RECITING tales from Hindi religious books through song has long been the domain of tambura bhajan masters armed with decades of experience tucked under their belt.
Endless hours spent scouring through Hindu holy books such as the Ramayan and Mahabharata and reciting verses for months or years before going public is the norm.
This form of traditional Hindu music is normally performed by mature men devoted to the study of Hindu scripture.
But this Saturday, a 17-year-old Lautoka boy will defy the norm when he takes on two of the country’s tambura bhajan legends — Anmol Chand from Nadi and Praveen Mani from Ba — in a showdown at the Waiyavi Kaliman Temple in the Sugar City.
Arjun Pawan Sami, a Fiji National University student, is no stranger to the bhajan business.
Since 2004, such as a seasoned professional boxer, the teenager has ducked and weaved his way through hundreds of musical bouts against men with decades of life experience and talent on their curriculum vitae.
And at every event, he has emerged victorious.
Tambura bhajans are like hip-hop rhyming contests.
Where rap artists face-off in nightclubs or on stage in mega-auditoriums, tambura bhajan performers pit their verbal and musical skills against each other in function centres, schools and community halls.
Where hip-hop challenges could take a few minutes to be over, tambura bhajan contests have been known to take hours and sometimes, even days.
Sami has been at it since he was a Class 2 student at Lautoka Central Primary School.
His father, Krishna Sami, said Arjun’s edge over other artists, was his musical sleight of hand.
“He has a photographic memory and he is very quick with words and rhymes,” Krishna shared.
“Young boys of Arjun’s age don’t have an interest in Hindu religious history but I am blessed to have a son who is singing and performing religious songs just like he is reading a newspaper.
“And he has the ability to make the old people happy — by singing traditional songs and he also knows how to create new interest and draw young people to this music by incorporating the latest Bollywood tunes into his bhajans.”
For Arjun, music has been the norm since the day he started walking.
Playing traditional Indian musical instruments and singing songs was an everyday affair in the Sami household.
“I used to perform tambura bhajans when I was a young boy and Arjun reminds me of what I was like at his age,” his proud father said.
Krishna’s four sons have developed music skills over the years but none, he said, came close to Arjun in terms of passion and commitment.
“My eldest son Munish is 22 and he sings classical Hindi songs, his younger brother Bipul who is 21 years old is a religious preacher and the youngest in the family Shiva, who is 15, is a very good keyboard player.
“They are all wonderful musicians but Arjun just has a special gift.
“And what I really admire about him is the fact that he is very disciplined.
“He knows how to manage his time and juggles studies, music and his love for soccer.”
The youngster is the third generation in the Sami family music pedigree.
His great-grandfather Narayan Sami Sadhu was a tambura bhajan artist of note and his grand-uncle Narayan Sami Lala was regarded as one of the country’s premier dholak players.
The former Natabua High School student said while he was looking forward to this weekend’s showdown, his ultimate dream was to pursue a career in marketing.
“I’ve been doing this since I was 5 years old and singing tambura bhajans has taken me to countries I had only dreamt of visiting, so I want to pursue studies in marketing and to get a good job and do music on the side,” the Fiji National University student shared.
“I have been blessed with a unique talent and music will always be my passion but I also know that I need to have a solid academic background and career so that I can use music to help people.”
Arjun said his love for tambura bhajans was equaled by his love for hip-hop.
“Tambura bhajans and hip-hop share a lot of similarities. You’ve got to have the gift of rhythm and rhyme and you’ve got to have a good memory to be able to respond to your opponent.”
Like all forms of traditional music, artists such as Arjun have been criticised for straying from the pure form of the tambura bhajan. The criticism stems from up-and-coming artists incorporating hip-hop, Bollywood and other popular music styles into a genre that has been used to pass down religious stories from one generation to the next.
But just like the changes to English gospel music over the past few years — where traditional Christian hymns and songs — began to incorporate rock, pop and even reggae undertones, tambura bhajans are undergoing a metamorphosis thanks to artists such as Arjun.
The religious message is being spread to the now generation because of his fearless endeavor to mix old with new.
The Lautoka youngster has six traditional tambura bhajan recordings under his belt and he has plans to record religious songs to reggae beats later this year.
“The message will never change but I believe that it can spread to a wider audience with reggae beats because reggae is very popular in Fiji and the Pacific.”
Tambura Bhajans originated in India and the tradition was brought to Fiji when indentured labourers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh arrived in the country in the late 1800s.
