There was a time,roughly two decades back,when Niladri Kumar was having a hard time negotiating between two worlds. One,which came with the responsibilities of being a fifth generation sitar player in a family of respected Indian classical musicians. Another outside his home,where any random man strumming a guitar to any effect,was worth a million dollars. I remember the moment I stepped out of my home,I was greeted with all kinds of music,except Indian classical. And in college fests,a guy playing a popular riff with very average skill had thousands of people swaying to his beats. I kept wondering what is it that made people like such average music and stay away from something as rich as Indian classical, says Mumbai-based Kumar,who is in city for the 100 Pipers five city tour with Foreigner. It was since then that he had been trying to come up with a sound that was anchored in the richness of Indian classical,yet was spunky in texture. And thats how the Zitar a five stringed musical instrument created by Kumar happened. Through permutations and combinations,and a lot of help from some great friends,I managed to create an instrument which produced the kind of sound I had imagined. I remember one of my friends ripping off the pick-up from his guitar and me trying to accommodate it into a sitar once. In the process,I had also ended up destroying one of my fathers old sitars, laughs Kumar in recollection.As a musician,Kumar has always tried to find a common plane where two completely different genres of music can interact and meld into each other. However,that doesnt mean that he endorses what contemporary Bollywood tries to pass off as classical. Its not important to name music. At the same time,its also wrong to brand an average song as classical,just because it is slow in pace, he says. Coming up are albums,one with percussionist Talvin Singh,and a solo album where Kumar has tried to create music that cant be fitted into one single genre. and a tour with Ustaad Zakir Hussain.
