‘Kanakadasa kritis rendered by Baba Jaan and Husain Sab Kanakagiri’, that’s what the Vidwan R.K. Srikantan Trust brought to Bengaluru recently during their Sankranti Fest. The classical platforms were open to Baba Jaan (52) from Hubballi who rendered Kanakadasa kritis translated into chaste Urdu.
What made it a novel presentation was their qawwali-style format that had audiences clapping in unison, in contrast to having them follow the Carnatic tala. “These are Urdu translations of Maher Mansoor for the Kanakadasa Study and Research Centre. I am happy to be rendering them as I was exposed to all the works of the Dasa koota as a student,” says Baba Jaan, who has had 250 shows to his credit.
To Husain Sab Kanakagiri (60) from Koppal in north Karnataka, the passion of taking across the tattvapadagalu, dasara padagalu and vachanas of the saints goes back to his childhood days. “Our village Bhajane brought in the kavanas and couplets where Allah and Rama are both celebrated as universal forces. Our saints and poets nurtured this secularism and human values through their work, which we are trying to propagate,” says Husain, who has read the Ramayana as much as the Quran. “Comparative studies in several languages broaden one’s outlook,” he believes.
