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Rendezvous with rhapsody : Jugalbandi and Natya-Sangeet in Kolkata

Meena Banerjee
11 April 2008

ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata, presented its scholars at Navonmesh, a two-day soiree recently. One of the stars of the soiree was Arshad Ali Khan. He had announced his arrival at Pune’s revered music conference Sawai Gandharva when he was barely six, and was hailed as a ‘Little Ustad’!

This disciple of Ustads Mashkoor Ali and Mubarak Ali Khan, in his early 20s now, is considered the true blue torchbearer of the Kirana gharana. Another disciple of the Khans, Sandeep Bhattacharya, too, caught the attention of connoisseurs with his melodious voice and virtuosity. Together, Arshad and Sandeep sang raga Bihag. The preliminary peaceful raga-delineation, the composition set to medium paced Jhap tala of 10 beats adorned with imaginative embellishments and an ornate, fast Ek tala bandish with thrilling taans were extremely well-coordinated. Veteran accompanists Jyoti Goho (harmonium) and Gopal Misra (tabla) were very encouraging.

Marked as the day of jugalbandi,the evening closed with a sitar-cello duet in raga Jog, presented by the renowned musician-couple Subhendra Rao and Saskia Rao de Haas, with Samar Saha’s supportive tabla. Earlier, Abhay Phagde’s flute and Milind Raikar’s violin were engaged in a jugalbandi, aided by Vinod Lele’s tabla. They adhered to Khayal ang based playing.

The second evening at Birla Sabhagar was dedicated to women of substance. Chitrangana Agle Reshwal, probably the only lady pakhawaj virtuoso, and Kamala Shankar, the first lady guitarist in classical music with her ‘Shankar Guitar’, delighted the listeners as the opening and the final solo artistes of the soiree. But the seasonal Basant, etched by Sucheta Ganguli and Manali Bose in a duet, was too striking to go unnoticed. The sharing of the beautiful, romantic compositions and inventive flourishes showcased the perfect understanding between the two talented SRA scholars groomed by Pandit Arun Bhaduri.

Marathi Natya-Sangeet

Kolkata’s culture aficionados were transported to the golden era of Marathi Natya-Sangeet (the theatre music of Maharashtra) when Pune’s Nad-Brahma troupe performed in the city recently. It was led by Ravindra Ghangurde. Actively supported by his versatile actor-singer wife Vandana and an equally zealous team, Ghangurde is striving to revive this dying art, further gagged now by film music and the all-consuming television. They presented dazzling glimpses of olden melodic grandeur replete with costumes and props at Uttam Mancha.

The ambience

Accompanied by organ and tabla played by Kedar Bhagwat and Sanjay Phagare respectively, the regional expression of musical idioms leaned heavily on Hindustani classical music. The rich tone of the lone organ, a rare instrument now, created the desired ambiance.

Most of the songs were accompanied by dialogues. Both the raga-based complex compositions and the emotion-charged dialogues were delivered deftly, especially by Vandana. The effortless ease of picking up a taan-laden song at the drop of a hat was amazing!

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