MUMBAI: Six years ago, the only music-related activity the young Punjabi named Gurnazar Chattah indulged himself with restricted to listening to the established Punjabi folk musicians, that later extended to electronic music and the popular Bollywood tunes. And when time permitted, the young Gurnazar – his stage act name – educated himself with the world of live music and the sheer craze that surrounds it.
Six years later, on 24 September, Gurnazar bowed down to the 1200 attendees at the Lager N Barrel Festival, held in his home turf of Punjab. The devotion and loyalty towards their favourite artists defines the Punjabi music fans, and the example of the divide between Honey Singh and Badshah holds as a perfect example to the extent fans can travel to show support. That’s a recent and a bit more metropolitan phenomenon concerning fans exposed to the Bollywood’s idea of Punjabi music. In a more rural, developing but isolated-from-mainstream-music-Punjab, artists are necessarily worshipped.
A former skateboarder, Gurnazar picked up a guitar and responded to his earlier unknown vocal talent, and since the age of 22, managed to perform shows wherever opportunities knocked. Like several young hungry musicians, Gurnazar utilised popular songs and covered the originals in ways that gradually invited more shows on his doors. “But it was the originals that the people identified with,” said Gurnazar moments before he boarded the flight to Mumbai for the “biggest performance” of his life so far. “If you had asked me if I would be invited to perform in Mumbai for a Bollywood festival, I’d have called you crazy. Never in my dreams did I think such a moment would arrive.”
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Gurnazar’s earnest humility reflects in his songwriting, and above anything, the attribute further makes him the people’s musician. In this case, the Punjabi’s musician. The fans at Lager N Barrel festival acknowledged the honesty and simplicity in his lyrics that provides him an edge over other mainstream popular artists of his age.
In four years of his journey so far, Gurnazar has composed for Punjabi movies – the most notable contribution being recently released movie titled ‘Needhi Singh’. The industry has begun to recognise his musicianship and since the association with Speed Records, the digital releases of Gurnazar’s compositions have broken the barriers, and the songwriter’s work reached Delhi, Noida, UP and Canada too. Gurnazar gradually grew beyond Punjabi’s musician and received opportunities for live performances from other regions. The associations with Speed Records helped Gurnazar collaborate with Diljit Dosanjh, where the former would be heard playing guitar.
The 26-year-old honest, enthusiastic and promising artist loves to experiment. “Do not change the language,” advises the musician to the counterparts identified with native languages, “but experiment with the sound.” The lack of experimentation, as history suggests, often restricted the recent Punjab-based artists’ fame to the region, barring a few exceptions like Honey Singh and Badshah whose prime reasons of fame also revolved around a Punjabi sound never executed before. However, in Gurnazar’s case, the songwriter offers better lyrical flexibility, more mature understanding of sound, relevant music videos and personal connect with the audience that often can be seen through his live performances. Basically, on the music front, Gurnazar’s personality lacks unnecessary distraction, popular approaches and typical marketing strategies that – often and unfortunately – have become tools to instant success.
The frontman of his band, Gurnazar’s Bollywood Music Project performance tomorrow would feature three songs in Hindi, three songs in Punjabi and a couple of cover tracks. The inevitable, now, begins for Gurnazar. The exposure to Bollywood, the entry to the world of interviews, fan interactions, association with brands, and so on and so forth awaits the former skateboarder. However, these aspects do not find any place in his priorities. Before Gurnazar boarded his flight, he innocently asks, “Paaji, I would be performing at 2 pm. Would there be an audience when it’s so sunny and hot?”
May be not tomorrow, although he deserves it. But Gurnazar is on his way to either demand a headlining act or on the verge of such a stardom that the sight of 1200 attendees dancing to his tunes in his home turf would find repeated versions across the country. Perhaps, not tomorrow. Perhaps, it is unlikely. But surely, Gurnazar deserves every bit of it. And Bollywood Music Project can play a vital role in ensuring so.
