Echoing a special bond

Veteran musicians gave a glimpse of their lineage and proficiency at the recent Swami Haridas Tansen Sangeet-Nritya Mahotsav in New Delhi.

January 12, 2017 10:20 pm | Updated 10:20 pm IST

MELLIFLUOUS MUSIC Pandit Chhannu Lal Mishra

MELLIFLUOUS MUSIC Pandit Chhannu Lal Mishra

The spacious Shankar Lal Hall at New Delhi’s Modern School was stuffed more than its capacity with thousands of music lovers attending Swami Haridas Tansen Sangeet-Nritya Mahotsav this past week. – “Who says there are no takers of classical music?” exclaimed an overwhelmed Uma Sharma, eminent Kathak danseuse, who started this festival in order to revive people’s interest in our traditional arts, especially rekindling love for our classical music in the younger generation.

The four-day festival, organised by Uma Sharma’s Bharatiya Sangeet Sadan in association with the HCL Concerts, commemorated the esteemed guru shishya parampara of our traditional arts showcasing some of the gems chiselled out under this invaluable tradition. If Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia was there to echo the resonance of Vidushi Annapurna Devi, Ustad Aashish Khan was there to represent the lineage of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan. Similarly, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Amaan Ali Khan reminded one of Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, while Ustad Shujaat Khan had the flavour of Ustad Vilayat Khan. Similarly, Shubha Mudgal glittered in the glory of her illustrious Gurus.

Likewise if Kathak of Vidushi Uma Sharma had glimpses of Pandit Sundar Prasad and Pandit Shambhu Maharaj, Pandit Chhannu Lal Mishra represented the lineage of Benaras Gharana, Vidushi Ashwini Bhide –the Jaipur-Atrauli Gharana – Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt – the Maihar Gharana – and Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar had a melodious synthesis of the nuances of Gwalior, Jaipur and Agra Gayaki. In fact, the name of the festival itself, linked with Swami Haridas (the Guru) and Tansen (the disciple) underlined the importance of our age old tradition for transmitting the arts, on one-to-one basis, through the guru shishya parampara.

Vidushi Ashwini Bhide

Vidushi Ashwini Bhide

Umaji deliberated in detail the need and importance of being aware of our traditional heritage before the festival was inaugurated by cricketing hero Kapil Dev. Vidushi Ashwini Bhide remembered Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffer Khan – who had passed away a day earlier, and also Ustad Bade Fateh Ali Khan from Pakistan – with her melodious Maru Bihag. The traditional bada khayal “Rasiya ho na ja…” dealt the raga in great detail, before she sang the chhota khayal “tum na jao Piya…”, her own composition set to a difficult time cycle of 9 and 1/2 beats adorned with rhythmic variations of the Mukhda, she caught with a melodic flourish. Ably accompanied by Paromita Mukherjee on harmonium and Pavan on tabla she concluded her riveting recital with a composition in raga Jansammodini.

The sarod recital of Amaan Ali Khan came next, with the dynamic tabla accompaniment of Sukhwinder Singh Namdhari ‘Pinki’. Amaan Ali concluded with a melodious Charukeshi but his instrument kept troubling him throughout his main raga, despite his repeated efforts to tune it properly. The entertaining quality of Pandit Chhanu Lal Mishra’s vocal recital reached the inaugural evening to its climax. Opening his lecture-demonstration sort of recital with raga Shyam Kalyan, he presented a bada khayal set to Madhya Vilambit Ektala and the chhota khayal in Teentala explaining the step by step details of his khayal presentation, before he offered a variety of Trivat, Chaturang, Sargam-Geet to Thumri and Dadra where he invited Umaji to dance along showing the Bhava on “More man mein baso oho Balma…” and “Tore naina ki laagi Katar Sajni….” It was enhanced by the tabla by his gifted son Ram Kumar Mishra. He was a hit, creating an instant rapport with the audience, as usual.

Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar gave a memorable vocal concert next evening with a vilambit jhoomra and medium tempo Teentala Khayal and a Tarana composition in raga Chhayanat. The rare raga Paraj made an appealing contrast after the main raga. Pandit Suresh Talwalkar on tabla, Vinay Mishra on harmonium and Dr. Ojesh Pratap Singh provided him admirable vocal support. Aashish Khan’s sarod recital was another attraction of this evening. One heard raga Shyam Kalyan again on the Mohan Veena of Vishwa Mohan Bhatt who gelled well with the Manganiyar artistes of Rajasthan.

Maru Bihag was also repeated this evening by Shubha Mudgal, but with a difference. The vilambit Khayal “Pat rakhiye…” set to Rupak and ‘Man le gayo Sanvara..”, the chhota khayal in Teentala both were marked with a reposeful treatment of the raga. The Dadra composed by Anish Pradhan in raga Manjh Khamaj and the concluding Jhoola composed by Shubha herself were superb, with the added emotive touches of harmonium by Sudhir Nayak and the scintillating laggi on tabla by Anish Pradhan. Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia concluded the evening with his fascinating flute recital.

The concluding evening had sitar recital by Ustad Shujaat Khan and sarod recital by Amjad Ali Khan. It was the third offering of raga Shyam Kalyan, this time on sitar. The unbearable decibel level of the mike and the overdose of the same raga could not bring the desired effect. Shujaat Khan cajoled his listeners with the Kabir and Amir Khusro couplets. Arunangshu Chaudhari and Amjad Khan took turn to support him on tabla.

Amjad Ali Khan with Tanmoy Bose and Sanju Sahay on either side on tabla, took the festival to its climax. Opening with a lighter piece based on Gaud Sarang followed by a composition set to drut Ektal, he first created the positive atmosphere for his contemplative mood. Then came ‘Atal Ranjani’, a raga he created for Atal Bihari Vajpayee, wishing him good health and a long life.

The main raga Malkauns came thereafter with all its glory, prefaced by detailed Aalap-Jod-Jhala and compositions in Jhap-tala followed by Amir Khusro’s Tarana in the same time cycle of ten beats but a fascinating gait and a Drut Gat on Teentala culminating into jet speed Jhala. Both the tabla players were provided with an opportunity to show their skills in a jugalbandi before Khan Saheb concluded with Tagore’s “Ekla chalo re…”

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.