The birth centenary celebrations of Ustad Bismillah Khan being observed by the Government of India took a melodious start with Sur Benaras, a musical tribute to the legendary Ustad, who became synonymous with his inimitable shehnai. Eminent artists paid their musical homage to the late Ustad in the event organised jointly by the Ministry of Culture and Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) in Varanasi. The four-day music festival also saw a special presentation and documentation of wind instruments and the music and dance of Benaras gharana.
The century old historical venue Nagari Pracharak Mandali, established in the year 1902 at Kabir Chaura, the citadel of musicians, looked totally transformed with the imaginative touch of the SNA, beautifully decorated with marigold flowers and an attractive photo gallery that showcased the life journey of the late Ustad who had performed in this auditorium numerous times. Some of the rare photographs, brought back the nostalgic memory of the bygone era, where Ustad Bismillah Khan was standing along with his contemporary greats like Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, Ustad Nisar Hussain Khan, Ustad Mushtaq Hussain Khan, Kanthe Maharaj, Kishen Maharaj, Ustad Vilayat Khan, Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pt. Ravi Shankar, Pt. Jnan Prakash Ghosh, Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra and Karamatullah Khan.
The mesmerising shehnai by the SNA awardee Krishna Ram Chaudhary, who actually deserved to play solo, the Gujari Todi by Fateh Ali, the grandson of Ustad Bismillah Khan, the inaugural Madhuvanti by Jagdish Prakash and group, Madhukauns by Lokesh Anand and the Shuddha Sarang by the SNA’s Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar awardee young duo Sanjiv and Ashwini Shankar came as a convincing assurance for music lovers who were doubtful about the future of shehnai after Bismillah Khan.
The chaindari of Abdul Salam Naushad from Indore in his elaborate Aalap on Bageshri and the Pilu Dhun on clarinet, and the Sundari (smaller version of Shehnai) recitals by Bhimanna Jadhav from Solapur and the duo Pramod and Namrata Gaikwad from Pune also seemed to carry forward Khan Saheb’s legacy. Carnatic music had its tuneful flavour in the saxophone by Kadri Gopalnath, flute by V. Vijayagopal and Mala Chandrashekhar from Chennai and Nagaswaram by Thiruvia Jayashankar and G. Kodan Raman from Kerala.
Flute players comprised the largest segment from Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia, Nityanand Haldipur, Mohini Mohan Patnaik, Rajendra Prasanna, Rakesh Chaurasia, Rupak Kulkarni, Ajay Prasanna, Deepak Sharma to Hari Mohan Sharma. The festival focused mainly on wind instruments from both Hindustani and Carnatic streams. It featured a melodious sitar recital by Krishna Chakravarty, violin by Sukhdev Mishra and sarangi by Santosh Mishra. With both, morning and evening sessions, Sur Benaras, offered the relish of ragas of all time frames, from morning to afternoon and evening.
Music of Benaras Gharana had all the flavours and forms of vocal music from Dhrupad-Dhamar, Khayal, and Thumri, Dadra, Hori, Chaiti. The depth of Ritwik Sanyal’s elaborate Aalap preceding the unique Dhamar in Yaman and the verve of his Pushtimargi Pada in Kafi, the instant rapport of Pandit Chhannu Lal Mishra right from his Khayal to Thumri, Dadra and variety of Horis, the charming light classical offerings by Malini Awasthi and Soma Ghosh, the typical Bol-Banaav of Poorab-Ang Gaayaki in the Thumari-Dadra by Revati Sakalkar and Devashish De, and myriad colours of Holi by Mamta Sharma regaled the audience. Music was completed in its entirety i.e. vocal, instrumental and dance with the Kathak of Banaras Gharana by Nalini-Kamalini, Gaurav-Saurabh Mishra, Vishal Krishna and Jayanti Mala
