Not only is he one of those rare artists trained both in Hindustani and Carnatic classical music, he is multilingual and sings in different languages and genres with equal facility. Be it light classical, pop, heavy classical, ghazals or English numbers, be it fusion music through his popular band Colonial Cousins, Hariharan is one of the best singers to emerge from India in the last 3 decades.
The range of his voice is amazing and he continues to mesmerize his audience with not just his prodigious talent, but his humility and sense of humor.
Today he may be riding high on the crest of success, but the road to success for Hariharan was a long and arduous one. And yet that journey gave him the tenacity and the time to create what is popularly known as the “Hariharan style’ of singing today. In an exclusive with Kavita Chhibber the man who is known as the creator of Urdu Blues, talks music and life.
So what are the earliest memories of music?
I was fortunate enough to be surrounded by high quality music because I come from a family of musicians. My grandfather was a multi-dimensional man, a harmonium player as well as a short-hand typist. He came to Bombay from Kerala, with a drama troupe and never went back. He became famous by the name of Harmonium Vardhan and performed with Marathi Opera singers as well. He also started a Sanstha where he used to invite people to perform, and while he was teaching music he joined one of Bombay’s prominent companies as a typist. He retired 20 years later as its General Manager, only to quit and start his own business and become the God father to his Principal’s children. The Principal was an Englishman.
My dad also arrived in Bombay as a musician but had to really rough it out. He slept on benches but didn’t give up and slowly developed a school. It took him ten years but he established himself and became the Principal of the prestigious institution Shanmukhananda and the President of their music college. All the South Indian musicians who had been invited to Bombay to perform or those who came on their own always stopped by at out house and there was music and music recordings going on all the time. He would listen to both North Indian and South Indian music and so along with the South Indian stalwarts I also got to hear Amir Khan sahib, Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahib and so on. Bombay in those times was not such a crazy place. People didn’t run so much after fame and money. I guess in those days they had time to be human and everyone helped each other out.
Unfortunately my father died very young. I was only 8 or 9 then and I’m an only child.
So how did your mother manage?
Amma was always very passionate about music. She sang on stage and also taught. We had a house, we lived frugally and of course my grandfather was there to help us. He was a man whose religion was Karma. My mom has had a career throughout. Even today she has between 1000-1500 students and her old students are scattered all over the world. Where ever I go I always get some phone calls asking me-How is teacher? She is so loving and they remember that love.
How easy is it to learn from your own mother?
Well, I’m an only child and we are very close and of course while she has a terrible soft corner for me, she has been my sounding board as well. I remember when I used to learn Carnatic music which is very structured and I would want to improvise and would go ahead and do it, saying it sounds better that way, we’d squabble over it. But the teacher in her was always there to support me. She would attend my concerts and tell me what worked and what didn’t. She always said that no matter what you sing, it must be at the highest level throughout. You can’t come up with four top notch phrases and then slip in the 5th one. The consistency of perfection must be maintained till it becomes second nature, and emerges effortlessly. Do not create waste either in the words or the music you sing. Don’t sing for the sake of singing-don’t just use words for the heck of it. There must be a valid reason for doing anything musically. I think the same applies to life. It is very simple and we complicate it. Look at the true reason behind your riyaaz and think through everything before hand because when you are on stage there is no time to think.
I always wanted to be in music and she told me I still had to get my basic education out of the way. The day I got my law degree, I gave it to her, did pranam and said Amma this is for you. Now let me go and concentrate on my music.
You sang jingles appeared on television and did live concerts for a long time, all the while wanting to become a ghazal singer.
I was this boy from Matunga, who wanted to sing ghazals and get into the main stream Indian music industry. I didn’t know if I will make it, but I was definitely going to try. There were days I would come back with nothing and do riyaaz for hours at end. I also knew learning Urdu was going to take a long time, and so I understood and was prepared for the long years it was going to take me to get there. Plus I didn’t just want to sing, I wanted to be a composer, with a presence. In short I wanted to be a performing, consummate artist in every aspect. In fact there have been so many years of riyaaz and nothing else, and Amma is the one who supported me through those years with whatever she earned. I got my first serious break between the ages of 33-35.
