Carnival of Soul

With a career that began years before the Partition, singer Asha Bhosle has rendered the most hummable hits for decades. Be it Chura liya hai tumne jo dil ko (Yaadon Ki Baaraat), Aao huzoor tumko (Kismat) or In aankhon ki masti ke (Umrao Jaan), her versatility has been hailed by the most sought after. Lyricist and poet Prasoon Joshi wanted to chronicle her life, what makes her tick, what keeps the 86-year-old playback singer still active, and her choice of music. Beginning October 4, at the three-day long Raymond MTV India Music Summit 2019, in The Fairmont, Jaipur, adman Joshi hopes to know more about Bhosle, who entered the Guinness World Records in 2011 for recording 11,000 songs in 20 languages. “I want to know more about the acting in her voice. She is not only melodious and has the perfect voice but one who has given voice to many actresses, one that is full of emotions. There’s a storyteller in her voice,” says Joshi, a mentor for the festival, about his upcoming conversation with the artiste.

The third edition of the music summit brings a platter of India’s musical traditions on one platform through baithaks, conversations and performances, in over 50 sessions. There’s the duo Rajan and Sajan Mishra from the Banaras gharana paying an ode to their city, and the Shillong Chamber Choir from Meghalaya, winner of India’s Got Talent, who will participate in the festival. The latter’s rendition of Vande Mataram that was chosen during the Chandrayaan-2 mission last month, will ring at the festival too. The choir’s founder Neil Nongkynrih will stage excerpts from his new opera Sohlyngngem, set in the Shillong of 1800s, as he weaves together a hybrid of Khasi folk music, western classical and Hindustani classical music to highlight Meghalaya’s dying language of Khasi. “People preserve forests and endangered species. This is my effort to preserve the language,” he says.

Fourteen-year-old Chennai piano prodigy Lydian Nadhaswaram, who has mastered the art of playing two pianos at the same time, is excited about his upcoming stint at Jaipur. He informs that he will be tracing the bumblebee’s steps in the minute-long Flight of the Bumblebee. Ustad Mazhar Ali Khan, classical vocalist of the Patiala gharana, will hold a masterclass on the basic requirements of vocal music, and improving voice and embellishing ragas. He says, “I will bring out the beauty of the Patiala gharana through live demonstrations and gayaki. It will be a mix of both theoretical and practical knowledge.” The highlight will be his and brother Jawad Ali Khan’s showcase of what comprised the beauty of the music of their grandfather, Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan.

The face of contemporary Indian music, the emerging hip-hop scene being its finest example, will be seen through a performance by Delhi-based Punjabi rapper Prabh Deep, whose compositions are peppered with what he sees around him — the increasing and alarming usage of drugs, poverty, suicide rates and unemployment. Films on stalwarts of Indian music include the National award-winning film Zikr Us Parivash Ka, a reminder of Begum Akhtar’s music through the lens of filmmaker Nirmal Chander Dandriyal. It will be followed by Gully Life – The Story of Divine, a peak into Mumbai’s rap sensation Vivian Fernandes aka Divine, who inspired Zoya Akhtar’s Gully Boy.

Tickets available on Bookmyshow