Most aficionados will agree that a good ghazal is defined by a perfect combination of poetry, tune and voice. As they say, the poet is the backbone, the composer the heart and the singer the expression and soul of the song.
Keeping this in mind, it is music to one’s ears that this year's Khazana festival is dedicated to poets - past and present. As main organiser Pankaj Udhas says, “The biggest contributor to a ghazal is the poet. Based on his or her words, the singer can lend the right expression and mood.” Now in its 16th edition, Khazana – A Festival of Ghazals, a fund raiser for cancer and thalassaemia patients will be held this week.
A highlight of the festival will be the felicitation of veteran singer Bhupinder Singh. The singers will include all-time regulars Udhas, Anup Jalota, Bhupinder-Mitali and Talat Aziz, besides Rekha Bhardwaj and Sudeep Banerjee. Many younger names like Pooja Gaitonde, Gayatri Asokan, Mirande Shah, Aabhas Joshi, Samir Date, Dipali Date and Sneha Shankar will perform. The programme also includes singers who are associated more with Hindi film music and other genres. These include Papon, Sona Mahapatra, Javed Ali and Parthiv Gohil.
That brings us to the poets. There will be a medley of poetry from ghazals used in films. Thus, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Shakeel Badayuni, Sahir Ludhianvi, Kaifi Azmi, Gulzar and Nida Fazli will be covered. There will be representations of classic poets like Mir Taqi Mir and Mirza Ghalib, besides Pakistani maestros Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Ahmed Faraaz and Qateel Shifai. The contemporary Indian poets will include Bashir Badr, Qaisar-ul-Jafri, Mumtaz Rashid, Zafar Gorakhpuri and Wasim Barelvi.
For hardcore followers of ghazals and Urdu poetry, all these names would be familiar. A small section would even be soaked in the work of each poet. But if one looks at the larger picture, the majority is not familiar with the work of many, barring maybe Ghalib, Faiz and some modern names like Gulzar and Fazli.
How many, for instance, know that Jagjit Singh’s famous ‘Baat Niklegi’ was written by Kafeel Aazer, and Farida Khanum's ‘Aaj Jaane Ki Zid Na Karo’ by Faiyyaz Hashmi? Or that Udhas’s ‘Deewaron See Milkar Rona’ was penned by Qaisar-ul-Jafri and that many gems by Begum Akhtar were by Sudarshan Faakir? Compared to the 1980s, when ghazals were in vogue, the overall standard of genuine appreciation for Urdu poetry has declined. Ghazals have a few basic parameters with respect to theme, structure, metre and rhyming, but many from the younger generation are unaware about them. Even spoken poetry sessions, or mushairas, have come down in number, and younger Urdu writers are concentrating more on films, because the money is better. Singers have often popularised songs without naming the poets.
The responsibility to bring back the awareness thus lies with the singers, organisers and the poets themselves. Such thematic festivals are a good way to revive true appreciation, but we should have many more, all over India and in some foreign cities with a huge Indian population.
Khazana - A Festival of Ghazals will take place at Trident, Nariman Point on July 21 and 22; for more details see bookmyshow.com