Zakir Hussain on being his father’s son

Tabla maestro describes Ustad Alla Rakha as a “canny teacher”

Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain (R), producer Nasreen Munni Kabir (C)and festival producer Sanjoy K. Roy (L) display Hussain's biography 'A Life In Music' during the Jaipur Literature Festival 2018 at Diggi Palace, in Jaipur on Thursday.

Tabla maestro Ustad Zakir Hussain spoke at length about the special relationship he shared with his father and guru — Ustad Alla Rakha — at the Jaipur Literature Festival on Thursday.

Addressing a large crowd, Mr. Hussain, said that despite days spent in near poverty, his father believed “in a very passionate way that if he followed his path, god would provide for them. If you are mad enough to be in the world of art and culture, you have to tale a leap of faith and believe that the spirit will provide.”

Mr. Hussain was in conversation with festival organiser Sanjoy K. Roy and filmmaker and author Nasreen Munni Kabir, who has published a book titled

Zakir Hussain: A Life in Music .

“He was a sneaky guy, a canny sort of a teacher,” Mr. Hussain said of his father during the early years of training. From the time Mr. Hussain was born, his father would strum rhythms into his ears. “Then when I was three, old enough to beat on pots and pans, he suddenly stopped. I had all this stuff in my head, and he let me go. He wanted me to figure out for myself if I wanted to follow this path.” By the time he was seven, Mr. Hussain was playing in school concerts.

Riyaaz with Ustad Alla Rakha was no joke; it would start every day at 3 a.m, and for three hours, Mr. Hussain would be taught, for instance, the Ganesh sloka, where it came from, what it meant. “Which son would not want to spend time alone with his father while the world slept?” he quipped.

‘Different times’

At 6 a.m., he would be sent to the madrassa, where the students would recite the Quran. And then, after an hour, it was off to the school church before classes began. “But neither the mullah nor the priest stressed that their’s was the only truth. Those were different times,” said Mr. Hussain.

Though his father knew when to pull back and never imposed any routine or regimen on Mr. Hussain, he certainly put an end to the start of a film career when he was a young boy. Ustad Alla Rakha was an artist with Mohan Studios when Mughal-e-Azam was being made. Mr. Hussain visited the sets when the song Pyaar kiya toh darna kya was being filmed. On seeing him, K. Asif decided that he wanted Mr. Hussain to play the young Prince Salim and sounded out lead actor Dilip Kumar. That night at a concert that Mr. Kumar attended, “I was shown off. Dilip saab looked at me, my chin, pinched my cheeks, and told K. Asif theek hai (he will do),” recalls Mr. Hussain.

When Mr. Asif broached the subject with his father, though, Ustad Alla Rakha blew his top. Mr. Hussain did get a second chance at an acting career years later when Naseeruddin Shah dropped out of Ismail Merchant’s Heat and Dust , and he was offered the role of Inder Lal, who romances actor Julie Christie in the film. This time, when he asked his father, he was told the choice was his to make.