A few days ago, singers across the country were aflutter at a rumour that the company that manufactures Kushal Kanthil, an ayurvedic cough lozenge, was going out of business.
“I can’t survive without it, it’s like a wonder drug,” exclaimed Shibani Kashyap, a Bollywood playback singer, when she heard the news. She immediately began to make plans to buy a large stock from her regular chemist in Delhi.
Kushal Kanthil, manufactured since 1979, is a well-known secret among singers. Packaged in tiny blue-and-white five gram bottles, the cough lozenges are a constant companion for musicians, who fear that a sudden throat irritation could ruin a performance. Kanthil is so popular, a half-serious cult with elaborate rituals has evolved around it.
Fortunately, Kushal Ayurvedic Pharmacy, the Vadodara-based company that manufactures Kanthil, is doing very well and has no intentions to stop producing the product. Ashish Thakkur, the manager of Kushal Ayurvedic Pharmacy, seemed perplexed at the furore. “I know it is a good product that has been well-received for 30 years, but it really speaks for itself,” he said. “We intend to continue manufacturing it.”
Why, he added, would anyone want to write about it?
The rumour originated when regular users began to worry that local ayurvedic shops were running out of stocks of the lozenges. “As an individual user, I find it difficult to source from Delhi,” said amateur singer Vidya Shivadas, who lives in the capital. “I generally order Kanthil from Mumbai or Pune. I observed to a friend that this was becoming increasingly difficult, although this is just based on my experience, not on fact.”
There are few other comparable market substitutes, ayurvedic or otherwise, that could replace Kanthil for people whose professions and passions depend on the health of their throats. But Kanthil is more than just a lozenge.
“I have been using Kanthil for years,” said Shibani Kashyap. “I don’t have chewing gum, supari, chocolate – anything else, in fact. Kanthil is my only vice. It is so many things at once. It is a mouth freshener, it’s therapeutic, it soothes my throat, it’s medicinal…”
The lozenges are a distinctive combination of naturally pungent spices such as cloves and licorice, tempered with honey, mint and camphor. The bottle, added Shivadas, is so well known that connoisseurs can recognise the sound it makes when a singer taps out a few pills during a concert.
Singer Neela Bhagwat has been using Kushal Kanthil for almost 30 years. “I usually have two or three bottles of Kanthil always at hand so I am never out of stock,” she said. She waxes eloquent on the merits of Kanthil. “As you start chewing it, you salivate better so it helps you sing. I sometimes use it when I need to remove phlegm.”
She uses Kanthil so regularly that it permeates her non-performing life as well. “When I have nothing else to do or I am in a kind of vacant mood, I absent-mindedly start chewing on it. It is something like a pepper mint – but it’s much better.”
Her husband, Amarendra Dhaneshwar, a journalist and Hindustani vocalist, is also an avid user. He has developed a very specific ritual for it. “I always keep a Kanthil bottle and some cloves in my left-hand pocket whenever I perform,” he said. “And even if I forget a bottle at home, I can be sure to find it wherever I travel. Other singers might be reluctant to discuss such confidential details, but I am not.”
Amritha Murali, a Carnatic vocalist from Chennai, was introduced to the lozenge ten years ago by friends in Hyderabad. “They worked very well for me, but I only began to use it regularly two years later when my mother found it at an ayurvedic pharmacy nearby,” she said.
Murali says she always has one bottle in her shruti box and another in her purse. “I had to make a conscious decision to only use it when absolutely necessary,” she said. “I used to use it all the time before concerts. Now I don't feel the need to use it as frequently because I travel less and my throat does not get sore as often.”
“People use it for all sorts of things,” she added. “It can be used to relieve smokers’ coughs, as a breath freshener. On several occasions, it has even saved me from travel sickness!”
The original formula for Kushal Kanthil was devised by Ashish Thakkur’s father. “He is an ayurvedic doctor so he knew what correct proportions to use,” said Thakkur junior. “We have not had to change it even once since we first started selling it.”
While Thakkur was aware that the pills were used by singers, he says the company makes no special effort to market it to them. “It is what it is,” he said. “I am glad that so many customers are satisfied.”
He is also diffident about its reach. Distributors sell Kanthil in bulk to places as far-flung as Tanzania and the US. Bottles are available for as much as $4 or around Rs 250 on the online retailer Amazon.com, while a regular chemist in India might stock it for just Rs 32 per bottle.
“If people sell it abroad, that is good,” said Thakkur. “We don’t do this directly.” He was more concerned about the perceived lack of availability in India. “Where in Mumbai do you not get it?” he asked. “I will give you the numbers of my distributors.”
The music industry, it's clear, will heave a collective sigh of relief.
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