REPORTS

Making Music - In search of talent

Meena Banerjee is amazed by what the young generation of classical musicians has to offer

The Statesman
Saturday, April 17, 2010

Gen-next
Two youngsters from ITC Sangeet Research Academy’s stable ensured their listeners at Vivekananda Hall that the Gen-next, despite all the distracting allure of fast moving modern life, is devoted to the onerous task of fostering classical music. Vocalist Sandip Bhattacharya commenced the evening, organised by the Institute of Culture, with Puria Kalyan. This disciple of Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan of Kirana Gharana has always displayed a natural sense of proportion that deftly balances the meditative style of the extra-slow badhat and super-fast taans. Maturing as a musician with each performance, he knows when to throw in heartrending pukars and when to strike with thundering dexterity. This recital was another such rewarding experience though he was restricted to the sthayi of the inevitable ‘Aaj so bana’ with ‘sobana’ as its main stake and another oft-heard drut khayal. Some rare gems from the treasure of his ‘Bandish-Nawaz’ Ustad could have added new dimension to this rather over-beaten track. However, a Surdas bhajan based on raga Vachaspati proved that the young vocalist is a good composer as well.

While Sandip had celebrated veterans Samar Saha and Jyoti Goho as support on the tabla and harmonium respectively, sitar player Supratik Sengupta, a disciple of the late Ajay Sinha Roy and Pandit Buddhadev Dasgupta, was paired with another SRA-based budding musician Pran Gopal Bando-padhyay. The latter is following the footsteps of his tabla maestro father-guru Pandit Ananda Gopal Bandopadhyay. With the exuberance of youth together they enjoyed the thrill of improvisations within the given canvas of raga Bihag’s melody and teental’s rhythm in slow to fast tempo.

Gem cutting process
What does SRA do to produce such committed musicians? Why other colleges or universities of music are not able to chisel performers of this standard? To find an answer the gem-cutting process needs to be witnessed. The opportunity arrived when the director of ITC SRA invited me to sit through a day-long session of the Gradation Tests of their scholars that enlists established performing artistes like Arshad Ali Khan. “And why not? He is still very young and needs guidance to relentlessly polish his art,” explained Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty, the resident guru and member of the academy’s Expert Committee, to Pandit Mohanlal Misra ~ one of the external examiners; the other being Vidushi Lalith Rao from Bangalore. One also gathered that according to a recently implemented rule these youngsters are allowed to stay on as scholars of the academy till 30 years of age. Afterwards they depart with the grades awarded to them during these Gradation Tests.

The tests are actually full-fledged recitals with intimidating distinction. The audience consisted of veteran musicians and fellow students, all SRA members, who assembled in academy’s auditorium with a purpose on hand ~ to observe complete dissection of the recitals by celebrated musicians and gurus like Buddhadev Dasgupta, Manilal Nag, Arun Bhaduri, Ulhas Kashalkar, Falguni Mitra, Mashkoor Ali Khan and several others! From the examinee scholars’ list of ragas the experts picked up any raga of their choice and not of the performers’. The Time Scale Theory was kept aside to accommodate all possible ragas. As a result morning’s Lalit and Bhairav jostled with evening’s Yaman and Shri or midnight’s Darbari Kanada.

In answer to the volley of questions a senior scholar sang taans in Darbari and Adana simultaneously while another was asked to cast a teental bandish into rupak’s mould and sing another composition swapping ragas in quick succession. During the process one gathered that with raga Durga’s Dha as Sa emerges Malkauns and Pahadi’s notes are similar to Durga. A younger scholar was guided to change the ‘sam’ from shuddh ni to komal re of a Shri bandish to feel the difference and also to try to learn the different gait of ragas sporting almost similar notes. Another experienced scholar was advised to bring more pathos and poise by toning down verve and show of skill. From the strikingly different voice-throw of these young vocalists emanated the aroma of different gharana’s voice culture. But there was an unmistakable similarity in the way their khayals progressed and from this format “the bol-baant of Agra is missing,” observed Lalith Rao. The SRA-brand khayal goes through stringent tests no doubt!