Done with flashy music, he wants to sing a divine tune now

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 15

While most celebrities of his ilk would prefer to up their glamour quotient in 2021, ace music director Dharminder Kathak is a class apart.

As the world went through a tough phase in 2020, Kathak is determined to devote this year to meditation and spirituality. “The year 2020 gave us lessons for life, showing us how we need to keep our air clean, have fresh soothing, music around and believe in the power of the Almighty. I have my plans ready for this year. The title of my project is ‘Tera-Tera’ and I have finalised a composition which I will get recorded in the voice of 1008 youngsters. I will record all of them one by one. As they will all recite ‘Satnam waheguru’ for few minutes, it will spread good vibes all around,” he said.

Kathak, who has been imparting training to budding musicians for the past 38 years, including the likes of Master Saleem, Sugandha Mishra, Navraj Hans and Jyotica Tangri adds, “It is perhaps with the blessings of the Almighty that I got this assignment. All our actions are governed by him. The planning too has happened so quickly. The first youth to record for me is Mehneen Kaur of MGN Public School. We will begin it from next Sunday. The Sukhmani Sewa Society too has joined me in this project and they say that they will get me youth from the entire India. It has also been decided that training of the youth for the composition from far off places will be done via Zoom and then they will get their voice recorded at a studio around them and send it to me.”

Kathak said, “I have another plan under the ‘Tera-Tera’ project. I intend to record voices of 13 male celebrities and 13 female celebrities for another devotional album. The male celebrities could be Master Saleem and Nachhatar Gill while female ones could be Jaspinder Narula or Rupinder Handa.”

He added, “I also wish to organise a large religious and musical convention which could happen at a stadium. There have been enough of flashy songs and videos. My idea is now to motivate people towards meditation. Also, I intend to tell all budding singers of Punjab not to detach themselves from the roots and always stay connected. I want to motivate them to keep Punjabiyat alive wherever they go.”

Kathak added, “In this new year, I have also somehow decided that I will train only 10 students at a time and not more. All these 10 students will have to show their commitment towards learning music and achieving new heights.”