RECIPIENT of the Pride of Performance Award, Tina Sani says she has been listening to a lot of Madame Noor Jehan’s songs lately. Her favourite ghazal singer though, is Mehdi Hassan sahib who she finds “simply amazing.” But, immersed in classical music as she is, she has a lot of favourites, both among classical instrumentalists and vocalists.
Says Sani “My favourite sitarists are Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Raees Khan while among the vocalists I love Ustad Ameer Khan sahib and Roshan Ara Begum. I also listen to Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, on the odd day that I want to hear him, but only hear that particular qawaali that I get the urge to listen to.”
Sani has favourites among western singers too and claims she enjoys listening to Andre, an Italian opera singer “who is fabulous, and has done contemporary work also”. She is also very fond of Mozart and says she has “heard his Strings enough to know it by heart. She prefers to listen to soft music rather than hear vocals when she is reading.
Its not always heavy, classical stuff for Sani, though. Occasionally she likes to listen to light Indian songs and says she enjoys the songs of Taal, Bombay and Kutch Kutch Hota Hai. She claims she has enjoyed Indian music since the days of Aradhna and used to listen to all the Indian songs of the seventies; but , she is not into “very old Indian songs.”
She loves Mukesh whose voice she finds amazing and likes to listen to music when she is by herself. However, says she has “no ear for re-mixes” some of which she finds “have been done very badly. They play too much with nostalgia.”
As for Pakistani film songs, Tina Sani says she was never exposed to them, so doesn’t enjoy them. However, she heard Abrar sing live for the first time recently, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Sani says her lifestyle doesn’t permit her to watch too many movies so has seen very few, and normally winds up just seeing bits and pieces of them. However, among the ones she has seen in their entirety and enjoyed is Monsoon Wedding. Among the older films, she loves Dr Zhivago and admits she’s watched a lot of James Bond movies. In fact, she has a penchant for far-fetched escapist movies like those of Harrison Ford’s — the Indiana Jones series — and the Star Wars series.
Says Sani “I like action movies and have also enjoyed the ones starring Bruce Willis in them — the technology and filming never ceases to amaze me — but I don’t like violence.”
Among the films she has recently watched and enjoyed greatly is Original Sin. “It was riveting, right from the word go.” But by far, the film that tops Sani’s list of favourites is Amadeus, which she claims “had a strong impact” on her. Sani also loves “films that have romance and philosophy mixed in them, such as Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping — I cried and cried in it — and Sliding Doors. The last is about chances and tells you that there is a Universality that controls your life, no matter where you are and what you do.”
Among the Indian films, Sani likes Kutch Kutch Hota Hai and Taal and says “I like musicals and glamour in movies as they offer a departure from reality. That’s why I liked Unmra-o-Jan, for although it was a sad movie, it was so beautiful. Films should either be a total departure and be amazingly silly, or should be very real. I don’t like hybrid movies that try and make a fool of you. Movies have a strong impact on me, so by and large I don’t like to see disturbing films and prefer those that offer relief. For instance, I couldn’t complete Chandni Bai. Even Monsoon Wedding bothered me for a few days. But, I like change, so keep watching different kinds of films, whenever I can.”
Extremely fond of reading, Sani says she normally likes to read philosophical books. Her absolute favourite book is Sophie’s World for that very reason. Says she “In a very interesting way, the book gives you a lesson in philosophy as an eight year old.”
Recently, Sani has read a book by Uri Geller, called Mind Medicine, which talks about how the mind has the power to heal the body. She also enjoyed reading Ayn Rand’s Fountainhead and Rumi’s life sketch.
Among her favourites are also Gone With The Wind and Roots. Says Sani “I like realistic fiction but of late have begun to read books that have to do with the mind and thoughts. Lots of questions are answered in philosophical books.”
Sani says she doesn’t like historical books because she has a problem with retention. She enjoys poetry, though and claims “It’s more fun to read one poet at a time so you can get into the mind of the poet. I love to get into the mind of the writer, whether it is a child or a poet.
That’s why I enjoy autobiographies and books that are about people. “Once in a while, Sani says she also reads the Quran to glean information. She used to get tickled by books on “unidentified phenomena and quest for the unknown”. Still, she enjoys mysteries to some degree but rues the fact that she is hopeless in remembering titles and names of writers, although she always remembers the contents. She remembers enjoying Jeffrey Archer’s short stories though, and even claims to love reading the dictionary! Currently Sani is reading Bourne Identity and says she’d rather read a book than watch a movie version, as it fires the imagination. Most of the time she is disturbed by the picturization of books and says she felt the film versions of Gone With The Wind and Roots didn’t do justice to the books they were based on, because movies, unlike the books, have time constraints.
RECIPIENT of the Pride of Performance Award, Tina Sani says she has been listening to a lot of Madame Noor Jehan’s songs lately. Her favourite ghazal singer though, is Mehdi Hassan sahib who she finds “simply amazing.” But, immersed in classical music as she is, she has a lot of favourites, both among classical instrumentalists and vocalists.
