It’s incorrect to say I’m the best tabla player in India; we have at least 15 more who play like me, if not better

Hyderabad holds a special place in Zakir Hussain’s heart. It’s a city that the tabla maestro associates with a couple of very cherished firsts of his illustrious life. “The first movie I ever acted in — Heart And Dust (1983) was shot in and around the Charminar. I stayed in the city for two months shooting for the film. In fact, my life’s first flight was one from Mumbai to Hyderabad sometime in the 1960s...I was a child then,” he fondly recalls, as he talks to us on the sidelines of his concert in the city.
Reminiscing about how he witnessed Hyderabad metamorphosise into a burgeoning metropolis over the years, he says, “Hyderabad wasn’t half the fully-grown metro that it is today; back then, it was somewhere between a town and a city. I remember, during one of my visits, I was put up in Khairatabad. I used to take a train to travel to Secunderabad. The city had this old world charm to it. I haven’t visited the city in the longest time now and would love to explore the old addresses once again.”
Zakir was in the news recently for co-authoring a book with Nasreen Munni Kabir, an India-born producer, director and author from UK. He describes it as, “Not a biography, but rather a humble offering to all the great musicians I have had the opportunity to play with over the years.”
Admittedly, he wasn’t supposed to write it initially. “I was to answer questions asked by the author (Nasreen) and that’s about it. But it became difficult for us to meet face-to-face everytime, so she began mailing the questionnaires to me. I wrote back whenever I could... in between tours, on flights, before going to bed and so on. My wife, (Antonia Minnesota, Kathak dancer), is an MA in literature and she edited and proof read all my scribbles. I didn’t know that my answers would get published the way they were sent and I would be credited as co-author,” says Zakir, who doesn’t like to be called an ‘accidental writer’.
“I may have not written on a regular basis, but that doesn’t mean I’m a novice. I have written a lot of columns in the past. For instance, a chapter in my friend Mickey Hart’s debut book Drumming At The Edge Of Magic is among the many,” contends the Padma Bhushan awardee.
Collaborations with musicians across multiple genres and diverse age groups have been a highlight of his celebrated career. Of late, he has teamed up with younger classical musicians like flautist Rakesh Chaurasia, nephew of legendary flautist Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia and Niladri Kumar, known for developing the zitar, a hybrid of the sitar and guitar. So, what does ‘India’s best tabla player’ look for when collaborating with musicians of this generation? “It would be incorrect to term me as the ‘best tabla player in India’ as I feel I am just one of the best the country has today. I think there are 15 or more musicians who play like me, if not better. And when I play with other musicians, l learn from them; it helps improve my repertoire,” he explains.
Zakir, who donned the hat of a music composer for a number of eclectic film ventures like Apocalypse Now, Mr And Mrs Iyer, Saaz among many, is set to return to cinema as a composer again. He is currently composing for Nandita Das’ film Manto, based on the life and times of author Sadaat Hasan Manto. He is also working on a jazz project. “I, along with Shankar Mahadevan, and jazz master Louie Banks and a few others will be travelling to America in April with a jazz ensemble,” he says, signing off.