On a hazy drunken night at a dear friend's place one of the co-inhabitants of that apartment turned DJ and flipped open his Mac to dish out tunes to an already mellow gathering.
The first song that he played was 'Aankhon Kay Saagar' by Ali Zafar. It was a soulful rendering of heartwarming lyrics with the score to match. No razzmatazz, no gimmicks, just pure music. It altered the state of the room from hazy to wispy. Each listener hanging by the tendrils of Ali Zafar's voice dishing out his best.
Much to the room's delight the next song was Garaj Baras, a mash of Ali Azmat and Rahat Fateh Ali Khan that rocked my boots of my feet, as the expression goes. What was outstanding was Rahat during his solo piece within that number. Pure bliss.
The room was looking forward to more of this epic session of music that was transcending tastes, genres, and borders. It felt like music close to home.
At the end of the evening I was looking out for more of this. Coke Studio Pakistan was my music mecca. I visited the site ever so often and with them providing downloads to all their sessions then, I had Coke Studio music on my music player and computer every single day.
A year and over later I heard Coke Studio coming to India. I was looking forward to this like a junkie waiting for his next fix. Much to my dismay, my work kept me away from Episode 1 of the desi version. But the moment I could I logged on to the site to listen to what we could muster up against the greats that benchmarked this amazing initiative I did.
And I was crestfallen.
From the multitude of talent we have to showcase all we could come up is a fusion of music that made little sense to me. There was little of the mellow stuff that one could curl up in the den and listen to over a glass of evening spirits. This was more of the rapchik, dhinchak music that has been popularized in the auto-rickshaws of the country. The music was very jhankar type.
Aghast, I tried to listen to more to perhaps clear my initial confusion. This did not truly help the situation. Other than Tochi Raina there was nothing spectacular to write about or hear a second time. The stalwarts like Kailash Kher and Shaan paled in comparison to their counterparts across the LoC. As a female artiste I love Sunidhi Chauhan, but she too was not a shadow on the renderings of Zeb & Haniya. A classical qawwali like 'Chadhta Sooraj' could not capture my attention like the one done by the original Sabri Brothers. The only exception was Harshdeep Kaur with 'Hoo'. It was more on the lines of the Sufi greats.
What went wrong is that we have too much to showcase and we tried to mulch it all up. Instead of short but determined steps we took long unwarranted strides to compare, compete, and collaborate when we needed to KISS (Keep It Simple Silly) and make up. But maybe I am reading this all wrong. If we did want to showcase the talent across the length and breath of the country in a single offering this could be it. Do I want to listen to it repeatedly? No!
IMHO, Not all is lost. This is in fact the first year of our attempt at this platform. So there is time to amend our disastrous ways. As the adage goes, 'he who get's it right the first time over never learnt anything'. We will improve.
Till then, Coke Studion India, I switch over to Pepsi!
