An epitome of simplicity & dignity- Ustaad Puran Shah Koti Ji

 Ustaad Puran Shah Koti Ji

The renowned emperor of baritone, a mentor to Hans Raj Hans, Master Saleem, Jasbir Jassi and many more, and epitome of simplicity and dignity, his name is Ustaad Puran Shah Koti, who shies away from being called an Ustaad, resident of our very own Jalandhar is actually an Ustaad in every true sense.

He is truly a multi-faceted personality. Sitting beside him, you would surely learn one or the other thing of life. Besides, he often played the role of Sita in Ramlilas during his childhood by snatching the sarees of women.

His grandfather and his father were both outstanding singers and he believed in singing since he was in womb of his mother. Otherwise he sang his first song at the age of 5 at his Shahkot Middle school whose lyrics were ‘ Lelo Ji Pambeereian’. He ran from pillar to post in order to enhance his musical intellect.

He is an apprentice to Ustaad Bismillah Khan of Banaras and Baba Muraad Shah. He feels lucky to have inherited the musical genes of his forefathers with God’s grace. He has crossed the five generations of the music namely Solo singing, Tumbi, Duet, and Sufism. In his views, the globalization in music is evident that the fusion of Sufism has done well and since India is adopting western music, west is exploring the new avenues of the music that originates from India.

His opinion on today’s music is that the purity in the lyrics has been lost and the censor board is not taking enough actions in controlling the vulgarity. And he says, the music today’s generation prefers to hear is incomplete because Music is made of three key elements namely Sur, Shabad and Taal (melody, lyrics and rhythm). The absence of even one of this can make music crass. He says Music is one for all and its Sur are only twelve. It’s on you how to mix and match these twelve melodies.

His world famous music albums are Godri and Tumba. Besides, he has been honored with Punjab Shiromani Award and Raj Kapur Award.

During my interaction with him, he was wearing a simple saffron colored Kurta and reflected a very graceful body language. As I concluded, he shared his message for the upcoming musicians, “Music has a vast career options but one must learn it properly before venturing in this field because this is a quality based career and you will be over thrown soon if you go weak on substance and quality. Don’t aim of becoming a star. Aim for becoming a master of the art.”

Note: The interview was originally published in The Times of India supplement, Jalandhar Times.