Two-day Swar Samrat festival was dedicated to a legend

The 100th year birth anniversary of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan is being celebrated worldwide. In Delhi earlier this week, a two-day festival focused entirely on the younger generation. It opened to a wonderful start with the 26-year-old Gandhar Deshpande, in his first ever classical concert in Delhi. Disciple of Pt. Ram Deshpande, Gandhar’s singing style is an amalgamation of styles, interestingly presented with his own novel musical thoughts. At one stage, he used an instrumentalists technique – singing a few notes of the ‘mukhra’, then improvising, then repeating the base tune. This created a wonderful sense of recall, to draw in his audience most effectively. In addition, he presented unusual Ragas, which he shared after the concert, is a strategy he intends to follow. He said “everyone sings the same common Ragas; I prefer to take the challenge of singing ragas that are become rare.”

Starting with the Jaipur Attrauli gharana favourite ‘jod raga;’ Raga Lalita Gauri, Gandhar arrested one from the inception with his confident handling. His sense of proportion in concert presentation would put many a veteran to shame; one would literally time when he would move on, musically speaking. The perfection of his voice in the high notes was admirable.

The second Raga was one not heard by this writer, Raga Deepak Kedara, though Gandhar shared it used to be sung in Maharashtra till the 1950s or so. Interestingly, Gandhar felt the usage of the name Deepak did not refer to the Raga; as prevalent Raga Deepak as its known in some areas has a different note structure, which his Raga Deepak Kedara did not encompass. However, in a more ancient tradition, Raga Deepak has the notes of Kalyan, and was one of the 6 main Ragas from which all other Ragas developed, so Gandhar’s Deepak Kedara could well have been an old joining of these two Ragas. (incidentally, Raga Deepak was made extinct deliberately by the ustads of the time, around mid 19th century, as its effect was said to be maleficent.) Definitely a singer to watch out for, Gandhar was expertly accompanied on the tabla by Mumbai based young Ishan Ghosh, and Delhi’s Dr Vinay Mishra on harmonium.

Kaushik Mukherjee on the sarod, plays in the lineage of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan; he is a disciple of Pt Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar. His Raga Jhinjhoti was complete; in turn reposeful, ‘laya’ driven, with flashes of ‘bolkaari” (stroke work). One hopes to hear more of this worthy musician; he has an unusual feel for music. He was accompanied wonderfully on the tabla by Debjit Patitundi, able disciple of late Pt Subhankar Bannerji.

Yashwant Vaishnav.
| Photo Credit: Subhadeep Dey

On the second day, the wonderkid of tabla, Punjab gharana’s 28 year old Yashwant Vaishnav’s tabla solo stole the show. Accompanied on the harmonium by Nilay Salve, Yashwant’s presentation in ‘teen taal’ was simply breathtaking for his clarity of strokes and precision. Perhaps a tad over prolonged, at more than an hour, the young maestro deservedly received a spontaneous standing ovation. One admired the diverse repertoire he played, including compositions from masters of Farrukhabad, (Ustad Amir Hussain Khan) Lucknow, (Ustad Wajid Hussain) Ajjrara (Ustad Habibudin Khan) in addition of course to his own gharana – Guru Pt Yogesh Samsi, Pt Sushil Kumar Jain, Ustad Alla Rakha, and Ustad Zakir Hussain.

The Mohan Brothers, sitarist Lakshya and sarodist Aayush played the seasonal Raga Mian Ki Malhar, followed by Raga Manjh Khamach. Always interesting to hear a ‘jugalbandi’, the duo were perfectly in sync musically. They were accompanied by the very intuitive tabla ‘sangat’ of Ishan Ghosh, who also himself plays the sitar.

Arshad Ali Khan.
| Photo Credit: Subhadeep Dey

Kirana gharana’s Ustad Arshad Ali Khan is now Kolkata based, but was originally from Delhi. Creating a wonderful ‘maahaul’, he sang the seasonal Raga Megh, sombre, deliberate and majestic. In his ‘drut ek taal bandish’, he astounded his audience with his profusion of clearly enunciated fast ‘taans’, including one which he impressively executed in both octaves. His Tilak Kamod was a delight, true blue, Raga wise. The concluding Raga Gaur Malhar featured an unusual composition where the restless, tormented ‘tappa’ style portion of the ‘antara’ used appropriate lyrics ‘jiya ghabaraaye’ most effectively. Ustad Murad Ali Khan accompanied him beautifully on the sarangi, Debjit on the tabla. Truly this concert was a fitting finale to a wonderful festival.