Ghazal’s New Track

Today,Panchale is fondly referred to as ghazal nawaz,or “the prince of ghazals”,for his lifelong effort to adapt ghazals — traditionally an Urdu form of poetry — to Marathi. While there have been other Marathi poets and singers who have written and performed Marathi ghazals before him,Panchale has spent over 40 years trying to popularise the genre and develop it.

Originally,only a handful of artistes such as Suresh Bhat and Suresh Wadkar would perform Marathi ghazals. Now,several others such as Arati Ankalikar-Tikekar and Datta Prasad Ranade have made a name for themselves. “When I started out,there were very few Marathi ghazal artistes. They would tell me that there is no such thing as a Marathi ghazal and it wouldn’t sound the same. Today however,there are hundreds of Marathi poets and singers dedicated to ghazals,” says Panchale.

One such artiste is Pune-based Shirish Kulkarni,who recently performed at the Lalit Kala Kendra. Kulkarni used to be a folk singer in the past,but he was also swept away by the beauty of ghazals,and started writing and performing his own Marathi ghazals in 2009.

Ka jagawe ase sarakhe sarakhe/ Ka smarave konha sarakhe sarakhe. Explaining the meaning of his ghazal,he says,“No matter how much we change and grow,there will be a point in our lives when we realise that we’re falling into the same traps and making the same mistakes.”

For Kulkarni,ghazals are about abstract feelings; they don’t talk about a particular person or an incident. He says that usually people who are comfortable with Marathi get scared of ghazals because they are intimidated by the Urdu lyrics. “Even if someone is there to explain the meaning of the ghazal once the performance is over,the real magic gets lost. But if the same emotions are expressed in Marathi,people will directly connect to it,” he adds.

Panchale,who has organised over 2,000 mehfils,90 workshops,seven ghazal concerts and has written several books about Marathi ghazals,believes that Marathi captures the beauty and form of ghazals just as Urdu does. “The tradition of ghazals in Urdu is more than a 1,000 years old; in Marathi,it’s newer,but as a language,Marathi is just as complete and rich as Urdu,” he says.