Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Hindustan Times (Lucknow) - Live
Culture of instant gratification impacting us adversely, say sibling singers for six decades
Those who sing together live together! Those golden words of Pt Rajan (68) and Pt Sajan Mishra’s (63) father have lived on with them. They have been singing together for nearly six decades and live together under one roof too.
The Padma Bhushan awardees, who sing the ‘khayal’ genre of Hindustani classical music, belong to Varanasi. On a visit to Lucknow recently, the worldrenowned singer duo said, “Our father and uncle’s (Pt Hanuman Prasad Mishra and Pt Gopal Prasad Mishra) vision was we become yugal gayak (duet singers). The thought was if we sing together, we will live together. And by God’s grace, we still live under one roof and have single kitchen in the joint family of 14. The binding factor is music which relives stress and creates harmony.”
Pt Sajan is five years younger than his brother.
“Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan Sahab used to say that if the harmonium and tanpura reach every house, then it will surely end crime in India.”
Spelling out another mantra, that they learned from their father, the duo said, “He used to repeatedly give one ‘nasihat’ (advice) to us: ‘Ba-adab, banaseeb! Be-adab, be-naseeb’ (With culture on your side your future will be bright. Without it, it can never be)! This became philosophy of our life. He taught us the lesson of vinamrta (tenderness), shraddha (devotion) and badon ka samman (respect for elders).”
KHAYAL SINGERS
The duo sings khayaal, tappa, tarana and bhajan. “We basically sing khayal. It is a Persian word meaning imagination. In it we are given a poem and then we develop it and improvise on it.”
They started performing early. “Varanasi is a city of temples and when we were around 8-9 we starting singing in them…which is called ‘haziri lagana’. Our first major performance was at Sankat Mochan Temple at in 1967. I was 16 and he was 11,” said the elder sibling. They lived in Varanasi till 1972-73 and then shifted to New Delhi. “My chachaji shifted to Delhi and we went and auditioned for All India Radio (AIR) and got Agrade in the first attempt itself. Radio had a wide audience and that established us as budding artistes. That benefitted us a lot.” They started performing all over the country and their first international performance was in Colombo (Sri Lanka) in 1977. Since then they have travelled to various countries.
In 2017-18 they did a world tour. “We did 55 concerts in this tour, spread across 13 countries. We were the first Indian artistes to perform at Ankor Vat in Cambodia.
THE CAMARADERIE
Pt Sajan talks about his musical half, “He is my elder brother and is guru-samaan for me. Everything in him is special for me and I keep learning from him. I believe, in India, we don’t have any thinker-singer like him. It’s God’s grace and the blessing of our gurus (father and uncle) that we sing together and I feel lucky about it.”
What about creative differences? “We thrive on spontaneity and probably that is our strength. Before performing, we do ‘dhyaan’ of raag and pray to our gurus that ‘aap humari izzat rakh le’ (that you save our reputations). In singing, we complement each other.” Except a few rare occasions, they have always performed together.
ON THE BIG SCREEN
They sang in the film ‘Sur Sangam’ that starred Girish Karnad and Jaya Prada. “It had music of Laxmikant-Pyarelal and the film was written and directed by K Vishwanath. We sang 10 songs with Lataji (Mangeshkar), Kavita Krishnamurti, Anuradha Paudwal and S Janki. Karnad played a music guru in the film. The songs became very popular. ‘Dhanya bhaag sewa ka avsar paya’, ‘Aye sur ke panchi aaye’, ‘Saadh re man sur ko saadh re’ and more,” said Pt Rajan. Some 4-5 years later, they sang for ‘Woh Tera Naam Tha’ which had Amrish Puri in an important role. “The film was not released popularly and came and went. We gave music for film ‘Mati’ in which Sonu Nigam and Shreya Ghoshal lent their voice but the film could not release.”
They are still open to singing in films. “We have refused several film offers. Musical films are rarely made. We can do a film which is related to our subject. I am open to singing in a film even today if the subject suits me. But, we will not sing just anything,” he said.
To the youngsters, he said, “There is no shortcut in any field. Guru ke prati aastha (faith), samarpan (surrender) and sangeet ke prati dedication are the key. The culture of instant gratification is impacting us adversely and mobile phones have finished personal relationships. Instant culture can give instant success but not longevity.”