Just six days after he celebrated his 83rd birthday on November 17th, Ustad Imrat Khan, the second son of legendary Ustad Enayat Khan of the Imdadkhani gharana passed away yeasterday after a stroke at his home in St. Louis in the US. The “second” son tag haunted the Ustad all his life; being the younger brother of Ustad Vilayat Khan. It resulted in his never achieving more than being the second son. Easily the finest surbahar player of his time, Ustad Imrat Khan was equally adept at sitar and was acknowledged as being extremely “tayyar” and “riyaazi” with very fine hands. Supremely confident of his music, he collaborated with several musicians in performing racy jugalbandis including with vocalist Ustad Ghulam Mustafa Khan.
Of course, his immortal jugalbandis with Ustad Vilayat Khan in several all time great albums including “A Night at the Taj” will remain as yardsticks of excellence for generations to come. The subtle collaboration, the non intrusive embellishments are remarkable examples of two musicians with one soul. Despite being groomed by him, (as their father passed away when Imrat Khan was only 3), he collaborated musically with his brother as an equal, mastering the more difficult instrument, the surbahar, and presenting it as expertly as his brother did with the sitar. Indeed it would be difficult to find another example of such balanced execution. “The Night at the Taj” uses the visual imagery of Emperor Shah Jahan on the masculine surbahar consorting with his beloved Mumtaz Mahal, Ustad Vilayat Khan’s sitar, who tantalisingly leads her lover into unchartered terrain. Set in raga Chandani Kedar, the album proved without doubt the superlative excellence of both players.
Ustad Imrat Khan was also a fine composer; in addition to several unusual “gats” in comparatively lesser played ragas like Kalawati, the Ustad also composed and played in films such as Satyajit Ray’s Jalsaghar , (with Ustad Vilayat Khan) Ismail Merchant’s The Guru , Ralph Nelson’s The Wilby Conspiracy and Ahmad A. Jamal’s Majdhar .
It is interesting to note he never deviated from a strictly classical format; for him, music had only one “shakal” and that was what he presented with great élan.
Generous teacher
Imrat Khan
A very fine patient teacher and guru, Ustad Imrat Khan generously shared his gharana’s unique music techniques with several students. The systematic presentation of a raga, following each technique sequentially with what should follow is an art that Ustad Imrat Khan was careful about; today’s instrumentalists haphazardly present “gamaks”, and an array of random “taans”, without logic. He set up the music department at the Dartington College of Arts in England as early as 1968, and thereafter was associated with all the top Universities worldwide including Stockholm, Berlin, California, Washington, Harvard.
Khan was born in Calcutta; incidentally, the road where they lived is called Ustad Inayat Khan Avenue. His father settled there after being court musician at Gouripur (now in Bangladesh), Ustad Imrat Khan is remembered with great fondness there. Several Calcutta born musicians including sarodiyas Pt Narendra nath Dhar, and Pt Biswajit Roy Chowdhury recalled his good nature and fondness for jokes. He wore his fame lightly and never showed off his talent.
The younger generation of sitariyas including his gharana’s exponent Anupama Bhagwat, Maihar gharana’s Purbayan Chatterji and Rampur Senia gharana’s Shahana Bannerji expressed their regret at his passing away.
For Anupama, “his distinctive tone, and his unique punctuations in improvisations while playing ‘taans’ or ‘todas’” was something which she was always fascinated by. “His warm personality would show though his music. I am privileged that my taalim of the Imdadkhani gharana has given me insights of understanding the amazing work of the maestro.”
For Purbayan Chatterji, “Ustad Imrat Khan sahib was certainly one of the milestones of sitar, his “50 fingers” concerts with his sons was novel, and much loved.” Shahana Banerji admired “arguably the last Khalifa of the gharana, someone who maintained the pure “baaj”, whose “gamaks were spectacular.” Calling him a giant, she sorrowed at the loss for Indian classical music.
Too little too late
Though greatly honoured abroad, the Ustad never found due appreciation in India – though he was honoured by the Sangeet Natak Akademi in 1988, he was offered the Padma Shri last year which he obviously had to decline, as it was too little too late. Sadly 2018 has seen the deaths of three spectacular instrumentalists – Pt Budhadev Dasgupta, Vidushi Annapurna Devi and now Ustad Imrat Khan.
Ustad Imrat Khan has also left his huge legacy through his five musician sons. Eldest Nishat, today one of the finest sitar players of his time, divides his time between US, Europe and Delhi; Irshad who has inherited his father’s mastery of the surbahar has an additional base in Canada, sarodiya Wajahat Khan is UK based, and tabla playing Shafatullah Khan lives in the US. The youngest Azmat was being trained by his father in music.
