After wading through the morning traffic, when one finds that Ustad Rashid Khan has not turned up for the breakfast appointment at Infinity, the coffee shop of Crowne Plaza, Mayur Vihar, one starts reading meaning in the name of the restaurant and wonders how stardom works the same way in all creative fields. But by almost brunch time when Khan appears in casual wear, he proves to be an exception. Genial to the core, it is hard to fathom that he is the same Ustad of Hindustani classical music who keeps the audience in a thrall for hours during his concerts week after week in different parts of the world. One of the busiest classical artistes of this generation, Khan, nursing a sore throat and recovering from jet leg, apologises for the delay. He is joined by his young son Armaan, who is going to accompany him on stage for the HCL Concerts in Kamani Auditorium. The sight reminds of Khan’s own journey with his maternal grandfather and guru Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan, the doyen of Rampur-Sahaswan Gharana, who introduced Rashid Khan to the stage at a young age.
“He was very strict. I have very harsh memories of the time spent with him in Budaun and Kolkata but then it was he who made me.” He talks of times when days were devoted to mastering just ‘sa’. “And a little mistake would attract a slap or a slipper.” For young Rashid, it was painful but today the Ustad calls it a blessing. He remembers an evening in Bhubaneshwar, when before a concert, organised to felicitate the then Petroleum Minister Vasant Sathe, he was feeling feverish. “I was supposed to start the proceedings, followed by recitals of Ustad and Hari bhai (Prasad Chaurasiya). Not in a mood to practice, I was going through the motions with Ajoy Chakrabarty on harmonium and Ananda Gopal on tabla. Suddenly, Khan sahib entered the green room and kicked me hard. I got so scared that I forgot everything and came back to my senses. That night, Satheji announced an award of thousand rupees for me. The kick proved to be a blessing,” gushes Khan.
Besides his technical prowess, Khan is known for his soulful voice that delineates human pain beautifully. Khan gives it to his childhood. “Heart-break is not always caused by love. I lost my mother early. It took me a long time to get over it and music was my soul medium to convey my pain. Somehow it stayed in my voice.” Also, he adds, after a certain age he didn’t want to show off his taiyyari (practice). “At a young age, you want to indulge in taankari. As you mature, you seek peace, sukoon (tranquillity), and you experiment. I have confidence in my practice and I know my limitations as well. For instance, I don’t try raga Khat, which Mallikarjun Mansoor used to sing very well, because I find it hard to negotiate it.”
Khan asks for watermelon juice but I remind him that he has a sore throat. “Don’t worry, the audience will not even get to know. Years of practice has taught me how to get over it. The throat is playing tricks because of change of weather. It doesn’t matter whether I drink something cold or not,” he says confidently. In music, Khan is all for give and take among different gharanas but when it comes to food, he doesn’t want to venture beyond the Mughlai delicacies of Rampur’s culinary gharana. “My khala (maternal aunt) used to make amazing biryani and kababs and I learnt from her. She emphasised on ghee in the diet of classical musicians.”
In love with mutton
He regularly cooks for his wife Soma, whom he describes as his anchor. “She is fond of my mutton recipes in which I invariably mix vegetables like bitter gourd,” reveals Khan, passing the pasta to Armaan after giving it a try. He is happy with his samosas and spring rolls. “I don’t like Italian and Continental,” says the artiste, who was among the first batch of vocalists who made Indian classical singing popular in the US in the 80s. “Before us, it were only the instrumentalists. Not just the US, we toured Europe as well and got some amazing response in France. But when it came to food, I never experimented and always succeeded in finding an Indian restaurant.”
Years of practice has also taught him to scan his audience. “The moment they enter the auditorium, I can tell from their body language what they would like to listen.” Khan is a people’s musician. “I sing for the public. It is my duty to offer them a hand and help them come along on the journey of ragas. This is the only way, I believe, our traditional music can stay alive and spread.” This is the age of packaging, he adds. “We are going through a phase where older generation is giving way to young. And this generation watches T-20. It wants everything in short packages. They have no patience for something like Dhrupad. Of course, there are a few places where audience still appreciate alaap for an hour but in most places they want the best of all in a short duration. In this age of all rounders, you have to be one,” says the musician who loves cricket and counts Sourav Ganguly and Deep Dasgupta among his friends.
Khan has the right base for Rampur-Sahaswan gharana is known to combine the best of technique and emotion. “With Khayal, we give due weightage to thumri and dadra.”
Symbiotic relationship
Perhaps that’s why he is open to spreading wings in Bollywood. His rendition of “Aaoge Jab Tum Sajna” in Jab We Met continues to live on just like the film itself . In fact, Khan says, he is requested to sum up his concerts, the latest being Sankat Mochan Samaroh, with this composition which has a strong element of thumri ang. “Whatever genre you sing, you have to create your own meyaar (quality). A singer has to be open minded. I had to record this song twice to get the right feel,” recalls Khan, who was first approached by Vishal Bhardwaj for his jinxed project Barf.
“I had given up on Bollywood but then Sandesh Shandilya followed me upto Kolkata,” he quips. One asks him about his possible return to ghazals, but Khan is interested in something more current. A dance number may be? “Why not, I am up for challenge.”
The cynics might not like it but Khan maintains that singing light music adds to the quality of classical music. “It is a two-way process. Singing light music adds roohdari, emotion to delineation of ragas. When you listen to Mehdi Hassan’s rendition of ‘Ranjish Hi Sahi’, you forget that it is in raga Yaman for Mehdi’s sahib fills it with so much mithas . I can’t achieve it in khayal.”
Khan grew up listening to Mohd. Rafi and Kishore Kumar and remembers the pathos that Kishore was able to imbue in “Mere Naina Saawan Bhadon”. People say he was not trained but Khan has a different story to share.
“Once his son Amit told me that his father used to spend a lot of time with Ustad Vilayat Khan. He must have learnt classical elements, otherwise one can’t achieve such finesse.”
Talking of patronage, Khan is not pleased with the government’s efforts to popularise classical music. “We hardly get any space and the tax burden is increasing. The latest headache is the GST,” he rues.
As for awards, he says, they come when the artiste has no time left to enjoy the recognition. “Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was conferred the Bharat Ratna when he was 86. Was he able to relish the feeling of wining the country’s premier honour, something which Sachin Tendulkar is enjoying. Why a classical musician has to be over 50 to be recognised,” questions the Padma Shri-recipient
