Asha Bhonsle and Ghulam Ali: Reunion

Islamabad, Nov. 7: Ghulam Ali and Asha Bhonsle are working on a new album to be released early next year, the first since the legendary crooners teamed up for a 1984 offering.

“Our last album was Miraj-e-Ghazal in 1984,” said Ali, who will leave for India soon to give final touches to the new compositions. The new album will feature two duets that the ghazal prince will belt out with India’s melody princess, besides two solo numbers from each of them.

An advocate of greater people-to-people contact between Pakistan and India, Ali was quoted as saying by The Nation in Lahore that his past experience of working with Bhonsle was superb.

“I am grateful to Asha and other Indian friends for the respect and hospitality they have shown me.” Asked about the name of the album, Ali said it would be finalised after talks with Bhonsle.

Ali believed there was “vast scope for close collaboration between Indian and Pakistani artistes”, but to achieve the desired results, the governments of both countries would have to simplify visa and travel procedures.

“Many Indian artistes want to visit us while I am being constantly requested by their fans here to invite them to Pakistan,” he said, adding people are willing to do everything possible to get Lata Mangeshkar and Bhonsle to perform here.

Ali said he was unhappy with the new breed of singers who, he believed, had “not learnt the art properly”. He was also critical of private Pakistani TV channels’ “lacklustre approach in promoting quality music”.

“There’s too much commercialism around. Now every singer can pay his way to the top,” Ali said, adding the local media was promoting an “alien culture and alien music”.

Ali, whose future plans include writing a book on his life and setting up an academy of classical music, said his memoir would be a story of his struggle — from rags to fame, from nobody to somebody.

“The memoir will also tell the new generation about the glorious genre of classical music and the sacrifices that our elders had to make to keep the flame alive,” he said.

About the academy, Ali said it would be a “training ground” for upcoming musicians. “The government should patronise this traditional art before it dies,” he added.