On a recent visit to India, the esteemed Gujarati writer Madhu Rye made remarks about Gazal writers who write absolutely abominable gazals and then email the same to zillions of people. Mr. Rye's made these remarks in Surat, the home town of noted' reputable/ certified Gazalkar Bhagwatikumar Sharma. Mr.Rye's comments erupted in to a crazy conflagration of fuming email discussions from the self-styled aficionados of Gazals that was stopped only when a well meaning and sane Gujarati columnist asked those folks to put an end to that silly tirade against Madhu Rye. (I must confess that I had contributed a comment or two in support of Madhu Rye.).
Wasn't that William Shakespeare who said or may be he should have said,
'Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time.
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle.
These so-called Gazalkaars are but a walking shadows, a poor players
Who strut and fret their hour upon the stage of cyber-space,
And then is heard no more. Their gazals are tall tales
Told by idiots, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. ..'
So why were these folks so upset about Madhu Rye's criticism of Gazalias or Gazalkaars?
I think all these people who keep forwarding these so-called Gazals should be banned from traveling the cyber-highways.
These new breed of Gazalkaars are nothing but self-hating and generally, what we call losers, they are no Omar Khayyams or Ghalibs or Rumis. Not even Chinoo or Manhar Modys or various Dahiwalas, Dudhwalas, Gheewalas... or Telwalas
And how about the Gazal singers who stretch one note of Jee that seem to be eternity? And the same crazies applaud the Gazal singer when the irritating Jeeing ends.
I have a strong dislike for folks who keep on sending me the inspirational stuff with cute photos of babies or animals or some stolen or perhaps photoshopped nature-scenes, all usually accompanied by Enya-like or New Age-ish type music. And while talking about annoyances, have you ever thought as to why those kids in the TV commercials for adoption and help never seem to get OLD?
And now talking about 'old', do you remember in the old times every Hindi movie had one mandatory song as if just written and sung for the beggars in the trains or on the streets? Songs such as Tumhare se tumse daya mangte hey,... whatever happened to those kind of songs? The orphan's song that I have just quoted is now sung in our local temple as a regulation prayer! As they say, Go figure...
These has led me to think about the devotional songs or Bhajans that are crafted in the movie song melodies. If I am not mistaken, the trend was started by THE Punit Maharaj. At a very young age I had the misfortune to listen to him in Ahmedabad - accompanied by my parents - as I was too young to be left home alone. That experience has left such a big scar on my psyche that I still remember it with a shudder going thru my spine. One of our local priests at the Hindu temple also sings some bhajans that are all sung in the style of popular movie songs... I don't know, may be I am too old-fashioned and not quite familiar with modern practices of worship and bhajan singing.
Now, as you may already know there are perfectly good bhajans written by Kabeer, Surdas, Meera, Dayaram etc. for singing in the classical ragas and all those bhajans are melodious and easy on ears too. So why was there a necessity of composing bhajans in filmy tunes?
The reason for this deterioration is simple - the writers do not know classical music and do not have any knowledge of writing in meters as defined by the Pingal Shashtras.
I just cannot even think of such stuff without getting real upset, brining my blood to the boiling point and breaking my thermometer...
Now I'll have to go and get some special medication to calm me down.
Harish Trivedi
- with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek...
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