Mumbai's Farida Khanum Fiasco

Pakistani singer Farida Khanum sang in Mumbai on Friday night for the first time in her 72 years at a concert memorable also for being embarrassingly organised.

Proceedings began at Nehru Centre with a speech by chief guest Shatrughan Sinha that was so full of bombast that he was clapped off stage mid-way. After promising "not to stand between you and Farida Khanum", Sinha did precisely that for over 15 minutes, offering his view on such subjects as bomb blasts in both countries, his friendship with Zia-ul-Haq, the Emergency in 1975, and the rakhi-sister he had in Lahore.

After an unmemorable eight-line poem which got little applause, Sinha launched into an explanation of why his selection as chief guest was appropriate. "I might not be better than the dignitaries gathered here," he said, "lekin main kisi se kam bhi nahin hoon."

At this, a slow hand-clap started from the back rows of the auditorium, which was joined in by the ranks in the middle and front.

Sinha misunderstood this as praise and, raising his voice above the protest, soldiered on.

An alarmed Hasan Kamal, the poet and columnist who was MC, rushed out of the wings and almost guided Sinha off stage.

Farida Khanum was majestic. Her presence was matriarchal and her voice carried memories, and the knowledge of centuries. It was a rich, deep voice, of a character not very familiar to Indians brought up on the virginal, high-pitched tone of Lata Mangeshkar.

However, most of the applause she got from the "wah! wah!" brigade was for basic lyrical flourishes in Urdu, especially for her classic rendition of 'Aaj jaane ki zidd na karo'.

She spoke with fondness and profound respect for the great traditions of Hindustani music, and began her singing not with a ghazal but after reeling off the names of those who had inspired her - Ustad Amir Khan and Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, whom Nehru cajoled into returning to Bombay after Partition - paid them obeisance with a couple of songs in Khayal.

The tabla player could not find the 'sam' and was searching for it through the night, leaving the audience unfulfilled at key moments; and irritated and uneasy for the length of the concert.

Having recognised him as less than competent immediately, Farida Khanum interrupted her first song to tell him he was playing the wrong beat. "Ektaal" she said, to the man who had launched confidently into something else.

After that she tried her best to keep him with her, signaling with her hand, to little avail. He was so lost in some songs that he stopped playing entirely while she improvised and waited for her to return to the principal lines that he was familiar with.

After every couple of songs, the organisers kept sending someone onstage to sit in front of Farida Khanum and pass on instructions, including, astonishingly, once to "talk less and sing more".

They even spelled her name wrong on the banner behind her, referring to her title as "Khannum".

Many in the audience would have felt let down at the farcical execution of what could have been an outstanding moment. People of taste, Naseeruddin Shah and family, walked out during the break, no doubt wishing the great singer could have been accorded more respect and less grandiloquence.