Maverick Mishra embarks on new journey

GURGAON: Last weekend, Ballimaran came to the city. No, not the Old Delhi quarter so redolent of

Mirza Ghalib

. This was Piyush Mishra’s band, ‘

Ballimaaraan

’ (that’s how he spells it), which debuted at CyberHub, a world away from the mohalla of the great Urdu bard.

“My roots are in Delhi, and Ghalib’s contribution to poetry is immense. And I found Ballimaaraan a very beautiful name, evoking as it does the atmosphere of the old city,” Mishra told TOI.

‘Ballimaaraan’ brought the curtain down on the SBI Card Great Indian Film and Literature Festival (GIFLIF). And these guys didn’t disappoint the many who had queued up for the show in excited anticipation.

In his own words, the actor, lyricist, singer and writer of screenplays was in his element gigging in front of an audience (much more so than being part of a panel discussion!). So, after years of dithering, Mishra finally committed to a band, one he can call his own.

“It was my friend, (programmer) Hitesh Sonik who came up with the idea. Considering I have so many songs that I end up performing, he asked why don’t I form a band?

“But I didn’t have the nerve, and though I have sung on the streets and in the theatre, I could never form much of a friendship with the microphone!”

Still, it’s not as if Mishra can’t draw a crowd wherever he sings. Students, for one, are enamoured of his songs, and flock to his shows. “But I would have to get myself organised. Like, I would usually sing without having done ‘riyaz’, but I would have to put in extra ‘riyaz’,” he acknowledged.

For him, poems and songs stand apart. Songs, though, are an extension of poetry. And Ballimaaraan’s music is driven by words. “More than the instrumentation, lyrics are the most important part,” he insists.

The band was all set to launch in the Bhopal edition of GIFLIF, in September, only for Mishra to be laid low by a throat infection. Now, he’s keen on including piano and flute in the band’s set-up. “Also, I want to introduce some female singers, like Rekha Bhardwaj, Shilpa Rao and Sowmya Raoh, who have sung for me in the past.”