D aler Mehdi is straddling many worlds with ease — that of pop music, playback singing and Sufi singing. With his hit track ‘Bolo Ta Ra Ra’ in 1994, he created the Bhangra pop genre, which replaced Western music in the discos across India and even Asian-clubs in the U.K.
In the last10 years, he has also been composing tracks with a spiritual theme, using lyrics of saints like Guru Gobind Singh, Baba Bulleh Shah, and Baba Farid to create powerful rhythm-dominated melodies. He now sings at festivals associated with spiritual and classical music like the recent The Sacred Pushkar and Vasant Utsav in Pune.
The titles of some of his recent tracks — ‘Soul to Supreme’ (or Ruh Raab tak), or ‘Namo Namo’, ‘Mere Ram’, and even ‘Hori Khelungi Keh Keh Bismillah’ — reveal his overpowering obsession with his Maker.
Speaking of this re-invention of himself as an artist, Daler says, “I have always been spiritually inclined from childhood (he is the son of a Sikh Gurbani singer) , and this thread was perceptible in the lyrics of even my pop songs like ‘Kardi Rab Rab’. But the Sufi numbers sung nowadays are Sufi only in name. They are sung with a commercial goal. That’s wrong. True Sufi music is for Him, not to please your audience.”
The opening words of his ‘Allah Hu’ are poignant: aakh nam hui, main hoon bismil, har pal yahan, nai mushkil (my eyes are moist, I surrender to You, every minute there’s a new problem). His lyrics are direct, simple and powerful.
Asked whom he considers a true Sufi singer and the reply is “Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. His control over rhythm and its play is amazing.”
Analysing why he was now singing more about higher matters, Daler says, “I was unhappy with the way the youth was being misguided.”
As a star with influence, he feels it’s his duty to try to bring their minds to something more substantial. “Spiritual music can divert the youth; it should not only be about what brands you are wearing, entertainment, and sensory pleasures.”
According to him, India has had a tradition similar to rap. In the Dasam Granth of Guru Gobind Singh, the metre has elements of rap but is constrainedby words that should be meaningful, and the constraint of rhythm. “Not like rap of today, which is totally free flowing with no rules!”
Taalim (training) is necessary to create music properly, Daler declares. He talks about his training under his father, and later Ustad Raahat Ali Khan of Gorakhpur from the Patiala gharana. He listens to a lot of classical music — Ustads Nazakat Ali, Salamat Ali, Bade Ghulam Ali, Bhai Samund Singh — absorbs elements from other kinds of music. “Everything shapes what you become,” he muses.
It’s also important to be disciplined, he says, and then laughs. “In some areas of discipline I falter. When I was young, I had to get up early to sing in Gurudwaras. Once I prayed that I should not have to get up early.” Soon thereafter he was asked to sing in the evening! Getting up early is still a huge effort, he admits sheepishly.
He recalls an incident in Maharashtra a few years ago when he was told to be ready to perform at Ulhasnagar at 4.00 a.m.
As early as 1998-1999, Cocal Cola signed him to endorse the drink, and tour 32 states in a whirlwind tour. It could have led to complacency but Daler says he has always felt the need to raise the bar.
He surprised many with ‘Tu Rubaru Hai’ for Vishal Bhardwaj in Maqbool in 2003. “I never wanted to continue to do what was working and what was popular. I always wanted to move on to something else. None of the tunes I sang were ever repeated and all were totally original.”
After the success of title tracks of Mirzya and Dangal , Daler adds that he is planning something completely novel in 2017.
“I am looking forward to the release of Bahubali 2 in which I have sung the title track in four languages.”
