Amitabh Bachchan: I want to learn the piano,the sitar and the sarod

Amitabh Bachchan may not have learnt music formally, but he grew up listening to his father Harivanshrai Bachchan's music that he composed for his own poems, including the tune of the famous Madhushala that we all so love today. At 72, you wonder how this legend manages to do just about everything in just 24 hours. His latest song Piddly from his upcoming drama film Shamitabh has become a hit.Big B talks to Bombay Times about working with the perfectionist Ilaiyaraaja, the place of music in his life and how he has never sung for his father when he was alive. Excerpts:
Ilaiyaraaja recently told me that he finds you a wonderful singer. What did it mean for you to work with him?
Well, he is a phenomenal legend. Many in the North of India are not aware of his genius. But that he is. I am overwhelmed by just how his mind works as far as music is concerned. He was once asked to compose this symphony by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He wrote it and sent it to them. Can you imagine, he first heard what he had written only sitting in the audience when it was played at the Royal Albert Hall. He just broke down as he was hearing it for the first time. He has been responsible for not just providing film music per se, but there is something unusual about his music which, with the passing of decades, still looks fresh.
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Almost every singer is scared to sing in front of Ilaiyaraaja, as he still records in his old style studio with live orchestra. Did you feel scared? When you are face-to-face with perfection, I believe you are always a little apprehensive. If you don’t get his approval of perfection, then you are at fault. You are making mistakes and no one wants to accept that probably and then the fear factor comes in. I have sat with him on a couple of occasions and you realise that you are sitting with someone, who has perfection on his side, so you know that you must not be saying or doing something that is below standard. I had the opportunity for him to make me sing when we were recording for Paa and it was absolutely magical. He will correct little things that make all the difference that we may not see as amateurs, but he does, and that’s the beauty really. There’s a great feeling of divinity when you are in his presence. Some people have this effect on you the moment they enter the room or when you are in their company. I visited his house, for instance. There is something about it. A large part of his house is occupied with deities and temples and his belief. Even where he sits and composes in his studio, there is this divine feeling, probably it comes due to the strong feeling that music is the next strong thing to godliness. There is this connect that we all feel everytime a note is struck or not struck correctly. How does that happen even though we are not educated in music? The moment something is beautifully struck, there is something that comes from within, so obviously, it has something to do with some force that is joining us all together. I feel very conscious if I have to sing for somebody. Which is why I said that I am not going to go to Chennai to sing with Ilaiyaraaja in his studio with 50 musicians and him watching me. Serious. I never go there. It’s unbelievable. I could never do that. I did some of that for my earlier songs when the form of digital music was not there, be it with Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Rajesh Roshan or Pancham when I sang for them in Amar Akbar Anthony, Naseeb and Mr Natwarlal. There was a kind of familiarity with them and also that the singing per se was not really singing, but it was more like chatting and putting a little singing in between. But all the songs I have sung recently, be it the Baghban song or the songs that I have sung for Ram Gopal Varma, are all proper singing. For the Piddly song, I just requested for the pro tools to be sent to me. And then I will go and sit with Aadesh Shrivastava here right next door with just the two of us in a small room. And I tell him don’t call anybody. We just fool around in any case at night when I go there. And we just sit and record it, he balances everything and puts all the mistunes into tunes. We have wonderful instruments now to do that and then he sends it across. I was unable to maintain the pitch Ilaiyaraaja had sent, so I sang it on my own pitch and he very graciously got the rest of the orchestra down to my pitch, so what you now see is what he reconstructed keeping my pitch in mind.
You were once rejected by the All India Radio for your voice. How does it feel today given that your voice today is one of the most sought after voices in the country?
It’s just something that happened. Let’s not forget that the rejection would have been due to certain factors that never actually really suited them. They had great commentators on radio like Surajit Sen at that time. You are not just looking super cool in the Piddly song, but it is a full melody that is also sung very well. It’s nice and it’s a great reflection of what every day I keep doing in my bathroom. We are the best singers in our own bathroom.
What does music mean to you in your life?
Music is a great release. It’s wonderful to be in the company of just instruments. It’s a medium to be able to express yourself by yourself, without having any company I feel. It’s a great moment to be sitting with an instrument just by yourself and allowing the music to come out from within. I wish I could learn to play an instrument. I will someday. I want to learn the piano, the sitar and the sarod and I have all of them here. I want to learn singing. I want to be taught by a professional singer.
Do you have musical memories with your father?
He used to sing and had his own tunes. All the folk songs that I have sung, be it Holi Khele Raghuveera Awadh Mein or the Holi song in Silsila are what I have heard from him. He was very fond of music, he would hear all these folk songs and he would compose his own tunes for his poetry, so the Madhushala tune is his.
Did you ever sing Madhushala for him?
No, I have never sung it for him. He has never heard me live singing, not even at home.
Watch: Shamitabh Trailer

Pic: Dilip Vishwamitra Bhatia