The “Guru Purnima Utsav-2016”, dedicated to Ustad Vilayat Khan, the unparalleled icon of the illustrious Etawah Imdadkhani gharana, was held at the Rajarshi Shahu Sabhagruha of Shivaji University Kolhapur this past week with great enthusiasm.
It was a rare sight to witnesses a dedicated Guru like Pandit Arvind Parikh listening to the recitals of each and every student, taking notes on three consecutive days sitting long hours on end, to correct them later during his teaching sessions. He has been taking these sessions for decades on a regular basis without charging any fees. He is very particular that students treat the instrument with reverence and tune it properly before opening their concert. He takes note of the weak area in their performance like the ‘Meend’ or ‘Firat’. My purpose, he says, is to take note of their weakest points, so that I know exactly which are the areas to work upon.
Pandit Arvind Parikh is not happy with the present trend of classical music going on the wrong track of excitement, showmanship and the populist approach. The speedy expression has become more important than the content these days, he reiterates, whereas the “tariqa” or the way of express is just the means whereby to conveys the “bawat” or the real content. He is a staunch believer in the Gharana tradition of the Guru Shishya Parampara, which he thinks is nothing else but specialisation. The old style of teaching had meaning and purpose behind every rule. ‘Palta’ for example, is practised not only to master the technique. “Palta haath ya gala taiyar karne ke liye hi nahin hota,” he said. After long hours of regular “riyaz” or practice there comes a time when your mind can wander and the subconscious starts working. This bifurcation of mind enables the conscious mind to create music and the subconscious to execute it.
From 70 of Pandit Parikh’s’ students from India and 20 from abroad, 30 were selected to perform on sitar, violin, sarangi, shehnai and vocal music. The two-day festival opened with a melodious rendition of raga ahir bhairav on the auspicious shehnai by Janab Hasan Haidar, son of the famous shehnai maestro late Ustad Ali Haidar Khan from Kolkata According to the hour of the day, ragas were assigned to students to perform. Varadaraje Bhosle, for instance, played raga Goojari Todi on sitar and Harpreet Singh gave an impressive vocal recital of raga Bairagi. Ashwin Dalvi played a sombre aalap, jod, jhala aalap, jod, jhala in raga shuddha sarang on surbahar, with the depth this rare instrument deserves and demands, and Purvi Parikh gave a vocal recital of raga Shuddha Kalyan. It was a delight to listen to vocal and instrumental concerts of students coming from different professional backgrounds and varied seniority offering their best as a tribute to their Guru on Guru Purnima. The festival culminated with a unique jugalbandi of shehnai by Hasan Haidar and sitar by Ramprapanna Bhattacharya, that brought alive the memory of the immortal Bhairavi played together by Ustad Bismillah Khan and Ustad Vilayat Khan.
Pandit Parikh himself offered the most meaningful tribute to his revered Ustad with an enlightening power point presentation on the “Musical Journey of Ustad Vilayat Khan”, as a gratitude for the training he received from him over a period of 60 years from 1944 to 2004 . He talked about the conviction of the great maestro destined to leave a unique mark on the musical world, which set him on the path of passionate absorption of the tradition, unrelenting innovation and change in his instrument for his vocalised style.
