The last month has been a Hariharan festival of sorts. In a
   short span of three weeks, the singer has managed to unleash two brand
   new ghazal albums, Visaal and Jashn. But that's not where it ends.
   Last week the Colonial Cousins released their MTV Unplugged album,
   making it the third Hariharan release of the season. Overkill?
   "Nothing of the sort", assures the singer. He's just back, and it's
   all coming in back to back.
   
   "Visaal was recorded about a year ago," he says, "while Jashn was
   ready about three months back. It so happened that the release dates
   of both were close to each other. But both albums are different.
   Visaal is more like a mehfil, very classical based with raags etc.,
   while Jashn is more song and arrangement oriented."
   
   Seated in his plush riyaaz-cum-entertainment room, Hari has an
   interesting tale to tell about Visaal. "When I was in London for a
   concert, one day we decided to jam in a studio. I, together with five
   musicians, spent about one and a half days playing." And just like
   that, the album was ready.
   
   Jashn, which is obviously the more commercial venture, took about
   eight months to complete. You can't jam and create albums everytime.
   Jashn, Urdu for celebration, is your regular eight ghazal album.
   Lucid poetry, simple music and then, of course, Hariharan's deep,
   resonant voice.
   
   "Basically, there are some romantic ghazals and some have jilted lover
   themes. There's one very interesting piece about teenage love: Aap
   hamare saath nahin, chaliye koi baat nahin, aap kisi ke ho jaayen aap
   ke bas ki baat nahin." Wazzat? Bubble-ghum-ghazal? Apart from such
   variations, there's nothing startlingly different that sets Jashn
   apart from anything anyone has done before.
   
   "I've never," claims Hari, "tried to be startlingly different. Even
   with Colonial Cousins, I didn't do it so that it could be different.
   It just became different. It's an instinct. When I record an album, I
   listen to it just once after it's mixed and then I throw it away
   because I want every album to grow. You can't get very different with
   a ghazal album because the subject remains the same. It's like a love
   story, it will have to be in the same mould, right?"
   
   Sixteen albums down (six with friend, partner and arranger Jolly
   Mukherjee) and he's sure that if there's one thing that works for a
   musician, it's instinct. "If you think too much about something, the
   effort of the thought process is seen. You become a musician by
   practising technique and later you forget it. Then you go by instinct.
   It's a bit like mathematics, it's there but you don't think about it".
   
   
   Apart from all those endless albums, Hariharan is also hitting the
   right notes in playback singing. There's one number rendered by him in
   virtually every major film and nobody's complaining.
   
   "It takes time," he says, trying to explain the phenomenon, "to
   establish a different singing style and emotive energy. You have to
   get the right showcase which I got from films like Lamhe, Roja, Bombay
   and Hindustani. It also happened that I got a lot of these high
   profile films and profile is a very important thing these days. Next,
   I have a very nice song in Border. I recently also sang for Pardes,
   Aflatoon and Sunny Deol's Indian. I'm happy that people are relating
   to my style and are looking forward to songs of that variety."
   
   But then, isn't there any danger of falling into the image trap? After
   all, the film industry is notorious for stereotyping people even
   before they can discover their own identity. Hari's not too worried
   about that. "I think the industry will graduate to accept me more," he
   says. "They have to. There's nothing like `my' style of song. If there
   has been a Tu hi re (Bombay) or a Chanda re (Sapnay), there has also
   been a Telephone dhun (Hindustani). Along with the softness of the
   song, there is a certain stylisation in singing which is what makes my
   songs different. I can sing for a teenager or a 30 year-old man, which
   I think is a breakthrough in a way. And thank God, people are
   recognising me now. After all, I am 41."
   
   If you thought four albums (there was one more called Halka Nasha at
   the beginning of the year) were enough for this profile singer, think
   again. By the end of this year, Hariharan wants to release another pop
   album, but this time as a solo singer. Will Cousin Lezz be doing the
   music on this one? He doesn't know because he hasn't thought much
   about it, though things on the Cousins front are just fine. There will
   be a follow-up effort only by the first half of next year because, "we
   want people to hear the entire first album".
   
   But people seem to have had enough of the first effort anyway because
   the Cousins have been facing problems with selling out their live
   shows. Then there was one particular instance when a show in Delhi had
   to be cancelled due to low ticket sales.
   
   "There has been only one such case," says Hari defensively. "Firstly,"
   he continues, "the organisers announced it late added to which was the
   fact that it was being held at a stadium where not many Colonial fans
   wanted to go. Besides, Delhi is notorious for ticketless shows. Nobody
   there wants to buy tickets. So everything went wrong for us there. But
   that's been the only cancelled show so far. In Calcutta, we played to
   a 15,000 strong crowd and in Madras we had an audience of 10,000.
   We've had good concerts in Poona and Goa. We've also done one show in
   Bombay which was very well received. Colonial Cousins has been doing
   very well and it would have done better had the market been in good
   shape."
   
   But Hariharan's career couldn't be in better shape right now. It's
   taken him a long time to reach where he has and he's thanking his
   stars. "The profile," he says, "which Colonial Cousins has given me
   has widened people's viewpoint about Hariharan. They look at me in a
   broader spectrum. It's a case of, better late than never."