Shruti Sadolikar-Katkar is a blue-blooded representative of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana. She was initiated into music by her father Wamanrao Sadolikar who was a disciple of the legendary Ustad Alladiya Khan, the founder of the gharana, and his son Ustad Bhoorji Khan. She also learnt from Gulubhai Jasdanwala, another disciple of Alladiya Khan, for over 12 years. A recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, she is also the Vice-Chancellor of Bhatkhande Music Institute, Lucknow, that enjoys the status of a deemed university. One got the opportunity to listen to her last week at the VSK Baithak at WWF Auditorium.
Over the years, VSK Baithaks have become the public face of the personal passion of industrialist Vinod Kapur who is utterly in love with Hindustani classical music and has emerged in the past two decades as a worthy patron. One wishes others of his means too follow suit and revive the bygone era when talented musicians did not have to bother about earning a livelihood and could devote themselves entirely to the pursuit of excellence in music as there were patrons to take care of their worldly needs.
Shruti began her recital with a hoary raga Gauri, a rather surprising choice because this is not considered to be a big enough raga to occupy the pride of place in a concert. She sang a bada khayal “Rajan aaye more dere”. An extant recording of the same bandish sung by the one and only Kesarbai Kerkar is also available and one was constantly reminded of that while listening to this raga that has many hues and about which the only thing that can be said with some certainty is that it has all shuddh swaras except Rishabh and Dhaivat that are komal, and that the mandra Nishad plays a pivotal role in its elaboration. She sang a drut composition “Da dilda padve” too in the same raga. Although her voice was as strong as ever, the verve and élan were somehow missing and occasionally her notes were also slipping. She stuck to the Jaipur-Atrauli style of doing badhat through aakaar taans while remaining glued to the laya and offered a competent rendering of the rather difficult raga. However, she could not soar above the level of competence.
Her rendering of a madhya laya Jhap tala composition in Bihagda, a variant of Bihag with a dash of Khamaj, “Aaj ko din shubh din” was certainly much better and after this she went on becoming better and better, impressing the listeners with her forceful taans and complex layakari. In Bihagda, her voice rose like an arrow and by the time she began to sing Kaunsi Kanhda, a hybrid of Malkauns and Darbari, she was unstoppable. She also sang a lilting Khamaj thumri “Jab se Shyam sidhare”. On the whole, it was a very satisfying experience. She was accompanied by Mangesh Mulay on tabla, Anand Joshi on harmonium and Vinod Mishra on sarangi.
Earlier in the week, one heard a sitar recital by Delhi gharana exponent Saeed Zafar Khan under the aegis of the HCL Concert Series at India Habitat Centre. He began with the common raga Yaman Kalyan and concluded with a dhun in Mishra Pilu. Accompanied by Rashid on tabla, he played alap-jod-jhala and followed it up with slow and medium-fast gats. While the entry into the jod sequence was a bit jerky, certain sections were pleasing to the ear although the fast gat-toda sequences had a few shrieking moments. The tendency a la Vilayat Khan to produce a meend that leaves an elongated echo is catching up fast, and Saeed Zafar too took recourse to this utterly unnecessary gimmick several times. One has heard him play much better than this.
