Music is food for the soul. So when a team of leading Indian musicians team up to reprise an evergreen number, it can only be balm for the troubled times we live in.
Classical musician Purbayan Chatterjee came up with the idea of recreating Gulzar’s ‘Humko man ki shakthi dena’ from the 1971 Jaya Bachchan-starrer Guddi. The music was composed by Vasant Desai and the song sung by Vani Jairam. “It has been one of my favourite numbers since childhood and I always thought this was a song that should have been heard more even today. At present, the lyrics seem to resonate in me. The song is about the power of the mind in overcoming challenges and I thought it was apt for these times,” he says over phone from Mumbai.
Purbayan points out that what we need is hope and resilience. He feels that could be the reason why the song has struck a chord with listeners. “One good thing about adversity is that it brings people together. They set aside their differences and work as one. We are seeing that in our country as well as we battle against COVID-19,” he adds.
Purbayan got in touch with the artistes and got them to record the song in their homes. It was quite challenging as some of the artistes did not have a studio or good mic sets. Moreover, Priyanka Barve and her husband, Sarang Kulkarnki, are in Pune while Anirudh Varma, who did the keyboard programming, is in Delhi. The others are all in Mumbai.
“Priyanka is the singer who acted as Anarkali in the musical Mughal-e-Azam. Although some of us are active on social media like Facebook and Instagram, it is the younger lot who are multi-skilled and experts in shooting, editing and mixing. The editing of this one, for instance, was done by Nakul Chugh, an extremely talented musician himself. But it was Anirudh who did the production,” says ghazal and playback singer Gayatri Asokan.
Gayatri Asokan | Photo Credit: K Ananthan
While Gayatri and Priyanka are the female vocalists, Kshitj Tarey and Shivam Mahadevan, Shankar Mahadevan’s son, are the male singers. On the sitar is Purbayan; Nandini Shankar (violin diva Dr Rajam’s granddaughter) on the violin; Sarang on the sarod; Shikhar Naad on the djembe; Ameya Naik on the percussion; Ishaan Ghosh and Ojas Dhiya on the tabla.
The song has been released on Musicians’ Digistage, an online platform begun by Purbayan and Gayatri.
Gayatri says with a smile that her husband, Purbayan, is on a roll. “We are all at home and it is a strange feeling for leading musicians like him as they are so used to performing almost every day. So to boost our spirits and to spread joy and optimism, he thought of an endeavour like this. Unlike health professionals, we can’t contribute like them in comforting or healing those suffering from the pandemic. So, we thought we would do something that we know best and give something musical to all those confined to their homes like most of us,” says Gayatri.
Taking into cognisance the fact that most musicians all over India are dependent on programmes and recordings, the couple plan to enrich their digital platform with unique recitals and, sometime in the future, make it a revenue-generating one.
“Digital is the way forward. All musicians are going live on Instagram and Facebook. Even someone like Zakir Hussain, who never ever had an Instagram account, recently started one during the lockdown and is teaching, free of cost, thousands of aspirants, on every Saturday or Sunday. Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia never before came live on Facebook or Instagram. For the first time, the octogenarian maestro came live on social media with his student and he said it felt nice. Many of them find the digital platform an ideal way to communicate with their followers and fans,” says Gayatri. She points that in the West, musicians like Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, John Mayer ….are all connecting with their fans on social media through live shows.
“However, in India, many musicians are wondering how to earn a living during the lockdown. Maybe a platform like this can be a solution in the future and it might be a source of income for musicians,” she says.
Purbayan explains that as artistes, they are constantly creating content to reach out to people. Most of it is as a service. “But I do admit that at the back of our minds, we plan to make it an alternative revenue stream since no live performances are happening. But, at this point of time, it is a service; we are trying to bring in good content to keep people engaged and entertained at home. It is not only about the listeners but also about us artistes coming together as a community and doing something for society. That act in itself gives a lot of satisfaction.”