The younger generation of artistes are talented and committed too, spending hours doing ‘riyaaz’, but need support from listeners and organisations to grow, says Hindustani classical singer Shubha Mudgal.
Artistes, she argues, don’t need to prove how good they are. “The onus of that lies in the hands of listeners and organisers,” Mudgal told PTI.
Mudgal, whose oeuvre spans the music spectrum from classic to pop and fusion, said even a fraction of the response and backing that events such as a performance by Canadian singer Justin Bieber or South African comedian Trevor Noah get would go a long way in supporting upcoming Indian artistes.
“Students and young artistes today are very committed to their art and they are very talented too. But they need support from music lovers and organisers.
“We have international artistes coming from all over to India… tickets for a Trevor Noah or Justin Bieber show are sold for such huge amounts. Even if half of that response is given to upcoming Indian artistes, whose ticketed performances go for Rs 200 or so, think of the impact it would have” Mudgal said.
The 64-year-old recently performed at the 27th edition of the ‘Parampara Series’, organised by Natya Tarangini in the national capital.
Both her parents were professors at Allahabad University and she said she was “motivated” to take to Indian performing arts, including dance and music. When she was just four, she started learning kathak but that was not to be.
“My family motivated my sister and I to learn Indian classical arts. There was this environment at home where we would listen to classical music, we would go to see artistes perform on stage, and we would go to concerts. I started in kathak, but my mother felt I would do better in classical music, so she suggested I learn music,” she recalled.
In her career of nearly four decades, Mudgal has delivered some foot-thumping numbers, including “Ali More Angana” and “Ab Ke Sawan”, as well as soul stirring songs such as “Seekho Na”, “Piya Tora Kaisa Abhimaan”, and “Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi”.
The decision to experiment with Indian pop was something that happened on its own and without a strategy.
“When I started doing music, I was meeting a lot of other musicians, producers and all kinds of people who asked me to sing for them and I rejected some and I accepted some. There was no planned strategy to sing popular music and abandon classical. It happened all together,” Mudgal, who has been awarded the Padma Shri, said.
She has worked with a range of musicians, national and international, across an even wider range of musical styles and genres, and said there is a lot more to learn.
“There are many music forms that I know very little about. Even though I have worked with jazz musicians, I know very little about it. I want to learn more. There is western classical, it is not my area of expertise but I am interested in it,” she said.
