Karthik
Raaja Lounge... Karthik
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 sehra baandh ke nikle - roadways to poetry |
| saregamaremix- 24 july 2002- karthik raaja lounge... |
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An interview with a multi-faceted person - Iqbal Patni - the 39 year old CEO of a surface transport business, who runs an event management concern and writes poetry.
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What is your current profession? |
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I am the MD of a Rs.125 cr company called the BATCO group, which is engaged in the business of surface transportation for the last five decades. (www.batcoroadways.com)
I also run one of the finest event management companies, called TEAMWORK, which has managed over 100 landmark events:
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How do you manage such varied interests ?(roadways, event mgt, family life,poetry..) |
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Since the transport business has been set for almost 50 years, I can afford to be a bit relaxed on that front. However, the success of any organizations lies in its people. I have been blessed by the almightly that I have a very good team at BATCO. Also, when I took over, I built proper systems and induced professionalism, thus it is not difficult to manage, as the sytem filters in key reports to me, to make quick and proper decisions. My father, Mr. Abdullah Patni, is the Chairman of our group and still takes active part in all major business decisions. I started TEAMWORK, with three of my good friends as partners. They are associated with it on a full time basis. I spend only part of my time and provide my inputs wherever necessary. My wife, Shafiqa,is a loving and dedicated homemaker and looks after me and our four kids - two sons and two daughters, very well.We regularly take holidays to spend quality time with our children - teaching and learning from them.
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Where did you grow up? |
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I was born, brought up and educated in Hyderabad.
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Does poetry run in your family? |
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No it doesn't, but my father is a patron of music, art and culture. Therefore, lot of artists perform in our house. As a matter of fact, Talat Aziz, gave his first public performance at our house before embarking on a career as a professional ghazal singer.
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Have you studied the Urdu language? |
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No. I have no formal Urdu education. I learnt to speak Urdu from my exposure to the culture. I write my poetry in the devnagri script (hindi), but frequently use urdu words in my poetry.
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When did you start writing poetry/lyrics? |
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There is nothing like starting to write poetry. Either you are gifted with this talent or not. I remember, dabbling in lyrical lines, when I was in school and kept on writing until one day I narrated one of my poems to a friend of my father. He liked it and encouraged me to write. A day came, when i was beyond him and then he suggested that I should visit a proper Ustaad (teacher).
Thus, in 1996, he took me to one Mr. Ruhi Qadri, a reknowned poet of Hyderabad. He looked at me skeptically as I was wearing jeans and T-shirt and asked me to narrate my poem and at the same time translate the same in hindi. (He thought that I wrote my poetry in English). Once I narrated my work, he took me under him and since then we became real close. Actually, he is the one who taught me the parameters of writing poetry. When Mr. Qadri gave direction to my writing, the impact was totally different. Mr. Qadri passed away recently and I miss him very much.
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Who are you (your writing) influenced by? |
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The greatest influence to me is life itself, with its changing shades. The only constant influence is change. Over a period of time, you also get inspired by people, places and events, which actually runs the creative wheel..
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Do you prefer writing lyrics to tune or vice-versa? |
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Since I am a shayar, I write in meter, which is nothing but a raag. Thus it would be easy for any composer to compose to my writing. This method of creating a song, though difficult, is more correct. In earlier days, this is how song compositions were done. Writing to a set tune is very easy, as it is like filling in the blanks.
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How did sehra baandh ke nikle happen? |
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Mr. Mani Shankar had heard (of) me and called when he was doing the album Meri Jaan Hindustaan. It suited him also since we are both from Hyderabad. He gave me the piece of music to write lyrics to and liked it very much.
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How come another lyricist, p.k.mishra is co-credited for the song? |
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He wrote the RAP part of the song and also a few other songs in the album.
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Have you met the composer of the song? |
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Yes, I met Karthik when he had come down to Hyderabad, to shoot the video for the song. I helped him a little bit in the expressions during the shoot.
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What are your views on karthik raaja as a composer ? |
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What can I say about him as a composer, He is of Ilayaraaja's lineage and won the FILMFARE award on his debut.
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What was your opinion on the recorded version of the song 'sehra baandh ke nikle'? |
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The final output was beyond my expectations. I was thrilled.
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Any of your other material that has been published/released (book/album etc.)? |
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I also wrote the title and other songs for Mr. Mani Shankar's unreleased film called Dil Hai Khula Aasmaan. These songs, composed by Vikesh Mehta, were sung by Hariharan and Kavita Krishnamurthy. I also wrote a song for Mr. Lucky Ali, for his album called Sifar, for which he used the starting lines but changed the rest of the song for reasons better known to him. My ghazals are sung by singers of international repute like Talat Aziz and Raj Kumar Rezvi. Local singers of Hyderabad like Ustaad Vithal Rao, Mala etc. regularly sing my geets and ghazals. I narrate my poetry to patrons, whenever i can. I also plan to release my narration in a CD titled DIVINE TURBULENCE.
