RENDEZVOUS WITH TAPTA
With or without a reason all young people, old enthusiasts and hardcore folklorists in Manipur love listening to Tapta’s music. During his visit to New Delhi on 18-20 May 2007, North East Sun had a candid conversation with Loukrakpam Jayanta of Tapta fame on different issues ranging from the band’s future to his views on contemporary Manipur. Many critics call him the ‘musician social reformer’. Sometimes in the mid-90s, Tapta came into the limelight of Manipuri music world with the band’s first ever album The Power of Attraction. Jayanta’s songs are poetries, essays and stories. In his own unique ways, Jayanta pulls the inside out of the known arts, cultures, and society in different directions—least caring whether his views are in the right or wrong perspective. As most of his songs have social lyrical values, people often christen him the Bob Dylan of Manipur. His songs on socio-political causes sound like true voice of a rebel who represents the desperate mass. Apart from the preconceived notions of events shaped by a politically handicapped state of affairs, Tapta’s music draws a perfect picture of love, hatred, cry and despair in multicoloured strokes. Tapta’s lyrical components reveal the pros and cons of any social or political issue.
North East Sun: Tell us about your plans in the near future? Loukrakpam Jayanta: In 2004, Tapta launched a project to produce music albums under a series titled Group Volume (GV). The objective of the project was to promote music aspirants who sing well but never had the chance to learn the art under formal training. And since 2006, we have been planning to call all local artistes who prefer fusion music; we support them in production of their own albums. We assign them lyrics and tunes to practice themselves at their homes during free hours. On 26 November 2006, we conducted a selection test where 169 singers participated. Of them, 18 were selected for GV and Free Schooling Course Group. In order to encourage the spirit of those who weren’t selected we organised an open song competition sponsored by KIMACS (Kanglei Indigenous Martial Art and Cultural Society) at Kangla. Since then, Tapta has produced twenty-five singers selected from the workshops for duet numbers in GV series. Our target is to produce around fifty singers by 2007. Because of my unfortunate vocal chord defect we postponed the competition which was supposed to be held in 2006.
NE Sun: What are the causes behind your vocal chord defect? Loukrakpam Jayanta: I normally sing 15 to 20 songs in a concert. Right after the concert ‘30 Songs of Tapta,’ organised by SALAI Bros at Bhaigyachandra Open Air Theatre (BOAT), most concert organisers in the state started requesting me to sing not less than 30 songs a concert. For the first time ever in the history of Tapta, in 2003, LASING organised ‘50 Songs of Tapta’. Audience were crazy, volunteers were high-headed, and commandos of the state police got wild right after the 47th song, then the concert ended without a conclusion. After that, most of my concerts became a big strain on me with not less than less then 50 songs. Being brought up with a spirit to fight and challenge, I recently made an attempt to perform a ‘100 Songs of Tapta’ concert, which was to be organised by Gambhir Singh Shopping Complex. However, a sad thing happened! Instead of appreciating what I was planning to do as a new challenge, many renowned senior artistes in the state criticised me accusing me of distorting the age-old trend of Manipuri music concert. As unfounded criticism of my unique form of music appeared in the media, I had to terminate the idea of the ‘100 Songs Concert”. However, this never deterred my trend of composing 40 to 50 songs a year. Rather I have increased it up to 50 to 60. My non-stop concert schedules, song composition at midnight hours as well as alcohol abuse and unscheduled food habits subsequently resulted in my vocal chord problem. Right from 1999, doctor advised me to take care of it. After a long period of unawareness, my vocal chord eventually got seriously damaged in 2004. That’s why I began to skip many concerts and assignments and announced through media that I no longer accept concert orders. I have consulted all possible doctors in Manipur and Assam, including village herbal medicine experts, but I found no sign of improvement at all. It was on 28 April 2007 that I decided to leave Imphal for treatment at Christian Medical College (CMC) in Vellore. Only god knows what could happen next.
NE Sun: Have you received any awards so far? Loukrakpam Jayanta: In 2002, I received Creative Folk Music Award, then Roop Raag Award. I have no interest in such stuffs called awards or rewards, and I never hoped for that, as many people in our music industry don’t like me at all. Forget about it! Even an Imphal-based organisation—I won’t name it—neither invited nor informed anyone in my band for their state wide award night. Unlike other places, the fate of a musician is quite tough and uncertain in Manipur.
NE Sun: How do you feel to be a Manipur artiste? Loukrakpam Jayanta: See, I was born and brought up in my beloved Manipur, hope I will die here, too. However, I like to make a long list of drawbacks I face, as a music artiste, in the region. First of all, art has no proper societal support in the region. Poor sections of the society rather take more interest in art than the rich ones. Musicians survive on meagre amount of earning. Instead of support, some senior artistes try to suppress the rising young ones. Many artistes prefer stealing than hard work. Students behave like teachers and morons talk like intellectuals. There is unprincipled politics in Art in Manipur. Despite the existence of a lot of beautiful flowers, there is no ripe fruit of music in Manipur.
NE Sun: Share with us your view on contemporary scene of Manipuri art and culture. Loukrakpam Jayanta: Many people say something is better than nothing. But I think it is better to have nothing instead of having a bad thing. I’m talking specifically about contemporary Manipuri digital filmdom. After the ban on Hindi movies were imposed and rise of Manipuri digital industry, the age-old tradition of Manipuri cinema has been transformed into a structureless shape. Even the trend of current digital movies seems, more or less, like replacing Hindi cinema by some look alike cheap commercial stuffs. Produced with low budget of around Rs 3-4 lakh, most of Manipuri digital movies are sub-standard works done by a group of unprofessional producers, directors, and actors. To me, this new digital film industry is strangest of strange things. Playback singers are hired on some hundreds of bucks. And newcomer actors pay some amounts to producers for their debuts. Now, we are living in a ‘flop ear of Manipuri cinema.’
NE Sun: Your advice to the young generation. Loukrakpam Jayanta: Whether in music or movie, it is worth to be considered for our value of originality and authenticity. Take the examples of other countries like the US, France, China, and South Korea and see how they represent themselves in the fields of performing arts. American action movies, Chinese martial art flicks and Korean romance dramas prove of excellent talents to the world. Why shouldn’t we do the same? Despite imitating typical Hindi movie norm, our new generation can create a unique style of our own art, culture, and heritage through these powerful media of music and movie. I wish our unexplored talents in the region would explode some day all over the world showing how beautiful we are.
Courtesy: North East Sun Note: This is a revised and edited version from the original published in the North East Sun
