HANS RAJ HANS
The son of the soil

He is the Punjabi folk singer with his own style. One could think he is a rocker looking at him, with his locks falling over his shoulders, but listening to his silky voice, one can’t help but fall in love with his music.

He is one of the few people who has managed to bring original folk music from the fields of Punjab, to the professional world of Indian music industry. His last album Chorni was a huge success, and basking in the still continuing glory of his previous success, he has released yet another album with T-Series Jhanjariya.

A disciple of Ustad Puran Shah Koti, he grew up refining his mind and voice with the rich culture of traditional Punjabi Sufiana music. He graduated from D A V Jaladhar College, though academics never really interested him. Music was his first love and he went ahead to make a career out of it.

He has performed all over the world, in places like, USA, Canada, Europe, the Middle-East and many more countries. Hisw performances have been widely apptreciated and he was honoured by Ex Prime Minister I K Gujaral.

Jhanjariya has lyrics by well known lyricist Ibraheem Ashq and music by the duo Ali-Ghani. The music directors actually went to Punjab for a stay with Hans Raj, to get a real feel of the life out there and draw inspirations from the studies and works in Sufi music.

“In this album I have tried to give a feel of the earth in trems of music, lyrics and vocals. People would expect me to come up with something like Morni after Chorni, but I followed my heart and have experimented with various aspects of music in this album,” says Hans Raj.

This album has a combination of geet as well as ghazals. “This is the first time I am singing ghazals and I hope people appreciate my efforts,” he says. “I work more by my instincts rather than anything else,” he adds.

In spite of gathering such great amount of publicity and fame, he still lives in Punjab, a simple life, with his people around and wants to continue with it.
“Glamour has never attracted me much,” he says, “If you notice even my videos are simple and not the kinds where the singer is surrounded by skimpily dresses women or something like that. They are music videos and music is the main ingredient in them.”

He has done playback for the film Bichoo and he intends doing more. “I would love to sing in films. But I do not stay in Mumbai and this gets a little difficult, cause, to be in the playback scenario, one constantly has to be in Mumbai.”
He is satisfieed with thee work that he has done so far. “People accept me and my style and this makes me very happy. I hope I am able to live upto their expectation with this album.”

Lopamudra Bhttacharya

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