QUOTE MARTIAL
MAKING WAVES
SHORT TAKES
ROUGH CUTS
MEMORIES
ARCHIVES
MOVIES CHAT

"I, Siddharth. I wander aimlessly in this world"

Lucky Ali. Click for bigger pic!

He is the new voice of angst. Sauntering through the emptiness of life, trying to find its own peace, challenge its own troubled destiny. Lucky Ali, troubadour at large. Poet. Musician. Rock star. Role model for a generation desperate for love. How is he coping with stardom? His second hit album in a row? Will he keep singing? Or will he simply pack up his bags and journey on, like a luckless tramp? Pritish Nandy spoke to him last week.

How did you enter the world of music?

I am not a trained musician. I play by the ear, by my instincts. My friends, my family -- my father (Mehmood), my aunt Meena Kumari who was a great poetess -- were all associated with the film industry. So I grew up surrounded by poetry, music, movies.

I thought I would be an actor but I soon found out that was not to be. The industry had changed by the time I arrived. It was entirely different from the time my father did his first stint in the movies. Even he was shocked when he came back to it after a gap of years. Everything had changed. People, attitudes, creativity. He could barely cope. I, of course, fled.

Why did you flee?

The films I wanted to do did not earn me any money. It was a hard life and I desperately needed to earn. I wanted to get married. You cannot do that on art films and my heart bled every time I thought of doing a commercial movie. I kept asking myself: Can you do that, man? Can you do that convincingly? The money was tempting but I knew it was beyond me. So, finally, one day I stopped this battle with myself and decided to move on. To music.

Why music?

I loved music all my life. And since I was not getting enough work in movies -- the kind of movies that could afford me a livelihood -- I thought I would try my hand at it. Like I tried my hand at many other jobs. I trained as a horseman in America. It was sheer physical labour and it made me feel good. To make a living from hard work.

Then I got a job on an oil rig off the coast of Pondicherry. I was there for a full year and enjoyed it very much. It was like exercising without having to go to the gym. But, after some time, I realised that my ambitions in life were different from those of the guys out there who wanted to be crane operators after 14 years! So I quickly got out.

Then?

With the Channel [V] award. Click for bigger pic!

Then I went into carpets.

A businessman?

No, no. It was not like that. My childhood friend cleaned carpets. So I, too, went into cleaning carpets. I made lots of money that way but, then, I wanted to start mending and selling carpets.

Where did you do that?

In Bangalore, Madras.

Why did you go away from Bombay?

Though I was born in Bombay, I was never brought up here. I was brought up in Mussoorie. I came here for a year, studied at Bombay Scottish. Then my parents, my family moved on to Bangalore. So I went along with them.

When did you get into music?

Around the time I was doing carpets. I was doing music at the same time. But I was never sure what I wanted to do with it. It was like a passion. I enjoyed it very much but I never thought of it as a career.

What kind of music were you doing?

I cannot put a stamp on it. But it was music of all kinds.

Original compositions?

Well, I was discovering music. I don't believe I create anything; I only discover things. I discovered my form. It may have been there all along. But I searched for it and found it around this time; I discovered that I could express myself in it.

How did stardom happen?

Sunoh was in the making since I was 13, when I first got my guitar. I started composing without even knowing how to play! It was like a lament. A very self-pitying number. My first track, my beginning. Then I discovered a different kind of tuning on my guitar. After that I started discovering chords -- the kind of stuff you hear in O Sanam. It was all by ear and by feel.

Click for bigger pic!

How did you enter the music industry?

Nitin Dabhade, a friend of mine, came from London with two friends to meet me. They used to take Indian artistes from here to perform out there They met me at the Sun 'n' Sand and offered to record with me. They talked about a happening studio they had out in London. So I went to London -- only to find out that there was no studio, no nothing. So I said: Chalo, it was a trip anyway. Why mope?

Meanwhile, I had just married and someone told me that I had a brother-in-law in London. But I had no idea what he did. My wife gave me his address and I dropped in to meet him, only to discover that he was an engineer in a recording studio, The Trident, where Queen and the early Beatles numbers were recorded. Also Elton John.

He asked me what I was doing in London. I told him how I had been had. So he asked me about my tracks. I played him O Sanam and Sunoh. He liked them. Then I forgot about it all. The day before I left London, he called me to the studio and played back the tracks to me -- with a base line he had worked out. That's how it all started.

You did the whole album in one go?

No, I came back to India and played the tracks to a few music companies. But it didn't happen. So I went back to London and did the entire recording. I showed it to Pran Goyel of BMG there and he loved it. He suggested I contact BMG in India.

I was married, had no money, because everything had gone into the recording, and my wife was in the family way. But the music companies were not budging. Then, one afternoon, Bashir Sheikh (of BMG) came and asked me: 'Have you sold the album?' I said no, not yet. So he said: 'We'll do it. But they did not have the capacity to make a video. So I approached my childhood friend, Mahesh (Mathai). He agreed. I told him I had no money and would pay him only if the album worked.

After that, I left everything in his hands and went off to New Zealand, to work on a horse farm. I forgot all about the album. It is only much later, when I came back, that I realised what had happened.

Click for bigger pic!

No one called you and told you what was happening?

I did not even have a phone number out there! When I called them here, they kept saying: 'It is doing all right.' But I didn't want to hear all right; I wanted to hear it was doing great. Then I began to hear from people in New Zealand. A beam of ATN used to reach there. That gave us indications of what was happening. Then I came back here...

To realise the impact it had made?

Well, I always knew it would work. I had confidence in my music. But I never thought it would work so well. It was a great feeling.

How is your new album different from the first one?

I have completed the circle, Pritish. The circle which I started at the age of 13.

If you have completed the circle, what happens after Sifar?

I don't know. I have no idea.

You may move away from music?

Who knows? Life is a journey....

You are doing many concerts?

Yes, that's the new thing. I want to interact with live audiences. I want to sing out there with feeling, reach out to those who want to hear me.

After that?

I have no idea. All I know is who I am. All I know is that I will never journey away from myself. I have no illusions about life.

There is a lot of pain, a lot of angst in your music...

But not anger. I feel sorrowful about a lot of things around me. "I Siddharth, I wander aimlessly in this world." That's what a friend of mine once wrote. That's what I feel. That's what my music is all about.

EARLIER INTERVIEW/CHAT:
Hitting the high notes
The Lucky Ali Chat