I used to go on tours with Asha Bhosle’s troupe and she was always there to help and support me and would insist on taking me with her, while I was still struggling.
I also ended up on television just when television began. In the early 70s there were very few TV channels. There are so many people the world over who remember me from the Aarohi and Shyam-e-Ghazal days. I still remember this old couple who came to meet me and the wife said to her husband-Maine kaha tha na aapko, ki yeh bahut bada admi banega? I looked at the husband and he explained that his wife used to watch me sing on these television programs as a struggling young artist and would tell her husband that she saw something in me that made her believe I would make it big someday. I was deeply moved. There would be others who would say-oh you wore those glasses and you had that big mop of hair and wore those safari suits. I was so touched that they remembered all that so many years later.
TV was such a big deal in the 70s-the first time I appeared on it, I had more than 50 excited people sitting in our living room!
You are also one of Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan’s earliest students.
Yes, and I’m still his student. He is a “ fakir”-an ascetic in his soul. He would philosophize about life while he taught me. A true guru in my mind is someone just like him-one who teaches you the true values of life along with the music. When you think with purity and goodness, you become that purity and goodness and that in turn is reflected in your music.
I’d like you to talk about some of the amazing musicians you have worked with.
I was very close to Jaidev ji. He was truly my friend, philosopher and guide, who taught me so much about life and music. He said I know you want to become a playback singer but you remember you have all that it takes to become a performing artist.
Salil Chaudhry was the master of the complex. He took so many aspects of western music and beautifully blended them with Indian music. Today we talk so much about fusion music but you realize after listening to someone like him that fusion music in India has been around for so many years. I once composed a pretty complicated composition or him and he was very kind and encouraged me a lot, after hearing it.
Naushad sahib was an amazing man. I sang for him in his last film Taj Mahal. He was in his late eighties and even then razor sharp. If I deviated a little from the tune he had set he would catch that instantly. He was there from the beginning to the finish at each recording session-that is how dedicated he was.
R.D Burman was a genius. I have done three films for him and there was one that never saw the light of day by the late actor Amjad Khan with Amitabh Bachchan. I sang 5-6 songs with Pancham da for that one. I remember this very melodious song which I sang for him. I was always a bit tense because he was such a genius, so later I asked him hesitatingly. How was it Pancham da? He said Achcha gaya tuney. I said hesitatingly-will we do only one take? He turned and said-Kaha na maine achcha gaya ! I realized from then that when he said that it meant he really really liked what I sang! Asha ji and he were very kind to me.
Annu Malik is one of the most underrated musicians in the film industry. He gets lambasted all the time for something or the other but he has come up with some great music. The song I sang for him in Border won me the national award. He calls every one beta. When he called me that I told him tera baap hoon-I’m older than you!
A.R Rehman has changed the face of music. He told me he bought several copies of my album Reflections and already knew of me as an artist and as a singer. He always gives me a free hand to improvise and has given some great songs and will hand pick songs that he will have selected especially for me. He is a great human being, very easy to work with, without any baggage.
Shiv Hari are amazing composers and legends in santoor and flute, They knew what they wanted and created some high quality music. Hari ji is so full of life. He will come in chewing paan and comment on what changes he wanted after praising me. Trust him to chew paan and make music with equal ease!
You have sung across the nation both in the North and South Indian music industries. What is the difference between the two?
The South Indian film industry is very professional and melody based. You have the great Illyaraja who created symphonic music and then came A.R Rahman with his totally different sound and arrangement. He gave a modern sound to Indian music and yet retained its richness and beauty just as Pancham da had done so many years ago. The way they compose songs in South has a lot of gayaki ang in it and a lot of it is raga based.
We see some of it in North India but it more about what sells there.
You have been so inspired by Mehdi Hassan. There has always been a lot of talk about the face of Ghazal changing. Some artists feel the soul of ghazal is lost and that what Begum Akhtar sang was the true quintessential style.
