To celebrate Pt. Vijay Kichlu’s 90th birthday, Sangeet Ashram, Kolkata, organised an online event. Kichlu, a renowned musician and musicologist, is the founder-director of Sangeet Research Academy. During his 25-year tenure at the academy, he trained several classical musicians of repute. After relinquishing the post in 2002, he founded Sangeet Ashram, an organisation that grooms listeners of classical music.
The event focused on Ustad Amir Khan – the path-breaking modernist and the founder of the Indore gharana.
The essence of his music was highlighted through a critical appreciation of some of his favourite compositions. Instead of playing Khansaheb’s popular records, the bandishes were rendered by Supriyo Dutta, a young and talented follower of Khansaheb.
Fine blend of styles
This was a daunting task, but the vocalist’s deft handling can be attributed to his training under Acharya Ramakrishna Basu (a disciple of Ustad Amir Khan), Pt. Vijay Kichlu and Subhra Guha. His rich voice conveyed a fine blend of the nuances of the Indore and Agra gharanas. He was brilliantly supported by Indranil Mullick (disciple of Pt. Swapan Chaudhuri) and Jyotirmoy Banerjee (disciple of Pt. Ajoy Chakrabarty).
Dutta commenced with ‘Baje niki ghunghariyan’ (Bilaskhani Todi). Despite the raga’s pathos-ridden character, Khansaheb would bring out the frivolous beauty of this composition with his taans; because this is apparently a love song. According to Sufi philosophy, the supreme being is an enchanting lover.
The next bandish, ‘Mana ke panchhi’ (Gurjari Todi) created an ambience of calm, a quality that defined Khansaheb’s music. Dutta next moved to a devotional bandish in raag Bairagi followed by a rare Khansaheb composition that features his pen name, ‘Sur rang’. Most of his compositions such as ‘Jinke mana raam biraje’ (Malkauns) do not carry this moniker and are sung by musicians across gharanas.
Despite being a traditionalist, Ustad Amir Khan did not hesitate to experiment. He incorporated minor changes in the lyrics of traditional bandish to suit his style and mood. To highlight this aspect, Dutta sang a Jog bandish, ‘Saajan more ghar aaye’. For the Agra gayaki’s bol-baant, the staccato-oriented ‘ata mana sukh paave’ suits best, but Khansaheb went on record with ‘jiyara at sukh pave’ because the word ‘jiyara’ suited his elaboration better. Apart from this sensitive approach to lyrics, he would interpret raags from a unique angle. One such example is raag Marwa. Traditionally an uttarang pradhan raag, Khansaheb’s persuasive style transformed it permanently into a poorvang-pradhan raag. He always mixed technique with emotion in such a way that a single raag could radiate different moods.
Interesting session
Dutta strived to showcase all these points while rendering slow and fast compositions in Marwa, Malkauns, Darbari, Miyan Malhar, Ramdasi Malhar, and Megh along with taranas. Khansaheb completely transformed taranas as he believed that ‘every syllable of a tarana is meaningful.’
The interesting session closed with a surprise item. Khansaheb sang only khayals on stage but as a playback singer in films, he had recorded a thumri and ghazal. The ghazal, Mirza Ghalib’s ‘Rahiye ab aisi jagah’, tuned by his prime disciple Pt. Amarnath, rendered at the concert made for a grand finale.
Since the event has been professionally videographed, the audio quality is appreciably good.
The writer is a Kolkata-based critic and musicologist.
