The 4th edition of HCL Mega Concerts presenting Ud. Shujat Khan, Vidushi Shubha Mudgal, Ud. Rashid Khan, Purbayan Chatterjee, Rakesh Chaurasia and Kaushiki Chakrovarty in live concerts across Delhi NCR were the talk of the town last week. The inaugural concert at the Shiv Nadar School in Noida had an interesting twist to it. Here Kaushiki Chakravorty opened with pure classical, gradually the guitar, synthesiser and percussion added a contemporary fusion effect and finally the Manganiyars from Rajasthan joined her and the whole ensemble reached the inaugural concert to its unique crescendo, raising audience on their feet with deafening applause.
Welcoming the music lovers on behalf of her fellow artistes Ojas Adhiya on tabla and Farookh Latif on sarangi, Kaushiki said, “I am here again to experiment and explore the possibilities that only the traditional Indian music can offer.”
Experimental Dadra
A pure classical start with raga Hamsadhwani with just a sarangi and tabla for accompaniment, even though just a Chhota Khayal, created the right mood for the opening of the Mega Concert and also strengthened her wings to take off like a free bird.
The electronic tanpura, with intermittent waves of Swarmandal tuned to the swaras of the chosen raga, was inaudible in the beginning, hence the sarangi sounded a little strayed away from her tonic, but the feedback speakers must have warned her about the problem and it was mended at once.
Her melodious alaap sketched the outline of the raga in short, swift and sure statements, before she started the popular bandish “Laagi lagan…”, embossed with ‘Amar’, the pseudonym of Ud. Aman Ali Khan of Bhendibazar gharana. Kaushiki did the proper aalap-barhat and proceeded to the sargam and aakar taans of varied patterns reciprocated by Latif Khan and Ojas Adhia, who in fact played hide and seek with her dodging offbeat rhythm.
After establishing her credentials as a classical vocalist, she went ahead to offer the contemporary flavour of fusion music with what she called an ‘experimental’ Dadra. Though it was a traditional Dadra in Pahadi “Sajanwa kab aaoge…”, but the guitar and synthesiser roaming all over the scale of Pahadi, offered the instant charm of ‘newness’ to the ears accustomed to listening to it with sarangi or harmonium.
It was not that sarangi was not there, but the prominence of these unconventional non-Indian instruments, that too played by some of the superb exponents like Sanjoy Roy on acoustic guitar; added their own magic to the well rendered Dadra assisted even by Ojas on other percussions including octapad to kanjira along with tabla.
Kaushiki explained about taking this kind of liberty and justified the reason she took to enhance the music to suit the tastes of all kinds of audiences she was catering to “It is, no doubt, a traditional Dadra that I learnt from my father and Guru Pt. Ajoy Chakravarty, and I have been singing it the traditional way for all these years; but when I pondered over the challenge of the day to please all sorts of listeners; I realised it lends itself very well to any way I want to explore with it, giving it a different personality, texture or design. I experimented with it and it worked wonderfully well. And this ensemble continued throughout the presentation this evening too.”
There was yet another first when she offered to present a ghazal for the audience, confessing “some of my most favourite singers belong to this genre but I have never tried to sing a ghazal in public, let me dare trying it today. You must have heard “Woh jo hum mein tum mein qarar tha….” by some of the most renowned and legendary names, but I’m going to sing for you its lesser heard version that is sung by one of my most favourite voices Madhu Rani ji!”
Her very first alaap followed by the piercing strains of sarangi, filled with the pathos of raga Todi reached the Taar Saptak and then descended reverting back on the notes of the raga, as if looking back again and again, reminiscing about the good old days spent together, expressed by poet Momin. The ghazal, composed in Rupak tala, evoked the emotions of the poet not just by her thoughtful use of sarangi, but also the guitar etc for the ‘bharaav’, filling the gaps intelligently. Although the use on the unnecessary sargamas, made one feel that she is enjoying the raga more than the sahitya, which is important in the rendering of a genre like ghazal.
The concert reached its climax with the Manganiyars joining her along with their musical instruments like kamaicha, sarangi, dholak, khadtal, and the two vocalists, Devu Khan and Bhutte Khan.
Emotional connect
Kaushiki was thrilled to admit, “I feel short of words to describe how overwhelming were these two days spent in rehearsals with these hugely talented musicians from Rajasthan. I really admire and respect their deep commitment to music and the colour they bring to the musical scenario of India.”
The Manganyars had no problem to compliment Kaushiki’s Kajri in Mishra Desh with the Gangaur song in the same raga of her Pahadi Dadra “Rangi sari gulabi…” with an equally lilting folk song covering the same emotional, musical and rhythmic range with effortless ease.
They concluded together on the Nirgun note of Kabir and Bulle Shah where all of them simply enjoyed themselves and their sheer joy mirrored many folds in the exhilaration of the audience.
