Stringing cultures together
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While sitarist Ravindra Chari does remind one of his guru, Ustad Shahid Parvez, there is also the unmistakable self in his style, observes SARVAMANGALA C.S.
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Ravindra Chari describes himself as being in the bouddhik phase of music learning.
EYES CLOSED, listening to Ravindra Chari's Yaman, I was amazed: his sitar-playing carried every trait of the great guru Shahid Parvez. The thumping clarity, the subtle and quick meends in all their fluidity, the lightning shifts and the leisurely delving on the life-giving notes, a certain celebration in playing, I was awe-struck by his accomplishment — not just his playing skills but the creative quality of his music which ensured the musical presence of his guru.
A simultaneous realisation occurred that here was music that was not creative imitation alone; it had a certain liberating quality to it.
Further along the artist's journey `shaped by himself with newly learned art' to quote Wordsworth, what showed up gradually was his groping for something beyond, bringing all his technical brilliance into play. It was precisely this inner search for the unrealised that lent a heightening quality to his music, I felt. Talking to Ravindra, the next day about his approach to sitar-playing, my impression was endorsed further when he described himself as being in the bouddhik phase of music learning.
Creative engagement
The late Pandit Prabhakar Chari, a renowned tabla artist from Goa, instilled in his son Ravindra, a keen interest for music by initiating him into tabla, harmonium, and the sitar. His marked potential for the sitar was duly channelised right from his early childhood years.
A long creative engagement with the sitar for two decades has brought great ease and dexterity to Ravindra's playing. Tutelage under great masters such as Ustad Abdul Karim Khan , Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffar Khan and Ustad Shahid Parvez, what more could an ardent student of sitar aspire for? Interacting with Ravindra, one gets the feeling that just as there are great performers, there are great learners too.
He only reiterated the common conviction of all music learners that there was no alternative to rigorous practice of the basics. Coming as it did from him, the altruistic statement was all the more convincing. Ravindra traced three phases in music learning: the daihik, the bouddhik and the athmic, largely characterised by an engagement with the technique, the intellect and the soul of music. He identified himself as journeying through the second phase.
He observed how in the course of being nurtured by several great gurus, the shift in the learning process was not all that difficult since the basic techniques remained the same more or less. It is only the approach that differs, be it a raga or the complex operation of multiple faculties simultaneously at work, the nature of a raga, its purity and inbuilt laya. The intimate relationship between a musician and a raga and the amazing quality of one holding the other is a darshana. Here was Ravindra pointing out how a raga occupies him for days together and how, in order to make it a part of himself, one should linger in one or the other of its multi-elements, establishing a sakhya with it - like a poet lets his words and metaphors take hold of his imagination.
How does it feel, I was curious to know, to learn under an acclaimed name like Ustad Shahid Parvez? He is all praise for his guru who gives all of himself to his students. Unlike gurus who are travelling all the time or those who have no time for students amidst their performances, he considered himself fortunate to be nurtured by a great sitar maestro who is committed to teaching. Ravindra also mentioned his recent learning sessions with Pandit Dinkar Kaikini who has been interacting with him about the intricacies of ragas.
Other flights
About his association with rock band and whether such fusion would affect the purity of classical music, Ravindra feels that being part of a rock band has become a trendy activity and an artist can contribute one's own music to fit into a readymade frame. But fusion music need not be just this. It needs to be perceived as a genre, which can be both a fulfilling engagement and a task-demanding activity.
His performances with noted exponents such as Pandit Suresh Talwalkar, Kishori Amonkar and mridanga master Umayalapuram Shivaraman, his accompaniment on the sitar for Encounter of Two Musics with the Gradiva Ensemble, and other such projects have enriched his musical experience, he feels. Participation in a joint Norwegian project with violinist Annbjorg Lien, keyboard artist Bjorn Ole Rasch and Trilok Gurtu, the Montreux Jazz festival in Switzerland, and several concerts in India and abroad including performances at prestigious venues like the Royal Festival Hall, London, University of Massachusetts, USA, have been the high points of his musical career.
His extensive travelling and all the accolade it has brought him have left him unaffected on his journey along the path of musical excellence continues in all humility and earnestness. Well-rooted in his rich classical tradition, his collaboration with artists from varied cultures has widened his approach, lending an innovative dimension to his music. Several albums such as The Glimpse, Broken Rhythm, Beat of Love and African Fantasy have been fruitful exercises in this direction.
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