Smita Bellur: The bridge between Hindustani and Sufi singing

Rana Siddiqui Zaman

Don’t leave music, whatever may happen...” Smita Bellur had been told by her mother just a few days before her death. She was still a teenager then, unable to take decisions for herself. Life moved on, but her mother’s words remained. No wonder she was to leave her career as a software engineer and take to singing Hindustani classical vocals and Sufi renditions when the time came for it.

Despite almost no financial returns compared to what she was earning as a corporate honcho, Bellur is happy. Making no pretensions, this rising star on the firmament of classical vocals and Sufi rendition says, “Music was always my calling. I have always seen myself performing on stage before a large audience.” At the recent International Sufi Music Festival, Jahan-e-Khusrau, in New Delhi, one saw her singing a combination of classical and Sufi Amjad Hyderabdi and Warsi Brothers’ kalaam to immense applause.

But before she took up music full time, she was employed with the Bits-Pilani. On her way to and back from office, she would listen to her gurus and classical maestros. A time came in her life when she quit her high-paying career and engaged in music full time. The trigger was a Sufiyana kalaam by Hazrat Ameer Khurau playing in her car. “I went into trance. That day, I quit my job and devoted myself to music,” she recalls. That was almost two decades back.

Her passion bore fruit and she cut a few albums while doing shows across the globe. An association as senior faculty for Shankar Mahadevan Academy, a fellowship from Karnataka Sangeet Nritya Academy and the India Foundation for the Arts, etc. further honed her skills. She is now a regular on music festival circuits, television channels and radio stations.

However, for any woman, a journey into classical music and Sufiyana kalam isn’t an easy task in India yet. That gaana-bajana sarcasm still doesn’t spare them. Fortunately, Bellur has lived most of her life in Bengaluru “where training in music and arts is considered equivalent to worship of vidya. My parents were keen on my learning music. But I knew it won’t get me much financially. To survive, I trained in a technical field.”

So, what does it mean to be a Sufi singer? “I learnt Hindustani classical to be better at basics and Sufiyana to reach a wide range of audiences. Thumri and khayal have too limited an audience. Ghazals are about beloved, love lost and found and wine. But I find Sufiyana kalams uplifting. They talk about love for humanity, and in unique ways. Hence, it has local as well as international reach,” says Bellur who followed up her training in Hindustani vocals with Sufiyana, “which is both entertaining, meditative and spiritual and has a much wider reach than just classical and ghazal singing.”

Bellur agrees it is also about how you package your music. She says Rekha Bhardwaj and Richa Sharma may not be trained in Sufi gayaki but have the skills and are among the most well-known women singers in India. In the recent past, Nooran Sisters and Roohani Sisters have brought some stir in the calm waters of Sufiyana kalam which remained largely unoccupied by women, but for Abida Parveen.

“Aaj kal achchi gayaki ke alawa bhi bahut kuch chahiye hota hai stage presentation ke liye. Famous Sufi singers from Pakistan, like Sanam Marvi, are young, beautiful and presentable. People like listening to them. However, it is true that legends like Begum Akhtar, Shanti Hiranand and Abida Parveen never had to think about presentation, only gayaki. Times have changed. Mumbai, where I live, gives much attention to presentation, and even at all festivals, a singing artsite has to be a complete package.”

Even if you fit the bill, Smita says, financial viability is a challenge. “For an independent singer, survival is very difficult. Organisers don’t want to pay well despite your skills. At times, it goes as low as Rs5,000-10,000 per concert, a fee that the artiste has to share with accompanists. The latter still get a lot of chances with various vocalists, but for the main artiste, payments have always been a challenge,” she minces no words.

Lockdown blues

The shutting down of the country due to Covid-19 has led to cancelling of various concerts and it is the beginning of a tough time for artistes. Bellur is keeping herself busy by taking classes and still keeps releasing her ghazals, Sufi kalaams and classical (Hindustani and Carnatic) renditions on social media. “God is ‘razzak’ (the one who gives rizk, the food). He will take care of us,” she smiles.

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