[Urbanstudy] Deepak Kadiyan on Max Studio and Popular Music Part-I

[sadan at sarai.net]

dear all,
This is a posting earlier sent by Deepak <hie_deepak at yahoo.com>on this 
list. I am resending it as plain text format. earlier posting was 
attached with his mail. As the postings are also archived, I again 
request all of you to avoid sending attachments.
This is the first part of Deepak's posting.
enjoy,
sadan Jha.

The text of Deepak's posting

Hi, I am arecepient of sarai student stipendship. this posting makes an 
attempt in studying the centers of production and distribution of 
popular music thus forming a space where urban and popular intersects 
and intersects and attempts to analyse certain identities and inherent 
fluidity in using these concepts. Deepak Kumar

MAX Studio

After recovering from a prolonged illness, it was time to venture out in 
the field that too in Delhi’s scorching heat is an experience in itself. 
After consulting my doctor I decided to move out of slumber on an 
auspicious day and what a day it was, on certain days you feel nothing 
can escape your eyes and for once I thought to shift to detective’s 
profession considering the amount of information that had come to me.

Delhi is expanding and so is Metro’s reach and so many stories springs 
everyday, after listening to them I thought it would be a better idea to 
document them. As work on new Metro lines has started and roads are 
being excavated revealing the interiors of Mother Earth to common people 
and thus giving rise to many of the contemplations which were beyond my 
comprehension.

“They have dug up so much in just one night” exclaimed one passenger in 
the bus, “ last evening when I was returning to my home the laborers 
were visible from the seat but now I can’t even see them standing from 
the seat, it will also be an underground line”.

“ Yes, you are right, it is not far when you will see one Metro plying 
over other” said another person.

By now the strangeness had given way to familiarity and many dropped in 
highly relevant information regarding the future of Metro and the costs 
involved in the project, some of the passengers were in utter disbelief 
as every phase has finished earlier than the schedule. Everytime, I 
travel by public transport, a new personalised history of buildings and 
bus stands reveals itself to me.

“ My nephew studies at SRCC” told one of the passengers at the back very 
emphatically but it seemed to interest no one.

“ look, who would have thought there would be trains running under the 
earth but now wherever you go it’s a norm” another passenger intervenes.

“But Metro is too expensive for common people like us, government should 
start issuing concessional passes as it is in case of D.T.C.(Delhi 
Transport Corporation).

There, like these many other suggestions about governance, were thrown 
in but none of them seemed to eager to explain these formulas wanting 
speedy implementation.

The height of imagination reached when one of the passenger claimed to 
experience Metro moving beneath the bus, from nowhere, to others it was 
a divine revelation and concentrated very hard to have this mystical 
intimacy to Metro, and guess what many of them did affirm to him. At 
this point I thought either of going to medical re-examination to check 
if my nervous system was in proper place or to have this person in 
Indian Seismological Institute, so that we can finally boast of 
discovering the person to tell about earthquakes precisely and have 
another Noble Prize in science. But very soon I realized, that, it is 
this defiance of logic and rationality, which makes human beings such an 
intriguing subject of inquiry, that too by human beings.

In an hour’s travel I finally reached Darya Gang, but soon realized how 
less I know of Delhi and its streets and their histories. But, was soon 
assured that I am not the only one and many other’s to whom I asked for 
address even they didn’t know much. Rather than being told about MAX 
studio, I was introduced to the juice shop owned by late Gulshan Kumar 
on Dayanand Marg in Darya Ganj. After taking instructions at every 
corner I finally located the address. The face of Old Delhi seemed to 
have changed very rapidly in the age of globalization, old havelis are 
giving way to sprawling malls, old houses being renovated to adjust 
upcoming business houses. This building on Ansari Road, being carved out 
into many spheres of influences, compartments, but the office which I 
was looking hiding itself in the midst of other enterprises, there 
appeared no sign of MAX’s existence, not even a letter box with that 
name so that I could have left a note there. Being left with no other 
option, I decided to excavate the building myself, and very soon found 
the office but to my disappointment and later on to exclamation it was 
the godown, acting as a distributing center.

“ Who you are”, asked a middle aged person.

“ Is it Max cassette’s office” I replied, no I counter questioned, a 
habit very peculiar to Delhiite’s.

