A canvas of melody
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Two father-son duos celebrated the season with monsoon ragas.
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ADEPT STROKES Pandit Debu Chaudhury and Prateek Chaudhury
A string of duet performances rained on New Delhi this week under the banner of UMAK Festival and Barkha Ritu, to celebrate the sparkle of the annual monsoon. While Pandit Debu Chaudhury and Prateek Chaudhury presented a sitar duet in raga Miyaan Malhaar, Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and Salil Bhattplayed a Mohan veena duet in raga Megh Malhaar at the Banyan Tree Event – Barkha Ritu at India Habitat Centre’s Stein auditorium this past week.
Duets in Hindustani music are gimmicks in most cases. Luckily, it was not so in both the cases. The musical compatibility and understanding needed between the two musicians for a duet was there because both pairs of guru-shishya were father and son as well, resulting in a mutual rappor.
UMAK Centre for Culture, named after Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan, presented the festival featuring a musical ensemble, sitar duet and a Kathak performance by Shovana Narayan and her troupe. The opening ensemble that comprised sitar, sarod, violin, guitar, vocal and two pairs of tabla, orchestrated two compositions of Pandit Debu Chaudhury in raga Desh, followed by a sawaal-jawaab sequence between the twin tabla players climaxing in the lovely vocal, used with great effect in the drut Ek tala bandish ‘biti jaat barakha ritu….’. It was really a well rehearsed item studded with harmonised phrases and rhythm-based patterns by the talented disciples of Pandit Chaudhury.
This gharana uses the 17 fret sitar and believes in the Dhrupad style austerity, totally devoid of the lighter embellishments like murki-funda, which came as a boon in disguise for the profound monsoon raga. The gradual and systematic unfolding of raga Miyaan ki Malhaar during the aalap-jod had an impressive spell in the lower pitch Mandra Saptak, mostly played by Pandit Chaudhury, with Prateek complimenting him in the middle or upper octaves. The Masitkhani gat in slow Teen tala was followed by a Madhya laya composition in drut Ek tala which conveniently switched over to Teen tala facilitating the crescendo of the fast jhaala.
There were a variety of gat todas and sparkling taan patterns adorning the compositions. Akram Khan’s brilliant tabla accompaniment added charm even though he did not get much opportunity to show his prowess. The only problem with this otherwise impressive sitar duet was its unbearable volume.
Technical virtuosity
The Barkha Ritu festival opened with a detailed aalap-jod-jhaala in raga Megh Malhaar, played at great length with the father-son duo Pandit Vishwa Mohan and Salil Bhatt on Mohan veena, before they proceeded to play the two compositions set to Vilambit (slow) and medium tempo teen tala showcasing their technical virtuosity with excessive use of soot-meend, gamak and the dramatic ‘tihayees’ where they would stand still on the ‘sam’, the final resting point of both melody and rhythm, for the anticipated applause. Pandit Vishva Mohan Bhatt also displayed the echo effect to depict, what he said was the sound of ‘Dadur mor papiha’ used in the lyrics of Barkha Ritu. The duet looked attractive where they responded each other in the complementing region of the melodic canvas.
The rest of the programme was a solo recital by Pandit Bhatt where he sang and played a popular bandish of Gaud Malhaar, another in Ramdasi Malhar, a Dadra ‘barsan lagi savan bundiyaan…’ in raga Pilu and the concluding Bandish in Bhairavi ‘kab aavoge…’ which he connected to Barakha Ritu, as sung by a Virahini naayika who is waiting for her beloved in the rainy season.
Ramkumar Mishra’s rhythmic rounds on tabla totally matched the flamboyance of the over-adorned Mohan veena recital.
MANJARI SINHA
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