This interview of Salamat Ali Khan (December 12, 1934 – July 11, 2001) with Satyasheel Deshpande for the Samvaad Foundation, sometime in the 1980s, is one for the ages.
It should be noted that while Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan totally captivated Indian audiences ever since they started touring the country in the mid-1950s, their visits stopped after the 1965 hostilities and then the eventual war with Pakistan. This interview was clearly one such visit in the 1980s when he returned after the 1971 war's memories had receded and the two countries restarted efforts to normalise relations, with Cricket matches and such exchanges.
Salamat Ali Khan is delightful and far more forthcoming here about his early influences than in his Lok Virsa interview.
At the outset, he apologises for his Punjabi-inflected Urdu. He is not falsely modest or coy. Among other things, he talks about his childhood in the 1930s and 1940s, and the lasting influence of the great Rajab Ali Khan (who scoffed at everyone: Wahid Khan? Singer? "Arre hataao, woh to sarangiya hai, gavaiyya nahii hai.") with whom, as a 10-year-old, he spent three months in Gwalior (Nazakat and Salamat Ali were invited to Gwalior by Krishnarao Shankar Pandit).
He talks about his father's early demise, and the turmoil after Partition and how they moved first to Lahore and then to Multan. About how he and elder brother Nazakat – "Shaam Chaurasi ke do munDe" – fashioned their singing style after Partition, modelling themselves after greats like Ashiq Ali Khan, Tawaqqal Khan and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan by merely listening to them. Essentially, they taught themselves and their style evolved as they consciously wanted to present a style different from that of the big names who were popular at that time in Pakistan.
He talks about how learning to sing Kafis in Multan proved to be the turning point that got them noticed and on to Pakistan Radio, which made people in India realise that the Shaam Chaurasi duo had now grown up to become established singers (and that rumours of their death during Partition riots had indeed been exaggerated).
Since Pakistan Radio was followed in India, their performances got them (once again) invited to Harballabh Sangeet Sammelan in 1953, and again in 1955 where they sang Miyan ki Malhaar for over 3 hours and came to Ravi Shankar's notice, whom Salamat Ali Khan credits for all later fame, as Shankar invited them first to perform in Delhi (Constitution Club) and later to Calcutta.
He also talks at some length about Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. The big man heard them sing as grownup adults for the first time in Delhi, he says, and was not happy with their arrival in India (suggests that he saw it as an encroachment on his turf). "Par maine parvaah nahiij kii (I did not bother)," he says, for the brothers knew that India was where they would find a discerning audience for classical singing, and not in Pakistan.
BGAK, he says, was so upset at their participation in the All India Music Conference in Calcutta that he decided to back out. He asked for too high a fee for attending, SAK says, and the organisers begged off, saying they could not afford it.
BGAK may not have participated, but all the other greats were present at Calcutta: Amir Khan, Kesarbai (Kerkar), Mogubai (Kurdikar), Gangubai (Hangal), Hirabai (Barodekar), Ravi Shankar, AAK, Vilayat Khan, Hafiz Ali Khan. Young Bhimsen and Kumar Gandharva. This was the year DV Paluskar had passed away, as Salamat Ali Khan remembers his photograph on the stage.
They won over the Calcutta audience. They had arrived. Calcutta became an annual fixture where they would spend about two and a half months each year between 1955-1965. There isn't a more appreciative audience than in Calcutta, he says. But the 1965 war ensured they would be barred from visiting till 1980, but it made them look for other avenues – travelling to Europe and the USA. In 1969, he and Nazakat appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, leading him to earn international recognition
In sum, SAK thanks Ravi Shankar for their success. Says it was after their recognition and fame in India – mentions their photos being published in popular film magazines Filmfare, Cine Blitz and Shama – that their popularity spread in Pakistan, where till then BGAK was still the big name at that time. And then to Afghanistan, Nepal and, later, Bangladesh, and eventually beyond South Asia.
Despite BGAK's "dushmani" (enmity), SAK praises him. Says BGAK and Amir Khan were the two singers he enjoyed listening to. When asked about the difference between BGAK's recorded and real voice, says some of the miiThaapan (sweetness) in his voice was not captured in that time's primitive recording tech.
Deshpande mentions that [Prof BR] Deodhar told him that BGAK would often say that those who can't sing Thumri, can't sing Khayal. SAK says that Amir Khan told him, "Bhai Ghulam Ali thumri jaise gaate hain, ham se gaayii nahii gayii".
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