Her music education began with classical vocals and the sitar, but in her early teens, Dr. Radhika Umdekar Budhkar began to focus on the vichitra veena. Today, she is recognised as the only female artiste to professionally play the rare instrument. Budhkar, who goes by the stage name Radhika Veena Sadhika, is one of the performers at Saz-e-Bahar, the annual instrumental music festival organised by the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA). The two-day line-up also includes tabla maestro Nayan Ghosh, sarangi exponent Kamal Sabri and esraj player Shubhayu Sen Majumdar. Each performance will be preceded by a talk by Dr. Suvarnalata Rao, who heads Indian music programming at NCPA.
Budhkar’s grandfather Balabhau Umdekar was a vocalist trained in the Gwalior gharana, and her father Shriram Umdekar has been playing and teaching the sitar, surbahar and rudra veena. “I began learning from him and had my first vocal mehfil when I was a child. After a few years of sitar, my father encouraged me to take up the vichitra veena, as not many people played that instrument. It became the main focus of my life,” says Budhkar.
Later, she began training under Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, known worldwide for his rendition of the Mohan veena, the Indian adaptation of the slide guitar. Says Budhkar, “There were two things that Bhattji taught me. One was how to get into the jod and jhala movements of a raga. The other was how to get the perfect sur and tone.” The vichitra veena is quite similar to the Carnatic chitra veena in that it is played in slide style. However, it almost became extinct till it was revived by Pandit Lalmani Misra. Later exponents included Gopal Krishan, Shri Krishan Sharma, Brahm Sarup Singh, Anurag Singh and Lalmani Misra’s son Gopal Shankar Misra.
Today, there are a few players in Pakistan, besides the Italian exponent Gianni Ricchizzi.
Budhkar says that in its original form, the instrument was pretty large and unwieldy to carry around. With the help of her father, she worked on a smaller version which needed a change in its dynamics. “Normally, many youngsters take to guitar, bansuri or sitar, or percussion instruments like the tabla. So our main effort began with creating awareness about the vichitra veena and even educating audiences about the structure of Indian classical music,” says Budhkar.
Besides performances and research, Budhkar spends time teaching, at the Veena Venu Art Foundation in Navi Mumbai. “The interest towards the vichitra veena has increased and we are continuously making efforts to expand [that] by looking at more innovations,” she says.
Radhika Veena Sadhika and Shubhayu Sen Majumdar will perform as part of Saz-e-Bahar, this evening at 6 p.m. at the Tata Experimental Theatre, NCPA, Nariman Point.
