Jnana Pravaha Centre for Cultural Studies and Research, Varanasi and Naad-Saagar Archives and Documentation Society for South Asian Music, Delhi have been co-hosting the ‘Mehfil’ series of classical music concerts, in association with the India International Centre (IIC) since 2012. A total of 20 such mehfils have been held so far. Irfan Zuberi from Naad-Saagar has been meticulously curating all the soirées in consultation with the invited artists with regard to the repertoire of the performance. Their latest Mehfil featured Bharathi Prathap, a young musician from the Khayal tradition of Agra gharana, at the IIC auditorium.
Agra gharana may have absorbed attractive features of other gharanas, yet its own inherent characteristics are sustained till date was quite obvious during the recital of Bharathi Prathap, a superb representative of this gharana from the younger generation of musicians.
Watching her comfort level with this gayaki, it was difficult to believe that Bharati started with Carnatic music in her childhood and later moved to Hindustani music. She was trained under Pt. Marutrao Inamdar and Pt. Rama Rao Naik before she came under the tutelage of Lalith J. Rao, herself a senior disciple of Ud. Khadim Hussain Khan. Bharathi has been groomed under Rao for last 15 years. She gave up her career as an electronic engineer in HMT, to take up music as her main pursuit. She was conferred with the title ‘Ganashree’ as a recipient of the prestigious Sri Puttaraj Gavai Puraskar-2017 by the Gana Gandharva kala Trust, Gadag Karnataka. Bharathi is also trained in Bhavageethe and Vachanagayan under Late H. K. Narayana, but this evening she was invited as a khayal vocalist.
By virtue of her sustained talim , Bharathi has a vast repertoire of the Agra Atrauli Gharana. She chose to present raga Khem-Kalyan, a rare variety of Kalyan, Meera Bai ki Malhar, a lesser heard variant of Malhars and a few select compositions of her Dada-Guru (her Guru’s Guru) Ud. Khadim Hussain Khan. She also added a few melodious surprises on the spot, while performing.
Opening with the auchar (introductory alaap) of Khem-Kalyan, her very first sur-lagaav and the tonal quality of her well-groomed voice, spoke of a perfect transmission with the tightly trained focus on pitch. The bada khayal, “Piharwa maika hi deho batay…..” set to Vilambit Ek-tala etched the contours of the rare raga during alaap barhat and the bol alaap. Bharathi showed effortless ease in wandering from mandra to taar pancham elaborating the delicate nuances of the raga with parallel swar-sangati in all the three octaves creating a lovely design. After the riveting rendition of sthayi and antara, came the flourishes of sargam, akaar and bol taans, reflecting in the melodious harmonium of Vinay Mishra. The chhota khayal, “Sab sakhiyan mil karen singar….”, a composition of Ud Khadim Hussain Khan in Teentala gave Shailendra Mishra also an opportunity to show his prowess on tabla, and his very first uthaan compensated the long wait.
The melodious surprise treat, apart from the printed menu, came with the typical ‘nom-tom’ alaap of Dhrupad style this gharana is known for. In Barwa, a favourite raga of the gharana, where the meend-laden alaap elaborating the raga in sequential progression of swaras, she gradually accelerated from slow to medium and fast tempo, like the alaap-jod and jhala of Been ang, for more than 20 minutes, without percussion support, where her ‘Humphit Gamak’ from madhya to taar shadja touched the heart of the mesmerised audience, who would join the ‘nyasa’ of every phrase with an irresistible applause. .
Sun of music
This culminated into the popular bandish, “Baje mori payaliya…”, immortalised by its famous composer ‘Prem-Piya’, Ud. Faiyaz Khan, bringing back memory of the one and only ‘Aftab-e-Mausiqi’, the sun of music. Bharathi followed it with yet another composition in the same raga, “Aayo sawan maas…” with the mudra of ‘Sajan-Piya’, Ud. Khadim Hussain Khan, adorning it with cascading awarohi (descending) taans. It was followed by Meera-Malhar, also known as Meera Bai ki Malhar, where both Komal and Shuddha Gandhaar were used despite the prominence of Kanhada ang. The composition “Jhoom aayi…” was set to Jhaptaal of ten-beat cycle.
Sonorous surprise
The concluding raga was again a sonorous surprise. Bharathi introduced the raga with the story behind its creation. On every Guru Purnima Ud. Khadim Hussain Khan used to create and sing a new raga. Once he sang just the sthayi (first half) of the composition and didn’t even name the raga. His learned disciple Lalith Rao composed the antara, the second half of the composition and named the raga after her guru as ‘Sajan-Sohini’. One could notice the shades of Lalit-Pancham also in this raga. Bharathi rendered the lovely composition in addha theka of Teental and followed it with a scintillating tarana in raga Sohini, that reached the concert to its climax. As promised, the ‘mehfil’ emerged as a memorable one for the connoisseurs of khayal gayaki, especially of the Agra-Atrauli Gharana!
