A stunningly beautiful flute-playing Shyam seemed to greet all inside the auditorium of South Kolkata’s Chinmaya Mission recently. Perhaps, inspired by the ambience of the venue, sarod wizard Prattyush Banerjee chose to interpret raga Shyam Kalyan as the opening piece of his solo concert. Sur Shravan organised this sit-in to pay tributes to the late sarod maestro Buddhadev Dasgupta through the music of his worthy disciple who is highly esteemed in the classical world for his in-depth knowledge of raga music .
For some reasons, Shyam Kalyan is very popular, especially with instrumentalists. Knowing Prattyush, one was expecting to get treated with an off-beat or rare raga. One, therefore, was not much excited; but within seconds the delicate meends, linking the meandering flow of the raga, indicated that the treatment is going to be very different. And sure enough, in a slower than usual tempo of the alaap, the sensitive sarodia smoothened all the sharp bends very lovingly, making the raga sing out with hauntingly beautiful phrases revealing Kalyan anga as opposed to the oft-repeated Kamod-like features. The jod segment displayed lovely chords and interesting mukaams having bolkari-based passages stringed with differently designed note-patterns. This ponderous journey from soft meends to vociferous bolkari crossed over to jhala after a definitive mohra, the musical seal.
Very fond of tala cycles having beats of uneven numbers, Prattyush chose Chartal ki sawari (11 beats) for slow gatkari followed by a drut Teental composition. While the first had its sam on Rishabh, the second one showed a different angle of the raga with its sam on Pancham that glided down from Nishad. Superbly supported by tabla virtuoso Parimal Chakraborty, the gatkaris showcased some excellent rhythmic patterns, repartees and dialogues between sarod and tabla. At times, sarod straddled both the roles of percussion and string instruments with amazing dexterity. The superfast jhala only added to the duo’s skill-show, as expected.
Bihagda, the second choice of Banerjee, sprang the much awaited surprise; because this favourite raga of vocalists belonging to Jaipur gharana is rarely heard on instruments. The emotion charged passages very prudently highlighted the presence of the komal Nishad with its poignant intrinsic pathos. Within the auchar, the intelligent insertion of a beautiful Tagorean oeuvre ‘Chirosakha hey, chhedo na (O my eternal friend, do not leave)’ seemed to beckon his guru, and with good reasons.
It was Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta who had showed Prattyush the path leading to Tagore, the amazing creator, who saw every raga from his own viewpoint and gave it a unique angle in his compositions, popularly accepted as Rabindra Sangeet. Tagore’s perspectives often eluded the musician of musicians; but inspired Dasgupta to compose new gat-bandishes, highlighting their new angles. Prattyush followed suit; in fact, he went a step forward and very successfully collaborated with several eminent Rabindra Sangeet exponents – juxtaposing the gat-bandishes on his sarod with original Tagore songs sung by them.
The medium paced Teental gat played by Prattyush was his own composition which established the komal Nishad in a unique evocative manner – as suggested by ‘Chirosakha hey’. This was a little different from the traditional Jaipur style. Through this he, apparently, offered his deepest reverence to his mentor who opened a new vista for his gifted disciple’s creative music.
Sur Shravan, under the guidance of veteran musician couple, tabla exponent Sunil Banerjee and vocalist Bharati Nanavati, has been trying to revive the olden and commendable style of presenting one-musician concert per baithak, essentially for musicians and music students. The presence of initiated listeners including several veteran artistes during this event spoke high of both, the organisation and their artiste select