“No, it’s Sonotek cassette company”

“ Can I talk to the manager of this company”,

“ There is no manager here, you can talk to the owner”,

“ Where is the office”,

“ It’s in the next section of this building, but why do you want to meet 
him”,

“ I want to know about cassette industry, how artistes come to know of 
these companies, how recording is done etc.”,

Finally,I arrived at Max office but it didn’t appear to be an office, it 
was a very constricted room with three partitions being carved out of 
it, ‘recording on, silence please’ read one door, other’s remaining 
anonymous.

“ Who are you” peon made his presence felt.

“ Can I talk to the owner of Max cassettes”,

“ Are you an artist”,

“ No, I am doing research on cassettes and Max is one of the oldest 
company producing Haryanavi music cassettes”,

“ But, it is not Max, it is Sonotek and Maina cassette company”,

“ But, it’s written as Max studio outside”,

“ I don’t know that, it is Maina and Sonotek/ /company”,

“ Can you tell me where is the owner of this office”,

“ He is at shop in Lajpat Rai Market to final the deal”,

“ Are you an artist” asks a young man as he enters office,

“ You talk to him, he will tell you everything, he is son of the owner 
of the shop” peon withdrew from the conversation.

“ Hello, I am doing research on Haryanavi music cassettes, and since Max 
is one of the oldest company, I want to know as how it was started, what 
were the initial problems in establishing a company and what are the 
changes that this industry is witnessing now”,

“ Research! What kind of research is this, it is business and how can we 
tell all this”,

“ Oh! Let me explain you everything, I am an M.Phil. student and this is 
a part of my research project, I will write all these things and submit 
it, it is not for any business purpose”.

Just mere mentioning of word ‘research’ had brought so much of 
skepticism in his mind,

I expected him to ask me to make a move, but, he continued,

“ even my uncle has done M.Phil., nowadays he is working in Parliament”.

His acquaintance with research studies brought normalcy to the 
situation, also considering the fact that both of are in our early 20’s, 
we were able to gel together easily which I think would have been 
impossible in case I had met his father first.

“ I have a Max cassette dating back to 1988 of Haryanavi music and it ia 
from there that I got this address”, I continued,

“ But, we own Maina and Sonotek not Max”,

“ Outside it is written as Max studio”,

“ Yes, it is Max studio not any office, all the cassette companies have 
offices in Lajpat Rai Market which are their shops as well, we too have 
our shop there. It is a studio, here recording, dubbing, mastering and 
post production processes are handled. Max too has its office in Lajpat 
Rai Market”,

“ Is there any other company which produces Haryanavi music cassettes”,

“ There are many, like Jagdish, Sonotone, Supertone. Where are you from”?

“ I am from Delhi, Model Town, and you”,

“ Originally we are from Haryana, Dadri district, we have a shop 
opposite to New Bus Stand”

“ Can I meet Mr. Hansraj” asks one visitor.

“ He is at shop, any specific purpose” asked young man in early 20’s,

“ I have an appointment with him to final the deal”,

“ O.k., have a seat”.

“ When did you shift to Delhi and to this place” I continued.

“ We shifted to Delhi permanently in the year 2000 and purchased this 
studio”,

“ But Max cassette are still available with new packing in the market”, 
I intervened.

“ Yes, but they are releasing older prints only, they are not recording 
any new numbers or titles. They are more active in blank cassettes 
business but the profit margin is very less there, they might even close 
on that activity as well, and focus on distribution only”,

“ But it was their studio, they were in much better position to release 
new titles”,

“ Yes, but they had huge losses in some of their prints because of which 
they relied more on older prints but we gave new titles that too on new 
music. Do you understand Haryanavi”,

“ Yes, my parentage is from Haryana, my parents help me a lot in 
understanding the language. When did you enter cassette industry”

“ My father is in this line for around 25 years, Maina company was 
launched in 1984”,

“ Where did you record your earlier titles”,

“ Here, in this studio only, we used to hire, other companies also hired 
this studio”,

“ How much did you pay for this studio when you bought it”,

“ Never ask such questions so directly” intervened the visitor, “ see, I 
am in marketing line for more than a decade, now I can tell from a 
person’s face as to how to get the information. You should have asked , 
can you tell me how much do I need to spend to own a studio say five 
year’s back and now. You need to be careful in asking business related 
questions”.
...to be continued.