The India Habitat Centre presented a Hindustani vocal recital by Ramneek Singh, a remarkable representative of Indore Gharana, at its Amaltas Hall this past Saturday. Ramneek is presently living in Canada and spreading the fragrance of Indian music by performing and teaching Hindustani classical music there.
Born and brought up in Delhi in a music loving family, Ramneek completed her Sangeet Visharad before coming under the tutelage of Guru Amarjeet Kaur, disciple of Pandit Amarnath and Ustad Ameer Khan, who groomed her voice for teaching Ramneek the nuances of this gayaki. No wonder, her greatest asset is her well-groomed tuneful voice that captures attention from her very first Swar-Lagaav.
With the best of ‘saath-sangat’, the accompanying artistes in Vinod Lele on tabla and Paromita Mukherjee on harmonium, Ramneek opened her vocal recital with melodious evening raga Yaman. The introductory ‘auchar’ created the atmosphere of the raga and she started the popular Bada Khayal “kajra kaise darun….” set to Ati Vilambit Ek-tala, typical of Ustad Ameer Khan’s style. The aalap-barhat, elaborating the raga reached Mandra Pancham and Gandhar, endorsing her reach in the lower octave. She gradually proceeded with Behlawa and further elaborations of the raga through Sargam. While her melodic aspect was perfect, the rhythmic counterpart during the rendition of the slow Bada Khayal, left a little to be desired; when she had to wait for a few seconds to reach the ‘Sam’ once in a while. The crystal clear Aakar and Sargam Taans vouched for her riyaz. The popular Chhota Khayal “aiso sundar sugharwa Balmwa…” in Teentala was followed by another medium tempo composition in the same Tala.
Ustad Amir Khan brought many Carnatic ragas into the folds of Hindustani music. Jansammodini was one such raga. He not only sang this raga in Hindustani style but also composed his own bandish in it. Ramneek chose this raga for her next presentation with a bandish composed by Ustad Ameer Khan “kaun jatan so main Piya ko manaun…”. She could have avoided making the statement that it is similar to ‘Malaya-Marutam’, because Malaya-Marutam is a different Carnatic raga that has Komal Rishabh, and Jansammodini is totally a different, although a Carnatic raga.
She then sang a teen-tala composition and a Rubaidaar tarana of Ustad Amir Khan in raga Darbari. The tarana, “Yaar mann bia-bia…” is such a popular composition of the late Ustad that every time she pronounced the second ‘bia’ differently, the connoisseurs could easily make out the change, which is not expected when you sing a bandish, even in the name of improvisation. Same was the case with Shobha Gurtu’s “Rangi sari gulabi chunariya re….” which Ramneek announced and presented as a Hori. It was certainly not a ‘Hori’ but a Dadra. Even Shobha Gurtu never referred it as a Hori, because ‘Hori’ is altogether a different genre than the ‘Dadra’.
Kabeer bhajan was composed appealingly by Ramneek herself in raga Bhupeshwari. The best was the concluding ‘Heer’, preceded with the famous Bhairavi Thumri “Babul mora…..” composed by Nawab Wajid Ali Shah announced as Emperor Wajid Ali Khan! Ramneek sang it without the tabla support, just like the Punjabi ‘Heer’ of Waris Shah, she had sung for Deepa Mehta’s ”Midnight’s Children”.
