Hariharan muses over the state of music today

" Hariharn ghazal concert being put up without the help of sponsors. "

It’s like the world doesn’t care for good things anymore. The classy stuff is never covered by the media and even sponsors run away when approached. I really don’t understand, I hope someone can explain this phenomenon to me some day,” says singer Hariharan about the lack of representation for older ‘refined’ forms of Indian music.

With changing singing styles in Bollywood, Hariharan soon found himself without compositions to which he could lend a voice to. But that hasn’t stopped the veteran singer. His ghazal concerts are a regular feature and today he will sing a few compositions by Mehdi Hassan, but most of them will be his own babies.

He says, “My compositions are varied. Some are based on ragas, others on thumris, while some are chord-based which have a jazzy feel. Even the ghazals that haven’t been composed by me have to be made my own when I sing.”

Born into a family of musicians, Hariharan’s training in both Carnatic and Hindustani music is what gives his voice its tonal quality. Yet, to learn ghazals from his Guru, Gulam Mustafa Khan, he had to forget everything he learnt as a Carnatic singer. He explains, “With ghazals and Carnatic music, it’s like talking two different languages. The way each note is pronounced is completely different. I’ve stopped singing Carnatic music for a long time now.”

Harharan might have lost his stronghold in Bollywood, but together with his Colonial Cousins partner, Leslie Lewis, the duo’s tunes down South have been topping the charts. The qawaalis and Sufi rock sound needed for the bigger tracks in the Hindi film industry are not an option for his ‘ballady’ voice. Thankfully, he says, the Tamil film industry is still hanging on to his kind of music. ”