Devotional music hits a high note

Whether its the ongoing Ganesha festival or neighbourhood pujas, yagnas and jagratas, the songs associated with every religious festival are heard long before the festival is actually celebrated. So is devotional music the most sought-after sound of our times, especially in India?

“Yes,” says Devraj Sanyal, managing director, Universal Music. “We are a country with large numbers of religious people who love this kind of music. If we know a Ganesha album will work in a particular season, it makes business sense to push it aggressively around that time.”

Sanyal cites the example of a Falguni Pathak album being released by his company on the first day of Navratri. “She has recorded an album after almost a decade and we wanted to time it with the festival when the demand for both, the genre and her as an artiste, will be at its highest,” he says.

In figures compiled by Indian Music Industry (IMI), the umbrella organisation representing 142 music companies like Saregama, Universal Music and Tips among others, Bollywood music constitutes 40% of the Rs100 crore plus industry, while devotional music constitutes 52%.

Shyambhau Waghmode, a third-generation owner of the Maharashtra Gramaphone company (Mumbai’s oldest music shop that started in 1929), is not surprised with IMI’s figures.

“We have had legends like DV Paluskar and Omkarnath Thakur who were known for the religiosity of their music, but this was largely heard only by connoisseurs. While Lata and Usha Mangeshkar’s Ganpati aarti collection that includes the timeless Sukhkarta Dukhharta had caught on when it released in the mid 70s, it was the launch of the Ganaraj Rangi Nachato album in the 80s that really boosted the genre, which has only gone from strength to strength.”

For Ajay Jain, who has produced an album Jai Dadaji to honour a Jain seer from his village in Rajasthan, the sheer number of Gods and local deities associated with different regions has only helped in the growth of the genre. “I recorded the album in 1999 with Suresh Wadkar and Sadhana Sargam. Around 13 years later, we have moved from cassettes to CDs but the album is still selling like hot cakes,” he says.

Like Jain, many others point to the contributions of artists like Narendra Chanchal and Hari Om Sharan in making devotional music the buzzword in small towns and villages across India. “While many in the industry looked down on these singers, they can never match their outreach among masses,” says Shyambhau.

Talking about the criticism that came her way when she did the musical Gayatri Mantra, singer Anuradha Paudwal says, “People said I was taking away from the sobriety and seriousness of a timeless chant. Can they explain why then is it the most popular selling chant album?”

She also talks about how several big names from film music and ghazals curled up their noses at the genre have not been able to resist its lure. “Today they all want to sing Hanuman Chalisas and what have you,” she laughs and continues “In fact, put together, we cannot match the huge regional demand that exists for the various kinds of devotional music.”

While Sanyal agrees with Paudwal on the huge demand and spectrum of choices, he has a problem with “the use of catchy tunes of ribald Bollywood chartbusters to create cover versions with banal lyrics that are anything but spiritual.”

Ram Birasdar of Fountain Music begs to differ. “Classics work but our track Ganpati Bappanchi pam pam chhaan (Ganpati Bappa has the fanciest car) has received a huge response. When we can address the demand for this kind of music and take religion out of its traditional format for youngsters, why not?”