Ghulam Ali enchants Kolkata with concert

Full house welcomes ghazal maestro at Netaji Indoor Stadium

Ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali expressed gratitude and elation as he performed to a packed audience in the Indian city of Kolkata on Tuesday, three months after the cancellation of his concert in Mumbai.

“I am very happy today. I have been coming to Kolkata for 30 to 35 years. But this time it feels like I have come back after 50 years. I was so sad and today my sadness ends,” IANS quoted Ali as saying at the start of the concert at the Netaji Indoor Stadium.

Performing with his son Aamir, Ghulam Ali hailed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as a form of Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of wisdom and music. “I am grateful to her. She has done us a favour in the form of Saraswati,” Ghulam Ali said with a smile.



Banerjee reinforced her views on universal brotherhood and requested the 75-year-old singer to visit the city again. She welcomed him with a shawl and a scarf.

The maestro first performed in Kolkata in 1981. “Gana wana mujhe nahi aata (I don’t know how to sing); I only know how to listen,” he said, reminiscing how he was tutored by the legendary Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and his three brothers.

“I used to be after them [to learn],” quipped the singer, whose famous ghazal renditions like Chupke Chupke, Kal Chaudhvin Ki Raat Thi, Hungama Hai Kyun Barpa, Kiya Hai Pyar Jise and many others have enthralled fans for decades.



Attired in a white, embroidered kurta pajama and a shawl, Ali complimented the audience for their patience and silence as they immersed themselves in his soulful singing. His arresting style conveyed a range of emotions, even as he rendered the same couplet more than once. He rendered the famed Chupke Chupke in his inimitable style – in a duet with son Aamir – to thundering applause. The icon with effortless ease slipped into the popular rendition about an hour into the concert. “It feels good as an artist when the audience enjoys and listens carefully,” said Ali.

Spectators, which included the crème de la crème of Bengal, seemed to be overwhelmed with a strong dose of nostalgia.

Film-maker Mahesh Bhatt, who recently roped in Ali to sing for his play Milne Do, was also in attendance. “Hope a day comes when those who opposed Ghulam Ali concert in Mumbai will give space to these kind of cultural activities,” he said during an interview. When asked why he attended the concert, he said, “It was an important show for me. Never have I seen a ghazal singer perform in front of 15,000 people this way with the chief minister of a state personally overseeing the whole event.”



There was never a dull moment as the ustad kept up an engaging conversation with the audience through explanations of the poetry he sang, in his characteristic lively and jovial demeanour.

The concert met with mixed reactions elsewhere. While some lauded Banerjee’s efforts, there were those who criticised the move. State BJP President Dilip Ghosh attacked Banerjee’s party, All India Trinamool Congress, saying, “The TMC government is doing politics by bringing Ghulam Ali to perform in Kolkata.”

Indian journalist and author Rajdeep Sardesai tweeted, “Kudos to Banerjee for organising a Ghulam Ali concert in Kolkata with grace. Hope Mumbai is watching! Music must cross boundaries.”

After the cancellation of his Mumbai concert in October due to threats by Shiv Sena, Ali had expressed disappointment, asserting “never to return to India”. Banerjee had offered Kolkata as a venue following the cancellation of the concert.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 14^th, 2016.

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