The issue with the East-meets-West fusion of ‘Bandish Bandits’

This pained response, from somebody who loves literature, language and superb arts, is duplicated when watching reveals based mostly on a compelled fusion of Indian music varieties with Western. They normally start with cute visuals of teams of younger, westernised Indians, carrying guitars and drums, wanting round with childlike wonderment. They’re headed, we’re advised, for outdated cities and bastis in the hunt for Indian people and classical music varieties. Their funky garments, which consciously mix the West (jeans, branded strolling footwear and guitars) and the East (kohl-lined eyes, vibrant scarves with mirrors and heavy oxidised silver jewelry) affirm the intent.

A lot hand-shaking and back-thumping of native musicians follows within the baithaks of gharana gurus and/or dargahs. However as stringed devices are strummed and throats produce a fast show of alaaps and fast-paced taans, what emerges is a pale ghost of classical ragas and semi-classical nirgun songs, sufiyana kalams, people ballads and mediocre poetry. The grand digicam work and histrionics — flailing of arms, vigorous shaking of heads with eyes closed and locks swinging — the “wah wahs” from the sidekicks, all seem pretend, technological enhancement of the acoustics however. You may’t anticipate to carry collectively two musical genres to provide a divine new fusion music if the wobbly centre simply is not going to maintain.

And ah, the bandishes that the bandits want to construct upon. What are they? The poetry of affection and longing they comprise could also be timeless and rhythmically appropriate, however nice classical music is not only the literary textual content. It’s the seamless circulate of notes that breathes life into on a regular basis speech and makes a lot of the bodily world irrelevant. It isn’t sufficient to underscore the holiness and purity of outdated gharana music or carry out rituals just like the touching of ft and the ear lobe in reminiscence of an outdated khalifa or guru. Hindustani classical music has a palpable however summary interior logic created by pure musical notes. They can’t turn out to be algorithm-driven in a means that undermines their interior logic. Neither is actual classical and semi-classical music an eye catching conveyor belt carrying a misplaced assortment of socio-political and gendered baggage.

The world of musical efficiency right now is sort of a noisy worldwide airport, its peripheries crowded with of us who need to break all queues and run. However earlier than you run, you will need to be taught to stroll. Natural communication in music between conventional performers breaks down as a consequence of Gen Z’s near-total lack of a grasp on vernacular languages and the performers’ ignorance of English. With out open-ended and fixed communication neither right now’s concert-goers nor the younger fusion fanatics and their advertising managers can determine precisely what they want to talk and the way. Because the Prime Video present Bandish Bandits opens and the 2 fundamental characters change (mediocre) traces of Urdu poetry penned by a shadowy shayar, each mispronounce a key phrase “kha ma khwah”. The slip grates like grit beneath the molars. The younger singers and actors within the position of organisers appear largely unaware of the correct musical idiom from vernacular languages and introduce the artists and the bandishes in a pidgin Hinglish, mispronouncing names and drumming up an embarrassingly fake enthusiasm with a lot flashing of lights and popping of fireworks.

It doesn’t work.

Good music isn’t about wanting good however sounding good. Outdated timers will fondly recall the likes of Kumar Gandharva sitting, carrying an electric-blue cashmilon pullover, and Mallikarjun Mansoor turning up in a mussed up sherwani. These representatives of elegant legacies refused to feed the petty snobberies of the brand new patrons of Indian arts.

Tales fed to most people by uninformed members of outdated gharanas supply little details about the natural construction of gharana music. They struggle force-feeding younger filmmakers myths and non-secular mumbo jumbo about the actual non secular identification of a sufi or saint-poet who blessed their guru and the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb, or share some lore about miracles carried out by the music of their ustads. However such lore doesn’t result in an understanding of music which may help fuse melodies and create actual jod-ragas like people who the Jaipur Atrauli Gharana stalwarts created effortlessly.

What now we have right here solely the ignorant will think about able to therapeutic the deep sectarian wounds that run by means of the soul of India right now. Have you ever ever puzzled why many classical music and dance performers really feel the necessity to wheedle and beg to be included in authorities delegations that peddle “gentle tradition”? Why have a number of of them chosen to maneuver to alien lands to present tuitions to NRI children?

As our nice creative traditions are broken by senseless politicisation and communal violence, it makes little sense to churn out reveals about India’s syncretic tradition. You can’t produce dazzling new fusion music with the assistance of strange-looking lecturers in a good stranger Kasauli-based music faculty, whereas outdoors, in actual life, teams of politically-protected fanatics defy court docket orders to proceed digging up historical monuments in the hunt for a monolithic tradition from the Treta Yug.

The author is former chairperson, Prasar Bharati