Durga Jasraj has always found her calling in presenting classical music to youth in a way that they can relate to. She speaks about the continuing popularity of her show Jalsa and her project Panchatatva, which is an Indian version of Broadway
•You have always tried to popularise Indian classical music keeping in mind the changing times…
I believe that in today’s age, everything has to be about entertainment and presentation. I don’t think there is anything called a small town concept now because everybody is exposed to everything that is best in the world, thanks to the digital platform. TV has penetrated, too. When you have more than 800 channels to choose from, you know what is attractive and what is not. For anything to sustain, it has to be through entertainment and to entertain you also have to think out of the box.
•Please share with us something about Panchatatva.
Panchatatva is not an old concept; it has always existed and will continue to exist. It is immortal and the supreme being that we can see and relate to because all of us have these five elements within us. In our musical tour Panchatatva it is for the first time that visual effects are synchronised with performances and shlokas. You have shlokas coming in, sound effects and visual effects along with live music. It is like a scripted show — a mini version of a Western Broadway. The only difference is that the music is live and therefore it has scope for improvisation. All these elements came together to create that ambience where you could relate to a particular element. The entire experience is very dramatic and within the parameters of Indian classical music.
•How did you conceive itIJ
Panchatatva as a concept is something that interests the youth. It keeps the essence of traditional shlokas and presents something interesting. Youngsters have very limited attention span because they have so many options to choose from. Communication nowadays happens on so many different levels. So one gets a little space to fit in and you can’t afford to be preachy or boring. If through entertainment we can create a small influence on their minds then it will trigger in them the need to do something meaningful. In that way I just felt that if I have to say anything about the environment and there is little that I understand of it, then it is important that I create something that will highlight how important these five elements are. I feel that classical music should be presented in the manner that it triggers your imagination. It is important to open doors, expose youngsters to the best and do something new. I want to capture the imagination of the young generation within the short time that they give me.
•How do you see the current position of classical music in IndiaIJ
I believe that performing art is never under threat and Indian classical music will never be under threat. There have been people like me and there always will be people like me who will think of ways to reinvent and present classical music to the the next generation because otherwise, the art would not have survived for thousands of years. Performing art is ever-evolving that is why it is called a performing art. Anything static is dead and gone. Anything that looses relevance in today’s contemporary time will get dropped and will never be missed. Classical music will always evolve. What Tansen sang is not what Pandit Jasraj is singing. And today wherever Pandit Jasraj performs, be it in any part of the world, there is always an overflow of people. He has not diluted any raga. He has kept intact the value and grammar of the raga but he knows how to attract people.
•For a long time your classical music show Jalsa was on Doordarshan. Why did you move from a mass media to live audienceIJ
Jalsa is like an amoeba, it keeps taking different shapes, sizes and colours — every day of every season. Just like the sun is always shining in some part of the world, Jalsa is being seen or heard, every moment in some part of the world and the medium doesn’t matter. It’s there on TV in 165 countries. I get letters and emails from foreigners telling me that they have heard Indian music for the first time throughJalsa. It is beyond mass media. It was there on seven regional DD channels and a survey report revealed that we reached out to more than 30 crore people in India. Seventy two per cent of that figure were people below the age of 35. The best way to talk about classical music is through shows. Nobody buys CDs now. Everything is about downloads. The music companies are reluctant to invest in a pure classical album and the artiste’s not only pay to record an album but they also give away the rights.
•Why is it that classical music shows are not part of the mainstream entertainment channelsIJ
We are nobody to criticise what the channels are doing but I agree that they are showing the same thing because they are insecure. If an idea clicks on one channel, every other channel will start repeating the same. If you believe in a format then why do you need a celebrity to sell itIJ It only means you are not confident about the format. Except for Sa Re Ga Ma and Dance India Dance, no reality shows has an Indian grown format. You pay so much money to buy a license; you spend double the amount to place a star on it, hoping that the show will do. Either you believe in a concept or believe in a star to drive the audience. TV also has its own grammar and one has to understand that. They don’t have space to try something creative because they face cut throat competition
•How do you think the music industry has changedIJ
The only thing that is missing from the music industry is that artistes no more sit together and create something. There used to be a time when musicians and singers used to sit together and record a song. Take old Hindi films for example, lataji, RD Burman and Gulzar used to sit with the musicians and record. Those songs had life. Now the scene has completely changed. Musicians come and record their parts in their own time and the singers come in later to record and dub. In all this discontinuity, the soul of the song is lost.
•What would you say about the trend of fusion music that is picking upIJ
People do fusion when they are unsure. In India true fusion has only one name — Shakti. It had John Mclaughlin (guitar), l Shankar (violin), Zakir Hussain (tabla), Ramnad Raghavan (mridangam) and TH Vinayakram (ghatam). Fusion means that you are collaborating different instruments and genres, and for that you need time to understand each other. Music cannot happen in isolation. Even The Beatles, before they started, spent many months in a garage blending their individual music together. What passes for fusion now, is very disconnected. In fusion everything has to intermingle very nicely.