Sonu Niigaam, Shankar Mahadevan sing Buddha's thoughts
MUMBAI: Buddha Hi Buddha Hai- The Buddha Within a musical interpretation of the timelessness and universality of the world icon Tathagat Sidhharth Gautam (Lord Budhha) was released by Saregama.
The album features Sonu Niigaam, Shankar Mahadevan, Alka Yagnik, A. Hariharan and Suresh Wadkar which has lyrics and music by 38-year-old self taught musician Rajesh Dabre, who serves as a Joint Commissioner (Export) in the Department of Customs at Mumbai.
Adept at both Hindi and Marathi, Dhabre had written some one-act plays and had been an amateur singer since he was a teenager, but his passion drove him to take it upon himself to compose lyrics and tunes for this album, with missionary zeal, an effort that took the better part of four years.
In his own words, I must have read 50-60 books on Budhha and Buddhism, from ancient texts to Deepak Chopra, and the songs took from seven days to five months each to compose. Since Buddhism transcends all borders and boundaries, divisions and categories, I felt music was the ideal medium to propagate Budhha's preachings, as music also transcends all such classifications. In terms of style, too, we have tried many variations, from chants to electronic beats, fusing Western
and Indian arrangements, blending melody with message, but never compromising on content....
The tunes came naturally to Rajesh, who is not a trained musician, even as he browsed thoughts and ideas from the treasure of eminently quotable Buddha gems, like 'Fire cannot extinguish fire, only love can conquer hatred', 'Every cause has an effect, every effect has a cause' and 'Craving leads to disorders'. While moulding these noble truths into lyrics, he chose simple Hindi, to put across profound philosophy in a lucid, easy-flowing manner.
Rajesh Dabre was supported by his wife, Dr. Bhavna Dhabre, a Sangeet Vishaarad on this album.
