I Wish I Could Get A Chance To Do A Typical Musical Film In Gujarati: Ayesha Takia Azmi

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July 8, 2010 (Sampurn Wire): Ayesha Takia nay Ayesha Takia Azmi always ‘Wanted’ to join a ‘Paathshaala’ of music! Yes! Seriously speaking she always had this great passion for music especially Indian music. In a casual chat with Shaheen Raaj in a Bollywoodian Bash the traditionally conservative turned hep and peppy Gujju lass Ayesha Takia Azmi muses about her taste for music routing more deeply for the Indian milieu rather than having a pensive ear for Western fare. Time to lend your musical ears in solitude!

Time for some rapid-fire musical queries Ayesha, for the musically inclined readers.

Yeah! Ok! Shoot!

What is your overall opinion about music – both Indian and Western?

I think music knows no barriers, no boundaries. So segregating it into two different segments is rather unfair. The connoisseurs of music are global. So why this division of Indian vs. Western! In a way, it’s rather complicated too as most of the Indians are lovers of Western music while most of the foreigners are staunch lovers of Indian music. And then there are also people from across the entire continent, who prefer both the types of music. So in the end one can only say ‘to each his own liking’.

So what is Ayesha’s liking?

Well! I am more of an Indian music buff having been born and brought up in a traditionally conservative Gujarati family. So right from my childhood I was fed on a staple diet of the traditional folk music replete with the raas and the garba flavor. Oh! How I wish I could get a chance to do a typical musical film in Gujarati!

Are you still gripped with this typical traditional flavor of music?

In a way, yes. That is, till I crossed my adolescence and entered the glamorous grease paint arena. Yeah! Time changes and it changes your likings and your taste for music too. Besides this kind of music is now almost non-existent! It has, in fact, become seasonal. So we hear it and we relish it only during the nine day Dandiya Raas phase during Dusshera.

So what kind of music do you prefer all the year round?

Anything that is soothing, melodious, mellifluous and one which lifts up your spirits when you are in a relaxed mood or even when you are jovial or in an utterly depressive state.

Can you be specific in this regard?

Of course. When I find myself in any of the above mentioned states, I just put my feet up and enjoy the songs of yesteryear’s golden era. I get a real high by listening to the songs of K.L. Saigal, Noorjehan, and Suraiya. But then that is when I am totally alone and in an absolutely melancholic state. So whenever my family catches me in such a pensive musical mood they are really shocked and are out of their wits.

Which means your all time favorite singers are….?

No not the singers I mentioned above but Mohammed Rafi and Lata Mangeshkar and then Kishore Kumar and Asha Bhosle strictly in that order. Please don’t ask me to name my all time favorite numbers as I don’t want to play favorites even with my all time favorite singers. So let’s just say that all the songs that have ever been sung by them are my all time favorites.

And then what about your all time favorite music composers?

All of them right from Naushad Sahab, Kalyanji–Anandji, Shankar–Jaikishen, Laxmikant–Pyarelal, R. D. Burman to Nadeem–Shravan, Allah Rakha Rahman, Anu Malik, Himesh Reshamiya and above all Adnan Sami and all others.

Point noted but does this desi babe Ayesha ever freaks out on videshi music too?

You bet she does. Jabse maine hosh sambhala hai I have been equally passionate about Western music. I rarely miss out on a pianist, an instrumentalist, a jazz, a pop and a rock singer’s concert. Not to forget singers like Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Boyz Band including our very own now non-existent Indian Band Of Boys. Of late, I have become a regular discotheque freak to catch up on all the latest Western music.

– Shaheen Raaj/Sampurn Wire