Many moons ago, when Shashi Kapoor’s wife Jennifer Kendall passed away, maestro Zakir Hussain committed to perform live every year on Jennifer’s birthday at the Prithvi Theatre in Juhu.
In the year 2000, when tabla legend Ustad Allarakha, popularly referred to as Abbaji by all, passed away, his son and student Zakir Hussain reserved the date 3 February for paying an annual tribute to the great master.
Over the last 16 years, the event has gathered some of the greatest luminaries of Indian music, representing many musical and rhythmic traditions from all across the globe.
Zakir Hussain says, “
The seeds of fusion between Indian and Western music were sown by Pt Ravi Shankar and my father, Ustad Allarakha. I have merely taken the idea forward, made it accessible to the world.Zakir Hussain, Tabla maestro
As the stage at Shanmukhananad Hall gets ready for a riveting performance, I recall conversations with Zakir Hussain on Abbaji, music and movies.
Q: It is said that you were an extremely naughty child? Were you?
Zakir Hussain: Well, that is what the elders in the family say. I was a very accident prone child. I always got in to trouble for no fault of mine. Once I pushed my hand through a glass door and on another occasion, I consumed kerosene because I was always thinking of new excuses to bunk school. I was an average student and my happiest moments were away from school, those spent in the company of my father. I loved sitting and talking to him. Music was always surrounding us, at home, outside, in mehfils. Abbaji would narrate anecdotes about his travels, stories about the great maestros he met and worked with. Sometimes, I would emulate them, he would watch me indulgently. Those were happy, beautiful days.
Q: Your father is clearly the strongest influence in your life...
Zakir Hussain: It is natural, isn’t it? And when you have a father like Abbaji, even more so. In fact, he was the only influence on me during my growing years, till I turned 18 for sure.
Whenever he went abroad, he’d return with cassettes of different music groups, be it Brooks, Starship or Jefferson, and make me listen to them carefully. I’d get very excited and run to reproduce the sounds on whatever I could lay my hands on, and he would encourage me.
Those days our home had an old sofa set with broad wooden armrests. So when I returned from school, I would throw my school bag and start banging on the armrests. My mother was worried I would damage all the furniture in the house and said to my father, "Zakir ko tabla kharid do, nahi to mera sofa tod dega.” (Buy Zakir a tabla, or he’ll break my sofa)
Q: Is it true that you never went through a formal training?
Zakir Hussain: I was fortunate to be born to the greatest musician. I will say that I grew up with rhythm in my ears. My father was my guru and a very strict one at that. It is not entirely true that I did not go through formal training, I did. But let me tell you that no amount of training is ever adequate for a true artiste. Art is a never-ending process of observing and absorbing. It's a religion just like Islam or Hinduism.
After all these years I’d say I’m still under training. A great teacher never imparts all his knowledge, he always holds back something. I have been hankering for that something all my life and I’m not sure when I will find it, or if I will find it. But the search is on.
Q: Is it that search and hankering that attracts you to a different medium? Is that why you agreed to star in movies?
Zakir Hussain: The hankering is for art and not a replacement. What I feel for music I can never feel for any other medium. I have done just two films in my life and I said ‘yes’ to both spontaneously. How could I have refused the opportunity of working with Julie Christie in Heat and Dust? Though I have to admit that when I saw myself in Heat and Dust, I cringed and said I’ll never do another film again! The truth also is that over the years I became comfortable before the camera, and this actually helped me become a better musician, because you communicate better with your audience. So when Sai Paranjpye asked me to play RD Burman with Shabana Azmi in Saaz, I was not going to miss the opportunity.
Q: And how was the experience of working with Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Sai Paranjpye?
Zakir Hussain: For Heat and Dust I had the complete script in hand much before the shooting commenced. Shooting Hindi films in comparison to that was a big challenge. The dialogues are given on the sets and there are long breaks in between scenes, and as an artiste your mind wanders. The directors were different temperamentally. James never praised or gave me any feedback. All he said was ‘okay’. On the other hand, Sai was very vocal and you always knew when she was happy or unhappy, because it showed on her face.
Q: You have been performing all over the world for so many decades. Would you say music has changed?
Zakir Hussain: Music cannot change. It was sublime when I was a child and untrained…it was sublime when I was growing up and was getting trained, and it is sublime now when I am performing.
Music grows and as a musician we have to evolve with our performing art or we will be left behind. For me music is not a companion, it is my breath, it beckons me in sorrow and it beckons me in happiness. As long as my father lived, I never saw him never take his art for granted.
Even when he got a standing ovation in the best and the biggest of shows, he attributed his art to the Almighty. All I pray is that I should be able to hold my art as precious as my father. I want to be able to play the drums, for as long as I live.
(Bhawana Somaaya has been writing on cinema for 30 years and is the author of 13 books. You can read her blog here and follow her on Twitter: @bhawanasomaaya)
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