Vocalist Debapriya Adhikary and sitarist Samanwaya Sarkar have carved out a niche for themselves as very sensitive classical jugalbandi (duet) performers. They have performed at several prestigious venues in India and abroad and are popularly known as inseparable DevSam. But they have shot to fame recently as musical documentary filmmakers. ‘Musical’ because the film depicts a fascinating melodious journey of their Guruma Dr. Girija Devi. The DVD, titled “Girija A Lifetime In Music”, was premiered in Mumbai’s NCPA on the occasion of her birthday and was also shown in Kolkata recently.
In a country where, unlike Western civilization, very little has been done to preserve the history of its classical arts, DevSam’s effort is commendable.
Since time immemorial Indians remained engrossed in formulating a sanskriti (culture) which grew up in the lap of nature. The word sanskriti indicates “a continuous process of sacraments (sanskaaras)”. The process of evolution, aware of its sanskaaras, kept coming back to its roots before finding a new vista; like the refrain of a bandish during the badhat of a raga. This process knew why it followed a certain path and what its ultimate goal was. History or archival collections, therefore, had very little significance. Unfortunately, the strong alien influences have diluted this precious process to such an extent now, that most of the artistes are not even aware of their art’s basics – leave alone their rich philosophy and their far reaching effects on human body and psyche. Even the legendary artistes’ contribution gets negated. Under the circumstances historical references and archives help trace back the roots.
DevSam have done just that! Having been groomed under several stalwarts their approach towards classical music has many perspectives. Debapriya was initiated to singing by his mother; subsequently was groomed by Samaresh Chowdhury and Vijay Kichlu. Samanwaya was introduced to sitar by Sashanka Bandopadhyay. Later he learnt under Shyamal Chatterjee and Manilal Nag (for 12 long years). Both came under the spell of Kumar Prasad Mukherji, an erudite musicologist and both continue to learn from Padmabhushan Girija Devi.
Samanwaya is the only sitarist to have won this privilege that opened up a new vista of vocalism in the field of instrumentalism and Debapriya’s early childhood in Bihar helped him to catch the intrinsic Ganga-Jamuni culture of the Hindi heartland, the birthplace of Hindustani classical music. This clicked! With wide-eyed wonder they literally drank as much as possible from the ocean named Appaji (as Girija-ji is called by her near and dear ones) and the revelation inspired them to preserve it for posterity.
Loaded with unknown or lesser known facts about the life of the living legend, ‘Girija’ actually opens a window that offers glimpses of the entire musical, mystic culture. An informal chat with DevSam brought out many more interesting particulars about the making process of the DVD with Girijaji as their muse.
“Appaji always opens up in an informal environment and those are precious moments. We, therefore, tried to keep the shooting as informal as possible. Once Appaji was sitting with her long silvery tresses left open (which she normally never does in public), and allowed us to capture the moment. The recreated scenes of her childhood days were done under her supervision and that revealed how keen her observation is regarding the most minute details, be it cookery, washing clothes, offering garlands or making music,” says Samanwaya.
“We learnt a lot about our own Guruma’s musical background while interviewing Pandit Ravi Shankarji, Kishori Amonkarji, Zakir Hussainji, Rajan-Sajanji and several other eminent musicians. We realised how each star-artiste adores the other! The most surprising thing that happened was our gandabandhan ceremony in camera. As you know this initiation ceremony cannot be pre-planned. When the shishya is destined, the guru decides to accept him as one of the gharana. Appaji gave the verdict one afternoon while in Banaras. We rushed to complete the formalities and the ceremony was completed. Our team recorded it all and Appaji approved of it being included in the film only to let the world know about this beautiful, mystic, spiritual ritual that binds the guru and the shishya,” he adds.
