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Avatar of the melody of pride
Please stand up for the National Anthem.” The audience collectively rises to its feet and shuffles to attention. A video begins to play on the screen in front. As the instrumental recital of Jana Gana Mana begins with flautist extraordinaire and Padma Vibhushan awardee Pt Hariprasad Chaurasia, the warm feeling of patriotism rising in the chest finds a comfortable nook to settle in.
The video continues with several famous musicians, such as santoor maestro Rahul Sharma, leading Carnatic percussionist Giridhar Udupa, veena virtuoso Jayanthi Kumaresh, and sarod icons Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash. “The National Anthem is the first piece of music that I ever learned to play,” says the composer of the new version, three-time Grammy Award-winner, Ricky Kej, who was on a three-city tour with The Leela Palaces, Hotels and Resorts in India to launch the new video.
There are a number of international musicians in the video too, including members of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of England. It ends with a choir by 14,000 tribal children of the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences in Bhubaneswar, which has earned this new rendition a place in the Guinness World Records. “Nobody in my family is a musician. We had a small keyboard at home and I ended up hitting a note on it and realising that it sounded a lot like the National Anthem,” reminisces Kej. He figured out how to play the rest of the anthem in a couple of days.
The 43-year-old Indian-American music composer, environmentalist and UN Goodwill Ambassador joined the distinguished group of Indian musicians to win a Grammy in 2015 for Winds of Samsara. He went on to become the only Indian to win three Grammy Awards after his album Divine Tides was voted the Best New Age Album in 2022, and the Best Immersive Audio Album last year.
Kej’s music is best described as a vibrant fusion of traditional Indian sounds with global influences. His compositions often blend classical Indian instruments like the sitar and tabla with contemporary elements such as electronic beats and orchestral arrangements. Not unique in practice, but executed differently in Kej’s repertoire.
These singular qualities he brings to his latest rendition of the National Anthem resounding with pride in the country.
Kej has released several versions of his favourite piece of music over the years. “In 2015, I did a version of the National Anthem dedicated to the forests and wildlife of our country; it was launched at the COP21 in Paris,” he says. A 2021 version saw him mentoring a group of refugees from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Cameroon who had been living in India, but were unable to fulfil their musical talent, since they sang in their native languages. They were, however, well-versed in the Indian National Anthem. They worked on a version of Tagore’s masterpiece with Kej for the 75th year of Independence. It was followed by a Symphony Orchestra rendition last year.
The latest version went live on August 14, just in time for the 2024 Independence Day celebrations. The video has a Virtual Reality component that was experienced on an Apple Vision Pro headset at the preview. “It’s the first VR video from India on the device,” says VR filmmaker Sairam Sagiraju, the force behind the video and the VR experience. The state-of-the-art mixed reality journey transports the listener directly to studios where musical legends can be seen performing at close quarters, and where we learn about the various instruments through an interactive component.
Kej sums up, “You can be from any part of India, you can be across the aisle from any kind of political ideology, but the minute you listen to the National Anthem, you feel like standing up and joining in. That’s the beauty of this piece of music.”
India Forever is his musical muse.