like to experiment with my voice, besides music. I had given an example earlier, that one looks good wearing all types of clothes -- even Western clothes make you look good. What I meant was that the instruments are the clothing in my songs, so it does not make a difference to me if the music is western or techno or classical -- my voice remains the same.

"My music, in fact, comes under any and every category. A performer learns with experience, and with age. I did not know the future when I left home and started out to begin my career, I started qawaali, then I met Peter Gabriel and was exposed to a lot of new ideas. I have used whatever I have learnt from others. A man learns all his life, and dies the day he thinks that he has learnt everything."

Given the popularity even the 'inspired' versions of his songs have in India, it appears a pity that Indian audiences cannot hear the Ustad perform live thanks to the ban on Pakistani artistes performing in this country. This ban, in fact, is by way of retaliation for one imposed by the Pakistan government earlier on Indian artistes. "I'll be talking about the ban imposed on Indian artists to our new prime minister Nawaz Sharief," says the Ustad, who had earlier tried to persuade former premier Benazir Bhutto to rescind the ban. "Nawaz Sharief is a friend of mine and I'll be trying to get the ban lifted on Indian artistes. It is very important for cultural relations to be maintained between our countries. Nawaz is very fond of Hindi film songs, he even sings them though he is not a very good singer. Nawaz will have a lot to do in his tenure, he has been given a second chance to rectify the mistakes he made the last time."

Arguing the case for increased cultural interaction between India and Pakistan, the Ustad says, "The people in Pakistan are very fond of India -- they love Indian stars, songs and the people of India. This whole issue has been created by politicians."

The way he says 'politicians' indicates that in his lexicon, the word has uncomplimentary connotations. "Artists and sportsmen have no business in politics," the Ustad says, firmly. "Imran is a very good sportsman, but that doesn't make him a good politician. If I'm a good singer that won't make me a good politician either, will it? Being popular is one thing, but he shouldn't use his popularity to enter politics. He has been misguided by others. Politics is not a field for sportsmen and singers."

The Ustad has no plans to parley his own phenomenal popularity into a role in public life -- in fact, he wouldn't be able to find the time, even if he nurtured any such ambitions. For on his already brimming agenda is a plan to produce a film. "It will be a co-production, but I cannot say anything more about it now because I still have not worked out all the details," he shrugs.

But music remains his grand passion, and the doyen of qawwals is less than ecstatic about the direction it is taking in recent times. "These days, music is in the hands of people who are interested only in commercialising it," he says sadly. "There has to be a revolution in music. Right now, Western culture dominates everything else but if we we project our music properly, then we can dominate world music. There are so many facilities here, I think we should have a regular channel for Indian music which plays folk, classical and eastern music. Our artists are good, but they need more exposure..."

And if one man has done more than others to ensure that the Asian voice is heard -- and admired -- on the global stage, it is the rotund, cherubic performer sitting across us, his face creased in a benign smile as he contemplates the vision of a musical future in which Asia rules...