Zakir Hussain’s Jugalbandi with Cinema

Against a backdrop with the colours of the Indian flag, two silhouettes appear with tablas. Even before their faces are lit, we know who they are. Everyone who grew up watching Doordarshan on their televisions in the 80s and 90s remembers the famous tabla jugalbandi between father and son in the song “Desh Raag”. Reportedly, when Ustad Zakir Hussain was first placed in Ustad Allah Rakha’s arms, the first words whispered in his ears were rhythms of the tabla instead of a prayer.

The maestro was known world over for his magical fingers on the tabla. But the Ustad also harboured other interests—among them stood out his penchant for the silver screen. In the 1990s, he popularised the refrain of “Wah Taj!”, which appeared in the TV advertisement of Brooke Bond Taj Mahal tea and came to be associated with his tabla rhythms, jovial face and buoyant, unruly hair. The advertisement definitely marked his presence in the advertising industry, at a time when television was just entering the market. But beyond that, it also brought Hussain to prominence on the screen. Up until then, he was only known from his performances on the radio.

The story behind the advertisement is fascinating. In the 1980s, Hindustan Thompson Associates—the agency that produced the ad campaign—set out to look for a brand ambassador who had assimilated India’s traditional roots in their global cultural presence. When the Ustad was first approached for it, the thought delighted him so much that he flew down to India from the US at a personal expense. Even as he fell sick before the shooting at Agra, he refused to opt out of the production and persisted to complete the ad film. In his anecdotes about the shoot, Hussain has recounted that when people gathered around to look at who was shooting, he had mischievously told them that it was Mithun Chakraborty who was coming to shoot and he was his younger brother! Eventually though, his onscreen presence in front of the lofty Taj Mahal not only spiked the sales of the tea but also allowed millions to witness what the maestro looked like.

Hussain first faced the camera in 1983, in a British historical romance called Heat and Dust, directed by James Ivory. In Indian cinema, Sai Paranjpye’s Saaz (1998) marked his first significant performance as an actor. Saaz is a film about two sisters, who are singers in the film industry. Hussain was cast in it as a musician who had a love affair with Shabana Azmi’s character Bansi. Apart from this, he also appeared in films like The Perfect Murder (1988), Miss Beatty’s Children (1992) and Thanduvitaen Ennai (1991), as well as documentaries like Zakir and his Friends (1997). Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, a popular TV talk show hosted by the yesteryear actress, had an episode with the camera-savvy musician and his wife Antonia. His last cameo on screen was in Dev Patel’s Monkey Man, which released this year. The scene, which features Patel and Hussain, has them doing a unique jugalbandi. While Patel’s character boxes, Hussain plays the tabla in sync.

Beyond camera appearances, the Ustad’s engagement with the film industry was also through his skills as a music composer. He was the music director of the Malayalam actor Mohanlal-starrer Vanaprastham- The Last Dance (1999). His music also featured in films such as Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978), Apocalypse Now (1979), In Custody (1993), Little Buddha (1993), Saaz (1998), The Mystic Masseur (2001), Mr. And Mrs. Iyer (2002), Parzania (2005), Manto (2018) and Monkey Man (2024). The Ustad had musical collaborations with many prominent names in the Indian film industry including Laxmikant-Pyarelal, R.D. Burman and A.R. Rahman. In his tribute to the Ustad on the social media platform X, Rahman expressed his regret about not being able to collaborate on more projects with the maestro. “Zakir Bhai was an inspiration, a towering personality who elevated the tabla to global acclaim. His loss is immeasurable for all of us,” he said.

Truly, the loss of the legendary percussionist shall remain an irreplaceable one for Indian music and beyond.