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Any song written by other lyricists that you hum? |
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A song written by Raja Mehdi Ali for the hindi film PAKEEZAH is my favorite. Yuheen koi koi mil gaya tha, sare raha chalte chalte...
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A sher(couplet) that you want to share? |
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Poetry or writing of any form will have impact on its readers, only if it has been said from the heart. Writing has no meaning, if it does not relate to people of different generations. In other words, writing should be timeless. The greatest examples of such writings are from Mirza Ghalib, Milton, Shakespeare, etc. True writing depicts real life situations timeless to any era.
My Favourite Sher:
Tareeq ki auraaq se,
From the pages of history
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iqbal patni is available for work on lyrics, scripts etc. and can be contacted at the following e-mail id: IQBAL PATNI |
| call of the country |
| roshmila bhattacharya - 2000 - the screen |
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Meri Jaan Hindustan is Mani Shankar’s unique tribute to Hindustan in the golden jubilee year of its independence. Conceived as a series of eight four-minute music videos, Mani has recorded with some of the biggest names and some of the most promising young musical talents of the country. From living legends Dr L Subramaniam and Ilayaraja, to South swingers MM Kreem, Chitra and Kamal Haasan (singing his first Hindi composition), from rap, rock and folk-funk crowd-pullers Baba Sehgal, Remo Fernandes and Lucky Ali, to the sensations-of-tomorrow Vishal Bharadwaj and Kartik Raaja, all get together to celebrate the spirit of freedom. All the eight numbers have been recorded, but only four of them have been picturised. The first music video to be premiered on DD1 in April this year was Lucky Ali’s Anjani rahon mein. After a dusty trek through the sands of Egypt, trailing behind a blue-eyed bewitcher in a burkha, Lucky dropped anchor in Hong Kong, a land of grey mists and lonely meals. And at the first opportunity, Lucky shipped away from its shores and headed home. Through anjani roads, from a passenger ship to a barge, exchanging smiles with a just-married couple, from an early morning ride on a truck to a train, sharing toothpaste with a newly-made friend, a wide-eyed Lucky crooning PK Mishra’s gently rambling lyrics and followed by Mani and his camera, discovers an India which is warm and welcoming. The country boy is at his hummable best, Anjani raahon... is worth a sunoh and a dekko. A popular music director down South and a crooner too, MM Kreem along with National award-winner Chitra takes us on another flight of fantasy. Kho jaane do e-embodies the freshness and free, adventurous spirit of the Indian women of the ’90s as the Siyaram girl Deepti Bhatnagar, and Miss India ’96 Rani Jeyraj take off on another trek across a country of many faces with their fast-clicking Nikons. In fact, it’s easy to identify some of these faces as those of teen heart-throbs, Abbas, Abey Kurivilla, Ajay Jadeja, Neol David, Venkatapathy Raju and Vinod Kambli. Our sometimes congratulated, sometimes criticised cricketers also feature in Baba Sehgal’s action-packed Howwzzaatt. The king of rap cleverly connects the game of cricket with the independence movement, with the astute observation that the fight for supremacy between nations continues even after five decades, only now the battle is fought not with smoky bombs but with the bat and ball. Another music video which you must have come across on the National Network, if you’re still tuned on after the English news, would be Theme From the Global Symphony, performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of the US-based maestro Dr L Subramaniam. Picturised on Bombay boy Arvind Swamy, it tells the story of a quiet Physics professor, who defied the national enemy with his little wire loop. From signifying a hangman’s knot, the loop goes on to become a key to freedom and at the end of a battle hard won, is even used to fire a Britsh officer’s engine which gets him a congratulatory salute from his erstwhile master. The entire freedom struggle is encapsulated in this exhilirating 5.44 minutes music piece. Telugu superstar Nagarjuna will soon be seen in a new role — that of an artist spraying his canvasses with a rainbow of paints and passion in a celebration of Apna Desh. Colonial Cousin Hariharan and the melody man of Maachis Vishal collaborate on this clarion call to the nation. Still to be shot are Ilayaraja’s Apna Josh Hai, son Karthik Raaja’s Sehra Bandh Ke Nikle and Remo’s Zindadilli. All three are brilliant compositions which no doubt will be picturised as imaginatively by Mani. The young music director of Grahan creates an impression with a number which captures the defiance and determination of youth, and in a dramatic improvisation, veers away from standard convention with a rap sequence in the hip-hop Ario style. Papa Ilayaraja is just as inventive and energetic in Apna Josh Hai. A guts and glory number in the voice of perhaps the most famous Indian, Kamal Haasan, it is a salute to the indefitable spirit. “No problem”, “No tension”, a lot of mast mast celebration... that’s the raja of South film music for you. Remo’s Zindadilli is also high in spirits. But perhaps in keeping with the more amiable Goan spirit, the mood of the song is lighter and Ilayaraja’s tandav has been tamed down to a love ballad. Only Remo’s not serenading a lady this time but a country. An India he loves. And an India we will love too after Meri Jaan Hindustan. Mani Shankar has proved that patriotism isn’t always straight from the archives documentaries and oft-repeated bhashans. The call of the country can be feet-tapping and fun too.
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