I think if an artist has a rich classical background, it will show in any genre of music that he sings in. There are two kinds of ghazal gayaki-one in the true classical style of Begum Akhtar which was sung the traditional way and the other which is geetnuma Ghazal which I think is the one getting the bad rap.
The point is every great ghazal singer has come and added their own enrichment and style to the genre of ghazal singing. Begum Akhtar sang one particular way, Mehdi Hassan sahib gave his own rendition as did Ghulam Ali and then Jagjit Singh. I listened to so many different singers and then created my own unique style. It is very gratifying to hear people say-oh that was sung in Hariharan style. Music changes with time and you just cannot recreate music that is passé because no one will listen to it.
These days we hear so many things about fusion music. It’s a very legitimate genre of music today. Of course quality matters. My take on it is if you can take element A, B, and C from different music style and fuse it together to create element D seamlessly without making A, B, and C visible in the final fusion, it can be great music in the right hands.
Everyone has their own talent – and whatever is the need of the times becomes popular. We have to accept that. While I have great respect for the past in every genre of music, its unfair to glorify it to such an extreme extent that you stop appreciating some of the outstanding music and musicians you see before you.
Vocalization our society, and life itself is nothing but a fusion of different things.
Can you share a special memory of Mehdi Hassan? I had the pleasure of meeting him many years ago and his genuine warmth had really touched me.
Yes he is like that. I got to know him well and became so close to him in the past ten years. As you know he has been very ill. About three years back I was celebrating my 50th birthday and he was in Delhi undergoing physiotherapy and his son called to say hello. I told him I was having a do for my 50th and I wished Mehdi Hassan sahib could come for it, but I understood how difficult it would be for him to travel because of his condition. A short while later his son called back and said-Abba Ayengey..and he made it. I had tears in my eyes-his presence was the biggest blessing I could have received on that day.
We have had many Pakistani musicians cross over to the Indian music industry. You did the opposite and worked in Lahore to create your amazing album,’ Lahore ke Rang Hari ke sang,”. What was the experience like?
The musicians there are very talented but the music industry isn’t very big and they are more into acoustics. Lahore Ke Rang Hari ke Sang has a very different tonal quality and sound. They don’t have a very elaborate film industry but their non filmi repertoire is growing. And yes some of their singers have crossed over and done very well because their tonal quality and rendition is very different. You’ll see the same difference showcased in my album and it sounds really fresh and wonderful.
Let’s talk about your ghazal album with the bluesy sound “Kaash”. It created what you call Urdu Blues with its jazzy sound. I see the title song requested in every concert.
Kaash remains a major milestone in my life. When ghazal gayaki was at its peak in the 70s, I was struggling and didn’t have the powerful style, I had 10 years later. Kaash was the result of that maturing as an artist. I played it for Javed Akhtar and when it ended he said-is it over? So soon?
Then he gave a sigh and said, “Hari I won’t say this is a good album. It would be most unfair of me to say this is a good album.” My heart was in my mouth by then. He looked at me and with a twinkle said, “ This is a path breaking album.”
You have dabbled in movies as well?
Yes, we shot in Canada in 6 degree temperature outdoors but it was fun because I have always felt that acting was just an extension of what I already do, but has a different body language and technique.
So what is the most interesting thing you have heard about yourself?
That there is some special power in my ponytail which makes me the singer I am!
So we listen to Hariharan, what does Hariharan listen to?
Well I enjoy listening to all the stalwarts of North and South Indian music from Rafi ji, Lata ji, Mehdi Hassan sahib, T.R. Mahalingam, Bhimsen Joshi, Barkat Ali sahib and so on.
Can you name your top five personal favorites?
Roja, Kaash, Dard Ke Rishtey, Nilla and Taj Mahal.
Your fusion band Colonial Cousins was a block buster success. Anything new on that horizon?
Yes we are coming out with a third album Colonial Cousins Back Again by this year’s end. Our first album was a huge success. We changed the style in the second one and it didn’t do as well though I felt it rocked. Hopefully our supporters will enjoy this one. I hope to sing Khayal some day-that is a dream. For that I will have to take a six month sabbatical, but I hope to do that soon.