In the early 1980s, I met Abhik Sarkar at the house of sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. Still in his early teens, he was passionate about learning sarod from the celebrated master of the instrument in the age-old guru-shishya tradition. On a few occasions when I went to meet Amjad Ali Khan, his learning session was in progress and I was a witness to the way the Ustad imparted knowledge and technique to his student. I lost touch with both soon after.
On Tuesday evening, I had a chance to listen to Abhik Sarkar’s sarod recital for the first time. The event was organised by Tarana Art and Music at India Habitat Centre’s Amaltas auditorium and was billed as Sur O Taal. It made me happy to see that the enthusiastic lad of yesteryears had matured into an artist in his own right. Abhik made a very good choice by opting for Bihag, an audav-sampoorna raga that omits rishabh and dhaivat in its ascending section but uses all the notes in the descending part. While it uses both the madhyams, the art of a performer lies in the way teevra madhyam is employed.
Abhik, ably accompanied on tabla by Pradeep Sarkar, played a short alap-jod-jhala sequence before offering two compositions – the slow one in a rhythmic cycle of nine beats and the faster one in Teen Taal of sixteen beats. The tone of his sarod was a little flat but the phrasing was clear and resonant. He played a soulful alap with utmost seriousness although one felt that at places he tended to display traces of sentimentalism. His effortless entry into jod and playing of an aesthetically appealing jhala were commendable as he eschewed the temptation of dazzling the audience by sheer speed.
His gats revealed his artistic approach. He tried to blend the two main schools of sarod playing and did not pay as much attention to the lyrical and the vocal aspect as his Ustad would. It was heartening to see that he had been able to evolve his own personal vision of his art. He may not be one of the top sarod players of the country, but he is certainly a competent exponent of his art.
However, it was a little intriguing to note that he had been described as a disciple of both Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan and his son Ustad Amjad Ali Khan. It’s somewhat difficult to believe because at the time of the senior Khan’s death in 1973, Abhik could not have been old enough to receive training from such a legend.
The evening opened with a violin-sitar jugalbandi by Darshan Singh Sur and Sidartha Siliceo. Darshan Singh Sur is a disciple of Joi Srivastava and Sharat Chandra Srivastava. Those of us who used to listen to All India Radio regularly were familiar with Joi Srivastava’s violin playing as he was a regular broadcaster. For a few years he had also learnt from Ustad Allauddin Khan, the founder of the Maihar gharana. Darshan Singh Sur’s way of playing violin reminded me of the Srivastava touch. Sidartha Siliceo, hailing from an Italian family, learnt from Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee as well as Pandit Ravi Shankar.
Sur and Siliceo chose Kirwani, a Carnatic raga that has become quite popular in the Hindustani music, for their jugalbandi recital. While Sur led the way, Siliceo’s playing could seldom rise beyond the level of practice session. After presenting a very short auchar-like alap, they played a vilambit and a drut composition. In the fast passages, Sur displayed some of his technical dexterity. One was not too happy with the intrusive use of pick-up microphone that has somehow gained wide acceptance over the years. Mani Bharadwaj from Jalandhar provided good tabla accompaniment.
