It takes two to tango

Having a platterful of international acclaim can be their share of luck but living upto that fame has turned out to be an arduous task as Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash have found out. “I really miss my schooldays,” says Amaan, the elder brother, “then I was free to do whatever I wanted to. I was so much into sports and was very naughty as a child.”
“I gave my first public performance at the age of eight and then I was travelling around the country for my performances. As soon as I left school, I took to performing extensively and could not enjoy doing a regular college course,” he says.
“It is like a homecoming,” says Ayaan on performing in Delhi for the Shradhaanjali Concert. “Amaanbhai and I were both students of Modern School, Vasant Kunj and had a great time there. It was tough, giving up the normal school life and traveling but I have no regrets.”
“It is tough being what I am supposed to be as Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s son, instead of what I want to be,” says Amaan. And nothing has kept him or Ayaan from playing around with their music to have their own entity. They are both looking forward to the release of American Daylight, their foray into movies. “American Daylight is an English film based on two people. A guy who lives and works in America and a girl who works for a BPO in India,” says Ayaan. “We have given the background score for the film and have also composed a qawwali.” Besides the two, the film will also feature Elton John’s Sacrifice and Diamonds and Rust in its songtrack.
“Composing music for a film is difficult in the sense that there we are enlarging the director’s canvass,” says Ayaan. “In a normal performance, what you play is what you see inside yourself, but in the case of films you have to perceive the director’s view and project it as your own.”
Besides this, the two are also bringing out a lounge music album. In which they will be heard singing a lot as well. “The lounge music is more techno in nature,” says Amaan.
Does that mean a deviation from the classical music? “No. not in any way. We are respected today only because of the Indian classical music,” says Amaan, “ we believe in experimenting and this is just an experiment.”
Ustad Amjad Ali Khan is all in favour of his sons’ experiments. “People tend to group them always but they are two different people with two very different approaches to life.”
About the lounge music album, “A formal training in Indian classical music is a strength for musicians. As the seven chords of Indian music are like the sun and all other forms of music are like the rays around it.”“There are far more approaches to entertainment now than ever before, but the number of people attending classical music concerts has been rising,” he says. “It is important that we do not lose our identity as Indians, besides that, we are free to do whatever we want to.”

Published in Hindustan Times Next on February 1, 2005