Queen of the folk studio

Hamari atariya pe aao sawariya

Dekha dekhi balam hui jaye…

Jalandhar-born celebrated poet Sudarshan Faakir’s now iconic dadra was a favourite of Faiz Ahmad Faiz. He would often ask Begum Akhtar to sing it for him. What makes it a classic is not just the beautiful and enchanting voice of Akhtar, but the song itself. And not just ‘Hamari atariya pe’, every song that Akhtar sang was a rich piece of literature, says Padma Shri awardee Malini Awasthi, and adds, “That’s why they are classics.” Malini paid a heartfelt tribute to Begum Akhtar at the Sacred Amritsar festival recently.

The folk queen presented Dastaan-e-Akhtari, a unique set curated along with Yatindra Mishra, author of ‘Akhtari: The Life and Music of Begum Akhtar’. Known as the folk queen of India, Malini sang Begum Akhtar’s celebrated thumris and ghazals, including the melancholic ‘Kuchh toh duniya ki inayat ne dil tod diya’. Mishra’s evocative storytelling, wherein he shared anecdotes from the life of the singer, complemented it beautifully.

Malini calls Akhtar’s music timeless. “Begum sahiba will rule our hearts for as long as music survives in this world. Each ghazal, dadra and thumri that she sang is a gem today. ‘Kuchh toh duniya ki…’ is a beautiful ghazal about unrequited love, a love where there is no expectation. Akhtar’s music will remain relevant through time and has been so because of its literary richness. She worked with Faiz, Faakir and Jigar Moradabadi. In the process, she elevated Urdu as a language of impact,” says Malini.

While Akhtar’s repertoire of music was vast — she could sing ghazals, thumri, dadra, sufiana, kajri and even folk, the title of Mallika-e-Ghazal somehow stuck to her. Malini, too, has been typecast as a folk queen. “My training is in varied genres of Hindustani music, but my specialty, purab ang gayaki, got me the title of folk queen.”

On stage, Malini also brought with her stories of the women of Awadh or Purabia (eastern UP and Bihar) through folk songs steeped in rural life, culture, love and devotion. “Folk songs are storytelling; and are often semi-autobiographical. When I come on stage, it feels as if I am surrounded by women I know — our naanis, daadis, the wives, the daughters — who are asking me to sing their songs. That’s why people relate to them,” she says.

Malini’s latest Coke Studio folk banger ‘Holi aayi re’, in which she collaborates with the very talented Vishal Mishra, has been topping the charts. “Vishal called me and offered me to do a song on Awadh folk as it had not been done before. It is a song for Gen Z, but the picturisation is very desi,” she says, confessing that her children were quite pleased with this collaboration. “Folk stars are rockstars. Amid the celebration of newer forms of music, we must not forget our rich repository of classical and folk music,” she emphasises.

As someone who doesn’t like to be slotted, Malini says that Punjab’s music is suffering the same fate. “The audience in Punjab is very interactive as it has been fed a rich diet of Hindustani classical and folk music. But as a puritan folk artiste, I do feel that Punjabi music has been typecast. Ek beat chal nikli hai aur desh naach raha hai (A beat has caught on and the entire country is grooving to it).”

Before she became a student of thumri legend Girija Devi, Malini trained in Hindustani classical from Ustad Rahat Ali Khan. “My guru was from Patiala gharana and that makes Daler Mehndi my guru bhai. I have grown up listening to stalwarts like Bade Ghulam Ali sahib, Noorjahan, Barkat Ali Khan sahib. So, I know when I say that people are hungry for their music. The artistes have to be steadfast, and they will find their audience.”

Malini runs a non-profit, Sonchiriya, which has been working for the development and upliftment of rural arts. She once invited Punjabi singers Jasbir Jassi and Master Saleem to perform at a programme organised by the non-profit. “I asked Jassi to sing Punjabi folk and he laughed, saying that people would be more interested in commercial songs like ‘Dil lai gayi kudi’. But he sang tappe, boliyan and Heer and the audience did not want him to stop!”