Bollywood Music Project Enthralls Youngsters with a Ghazal Amalgamation Trio!

Proving to be a juncture to change perceptions, Bollywood Music Project held at Jio Garden BKC Mumbai recently became a melting pot of not only commercial music genres like Bollywood, hip hop and fusion but also Indian Classical Music, Sufi and Ghazal amalgamations, wherein one of the acts by the trio Meghna Mishra, Priya Saraiya and Vibha Saraf saw the singers coming together to present old Ghazal classics taking the audiences to experience this eloquent yet sublime form.

It was heart-warming to see the gen-next getting nostalgic listening to the old classics of their favorite ghazal stars namely Begum Farida Khanum, Mehendi Hassan Saheb, and the virtuoso Hariharan Saheb, whom they love to listen to but ironically seldom get a chance to listen to their ghazal renditions on Radio and television much often. The fest brought a definite insight for the music industry professionals, programmers and channel heads to get back to the roots, so as to change their perception about the musical choices of today's youth, who not only love to dance on the beats, but also relate to the depths of poetry and rich melodious compositions!

While the trio presented their solo sets one after the other on the second day of BMP  their combined stint became the most cherished performance as they presented a  fusion set of ghazal amalgamations. The act began with ‘Aaj Jane ki zid na karo’ an all-time favorite for all connoisseurs of good music both young and old, which has been attempted numerous times by many musicians, this time too the ladies did justice to it complementing each other. While Vibha Saraf embellished the piece with her husky tone in the base, Priya Saraiya elaborated it in the mid-tones, while Meghna Mishra in her sonorous voice took the composition to its climax with her high pitch innovations.

 Then came ‘Kash aisa koi manzar hota’, yet again a Hariharan Saheb’s popular melody followed by ‘Ranjish Hi Sahi’ by the maestro Mehendi Hassan Saheb, each piece is sung with precision with articulated Gayaki of the ghazal (andaz) ragadari and talaffuz of Urdu poetry, which definitely showcased good training especially in Indian classical music, that being the reason all three singers could do justice to the form.

Talking about behind the scenes and how much time it took to prepare the act Meghna Mishra said, “ It was just a days practice as we all got together and decided the set of ghazals, as all of us already knew them being popular numbers.”

On attempting a ghazal set in front of the younger audiences, Mishra says," I feel ghazal is a very tough genre because singing one ghazal after the other requires an ability to differentiate. Moreover, the form requires the knowledge of both gayaki and lyrical perfection in terms of the pronunciation of various syllables in Urdu (Alfaz) in various shers. I'm glad that today's audience showed so much interest in our presentation. In fact, we actually knew that our audience will love the act since they believe in fusion and are attracted to old melodies, so we took a chance. I feel that the era of melodious rustic age-old traditional music is coming back!