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| You must be a really important celebrity to have a joke coined with your name. Pankaj Udhas has one: “Pankaj itna udhaas kyon hai?” |
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| But then, misery isn’t the only emotion that resonates through Pankaj Udhas’ ghazals. Here is a man whose golden voice has the power to make enrapt audiences smile with pleasure or wipe a silent tear away. RITZ speaks to the urbane yet down-to-earth Pankaj Udhas, the Prince of Ghazal and a man whose voice warms a million hearts. |
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| “I come from a family that reveres music. I’m the youngest of three brothers. My father played the dilruba, a stringed instrument. My mother was fond of singing. When I was younger, I took tabla lessons, although it was only at the age of eleven that I began to sing,” says the ghazal exponent. |
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| By the time he was in college, Pankaj’s brother Manhar had begun singing playback for films. Musicians back then being particular about getting the diction right, Manhar began learning Urdu and that was when Pankaj fell in love with the language. Ghazal was a natural extension of this fascination. |
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| “I believe that ghazal has a place for everyone and their distinct styles. Nobody copies others here. There is no competition either. The style also has a universal appeal,” he says. |
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| It might come as a surprise but the maestro also happens to be a devout Beatles fan! |
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| “The Beatles were a worldwide phenomenon. They believed in creating simple music that touched people’s hearts. Maybe it is this simplicity which I have tried to retain in my singing that has made me reach out to the masses.” |
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| Why the obsession with sharaab in most of your ghazals? |
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