Shubha Mudgal

Shubha Mudgal is the new and fresher face of Indian Music. She is often seen on the media, particularly the electronic media, as she does not restrict herself to any particular genre of music, moving from the purist classical forms to the ones currently branded as pop.

On her recent visit to Pakistan she enthralled listeners by her performances, particularly the ability to reach out to a broader section of the listening public more attuned to a growing catholic taste in music. Television channels have made the faces of the Indian artistes familiar to the Pakistani audiences, so when artistes from India arrives to perform in Pakistan, it is not curiosity about what they will present but expectation of performance of more acceptable and popular numbers that greets them.

One of the most versatile and popular concert artists among the younger generation of Hindustani musicians, and among the most imaginative and adventurous female vocalists of India, Mudgal was born in Allahabad in 1959 to a family with a rich musical tradition. She was taught by the finest musicians and musicologists in India. Trained initially as a kheyal singer, she soon realised her powerful voice could encompass a wide range. She moved to Delhi and sought the guidance of maestros who encouraged her to evolve beyond her traditional training and experiment as an artist.

She received her initial training in music from Ram Ashreya Jha and later studied under Vinay Chandra Maudgalya and Vasant Thakar. She also learnt stylistic techniques from Kumar Gandharva and Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki, and so acknowledges herself as belonging to the Gwalior Gharana. She has also learnt thumri and dadra under Naina Devi. An established vocalist, she has performed widely in India and abroad and has many cassettes to her name. She has also established herself as a composer on the small screen.

Her spirited experimentation often brings her into conflict with more orthodox practitioners. Her first album, a collection of Sufi songs, was an immediate hit with the public but generated criticism from traditionalists. Her album 'Aali More Angana' set young people all over the country dancing to a song originally devotional, which became a favourite at discotheques.

In addition to being a popular concert artist, Mudgal has won recognition as a composer. Her repertoire of medieval devotional poetry has received acclaim in India and abroad. She wrote music and played a cameo role in 'Kama Sutra', the new film by director Mira Nair.

She believes in absorbing and learning from other cultures and forms of art, in order to evolve an art that is richer and more universal. "Other genres and influences are also incorporated and adapted in my work," she says, "to create a tapestry that uses and warp and weft of the classical and the contemporary."

Her case is of particular interest because she comes from a family of traditional musicians and she has gone through the rigours of training over a period of time. And then she also switched to singing and rendering popular forms, or to a more contemporary style of singing. The more popular forms, as usually encased in music videos and labelled pop, disco or bhangra, are hugely popular both in India and Pakistan. To the connoisseurs of music this vertical takeoff in the popularity graph of this type of music is both baffling and disturbing. Most of the musicians who fall in this category and are doing wonderfully well, have not really been trained in the traditional method. They are mostly out of tune and sing in what in our musical parlance is called 'kathcha sur'. They have put the cart before the horse, as they have not perfected their craft before creating music, which is the traditional method of approaching this difficult and intangible form.

If their popularity is any indication, it seems that nobody is really bothered about their lack of craft. Their sales continue to rise and the younger people, a huge chunk of the audience, listen and hum to their music.

Many had predicted that the sudden wave of pop music would stall and then decline, searching for its rightful place. This process will involve the joining in of the musicians who have had proper training in music and approach it in the correct sequence of craft, perfection being the first requisite of any musical creation. Shubha Mudgal is a good example of that in India, and perhaps Sajjad Ali and Shafqat Amanat Ali in Pakistan, but the question is, despite being very popular in comparative terms, how popular are they with reference to the popularity of the other singers of the same genre? In India, despite the huge sales of Shubha Mudgal's music videos, she probably does not figure in the topmost ratings.

The general view is that the acquisition of craft also engenders a certain style. A traditional musician, in the perfection of his craft, also learns the traditional and a stylised manner of intoning the note. Once the style is perfected, such musicians settle in a groove and just do not have the option of disowning or modifying their craft.

This seems to be the question of what is significant and what is popular. In the past, before the market took over artistic assessment, it was the experts and the connoisseurs who decided what was important and significant in art.

In Pakistan Shubha Mugdal sang for a cause. Her performance in Karachi raised a substantial sum for a hospital, and in other, private, sessions she sang mostly kheyal and thumri numbers. As with other classical singers trained in India, she followed a certain pattern faithfully, the performance was very ordered and the progression of the raags very systematic, almost to the extent of being clinical.