Love and music are part of a Punjabi’s bloodstream. In the countryside you can hear a rustic warble a soulful ballad, or croon a naughty number while attending to his chores. And in towns one often comes across youngsters humming a Gurdas/Harbhajan Mann or Jazzy B song. How deeply entrenched is the love-music combo in our collective psyche becomes manifest when one listens to music albums flooding the market. Quality compositions, though a treat, are rare however. Some really enchanting albums have been recently released by Saregama (formerly The Gramophone Co.). These take us on a musical journey fragrant with scents of the earth, the fields and the hearths of Punjabi villages even as it vibrates with the throbbing city sounds and lights.
Gulzar Singh is a trained classical singer who has chosen pop music as his profession. After the success of his debut album Rab to Mangiya Karo in 2006, he sang a number for the Hindi flick Hat Trick. Now Saregama has come up with his latest, Rab Diyan Likhiyan. It is a combination of Punjabi folk including bhangra beats, salsa and various disco rhythms. The theme of love with Heer motif predominates although there is a macho number too. Teenagers are going to enjoy this album, particularly the crossover rendition of Heer. One won’t be off the mark if one says that majority of us may not understand music but we do enjoy the noise it makes. And, it is this combination of love for music and ignorance of its rudiments that gives boost to the pop music market. No sir, we may not know that a melody consists of a succession of notes in a specific métier or that harmony is achieved by the simultaneous play of musical notes. Most of us really don’t care for the mechanics of beats and rhythms but invariably break into a spontaneous twirl on hearing a melodic yodel or a dhol’s beats. And, if it is a video-graphed composition and youngsters are around then it does not take long for a Punjabi drawing room to turn into a dance-floor.
After listening to Gulzar’s robust renderings the sedate notes of Ishq Jinha Diyan Haddin Rachia and Dard Kain Darvesh give you the experience of a gentle breeze wafting through your soul. The theme is, you guessed it, love – both spiritual (ruhani) and temporal (haqeequi). Ishq Jinha… transports you to the passionate world of Kaamdev wherein the lovelorn articulate their yearnings even as the star-crossed lovers Sohni-Mahiwal, Mirza Sahiban and Heer Ranjha play out the tragedies through soulful renderings by such great singers of yore like Jagmohan Kaur, Swarn Lata, Fakir Mohammad, Prakash Chand Chaman and others. On the other hand …Darvesh is suffused with the sublimated sentiments of love that give Sufi poetry and music an irresistible charm. Surinder Kaur, Asa Singh Mastana, the Wadali brothers, Hans Raj Hans and other singer-icons give us an elevated experience of love.
PS: - Although Shafaq ke rang (colours of the horizon) is an Urdu album, it is being mentioned here as an example of how, when meaningful lyrics are married to virtuoso singing, a magical spell is cast. Its eight ghazals and two nazms, penned by Indira Verma, dwell upon love, longing and heartbreak. The imagery-rich lyrics and the voices of Rekha Bharadwaj and Sudeep Bannerjee keep you enthralled long after the music system is switched off.
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