Lost in the din of DJs

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  Sitting in his small office with a yellow smiley adorning the otherwise bare walls, Ali Sagar smiles when he says he was known for his flawless rendering of Mohammad Rafi's `Dard-e-dil', a hit song from the movie `Karz'. As part of an active orchestra team, he recollects the months of November and December as the busiest time of the year with 25 to 30 shows slated through the month at various wedding venues. The money was good, the popularity even better. ``Our rate was fixed. No haggling,'' he says, with a hint of pride. This was less than a decade ago, in 1999. Now, these two months are as charm-less as the rest of the year for him as a singer.
  Requests for performances started dipping in early 2000. His team wasn't getting enough work to stay together so they split. Ali, who is now an event manager with `Fun 2 Events Creations', says he would call his orchestra team members as and when he got a performance request. But, that is never more than three to four times a month. It wasn't that Ali's performance had deteriorated. It was just that city weddings were waking up to the synchronised beats of mixed and re-mixed music. The orchestra comprising the tabla, guitar, keyboard with a live singer was no longer the status symbol a DJ so readily gifted to a marriage party.
  When the Indian wedding story is undergoing a glossy makeover, when functions such as mehendis and sangeets are being embraced by more and more `non-Punjabi' communities and marriage celebrations have extended from two-day affairs to week long ceremonies, these activities have inadvertently promised more employment opportunities and more money than ever before. But, the people who once pepped up wedding receptions with renditions of `baharon phool barasao' have nothing to celebrate.
  Clearly, the big fat Indian wedding has left orchestra parties in the cold. They now form the subaltern reality of the great Indian wedding industry __ of skilled instrumentalists and singers earning much less, ironically in a sector where spending has sky rocketed over the last few years.
  If an established orchestra team commanded a price of Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 until a few years ago, they admit that they perform even if offered Rs 14,000 now. ``But even then, some other party would agree to perform for as less as Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 and we lose the contract,'' says a musician, not wishing to be named.
  While `established' musicians of orchestra parties still manage to make Rs 1,000 per show (given that an orchestra team comprises an average of ten members), others have to do with earnings as low as Rs 500 to Rs 600, certainly not good enough when even getting shows everyday is not guaranteed.
  So, while some tabla players now practice the drums or at best the `dholki', the keyboard player has started lessons for children. Some offer choreography lessons for `sangeet' parties, others are now into event management, their instruments safely locked in their cupboards.
  Musicians say that though the process of getting sidelined from the wedding industry has been gradual, it has left them shocked. After all, Hyderabad was a culturally sound city and it had takers for live music bands. Orchestras were integral to weddings. ``I came to Hyderabad from Kolkata about 14 years ago. There was a lot of respect for artists here,'' says Partho Mukherjee, tabla player, who rues that the city has lost its respect for musicians.
  Mukherjee, who took an eight-year break from the city's orchestra scene when he went on to play with a well-known bhajan singer and on spiritual channels, is all the more offended with the changes in the orchestra scene in Hyderabad. ``It hits me now, since I was out of the circuit for so long. When you saw you are a tabla player, they just brush you aside,'' he says.
  Singers, too, who have been serenading audiences for years now, are sidelined. ``I came back from Saudi Arabia and started this work in 1986. My wife is a singer, so she would perform and I would manage the events,'' says AAH Roofi, recollecting he was doing a 100 shows yearly. While his business has expanded, offering entertainment solutions, it has lost its old-world feel.
  And Roofi misses it. ``We go only to selected people now,'' he says, adding that despite the caution exercised, not all shows are successful. ``Last week, we were called for an evening of traditional songs. But, soon the crowd wanted new songs so we had to end the live show and play CDs,'' he says.
  The clamour for new songs has also ensured that there is little scope for instrumentalists to perform. After all, they point out very few contemporary songs have the same emphasis on each instrument as was the case in the past. The popular songs like `jhalak dikhla ja' or `tere bin' have little role for instruments, they note. Mukherjee, however, is thankful for the occasional `kajrare' or `subhan allah (Fanaa)' that come by to keep him busy on his tabla.
  Industry observers note that given the metamorphosis weddings have undergone and the category of people orchestras are pitted against for survival, it is only predictable that they are ignored in this marriage melee. ``The orchestra has gone dead. We are now getting troops from Bangalore, Chennai and Sri Lanka. They are called fusion dance troops and are immensely popular,'' says wedding planner M Krishnatma, who heads Pebble Stones, an event management firm. These `fusion' troops cost anywhere between Rs 3 to 4 lakhs to up to Rs 15 lakhs, he says.
  ``Moreover, the orchestra does not belong to this cadre of event,'' says Rakhi Kankaria, who heads an event management company adding that if an orchestra is required, they are sourced from Mumbai or Delhi. These are teams headed by a small time celebrity. ``It's the status of people you are inviting,'' she says.
  So, while there is enough music in weddings, there is no space for these musicians. For instance, there are item girls, mujra and belly dancers or both that are in demand for the bachelor's party bash. An estimated Rs 5 lakhs is spent on the performers alone. ``We also have DJs, one dedicated for adults and another for the young, and `serenaders' who strum their guitars and sing along while the cocktails are on. It is more of style and aplomb,'' Kankaria says.
  Besides, with marriages revolving around concepts of decor and colour themes, even music is fine-tuned. ``If the wedding set is based on the theme of European architecture, we will have English music, and not the regular,'' says B Yadukrishna, an art director who models sets for marriages.
  While one would assume that this is the reality of only high-end weddings, wedding planners note that the fascination for style now cuts across all sectors, irrespective of paying capacities. Just that, if one may not be able afford the serenaders (priced at Rs 15,000 for an evening and flown down from other metros and put up in hotels), they may not opt for the orchestra either but go for a DJ, their per evening rate ranging from Rs 7,000 to Rs 20,000.
  Small wonder then, that musicians from orchestra parties have to carve out other job roles for themselves. Uday Singh of an orchestra named after him, has been in the business for the last eight years that performs even now. He insists that business is fine, but adds that they get more `sangeet' offers than wedding receptions. ``We prepare family members for performances for the `sangeet' ceremony,'' he says, adding that the cost of choreographing them ranges from Rs 8,000 to Rs 15,000. ``If we give our dancers, the cost shoots to Rs 20,000,'' he says, adding that he got into this line of activity two years ago.
  Ali too woke up to other options soon enough. He started approaching schools and colleges with `entertainment solutions’, orchestra squeezed between dance performances and mimicry shows. He says he does get requests for singing but the demand is no longer for `Dard-e-dil'. People want `Dard-e-Disco'. ``I hire younger performers who belt out such numbers. I cant do that,'' he says.