By the book
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Rashbehary Chakravorty displayed a deep involvement, despite a bookish approach.
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A disciple of Delhi's up-and-coming classical vocalist, Sarathi Chatterjee, he certainly has worked hard to be able to present himself on the classical platform.
The recent concert of Hindustani classical music at the India Habitat Centre by Rashbehary Chakravorty and his students opened with the singing of Saraswati vandana, a poem by the legendary Hindi poet, Suryakant Tripathi `Nirala' ("Var de, Veena Vadini, Var de") by Chakravorty's three male disciples.
It was a poor curtain raiser to his classical vocal recital that followed.
The trio's singing with feeble vocal forte and without any instrumental accompaniment failed to create the desired effect.
There was adequate indication of Chakravorty's deep involvement with the Hindustani classical idiom, the Khayal in particular. A disciple of Delhi's up-and-coming classical vocalist, Sarathi Chatterjee, he certainly has worked hard to be able to present himself on the classical platform.
Chakravorty commenced his recital of the evening with the dusk-time raga Puriya Kalyan. The slow tempo composition "Hovan Laagi Saanjh" set to Ek tala was adequately handled in its badhat-behelawa and taan-paltas.
His penchant for traversing into the middle and the upper octaves was quite evident. The Madhya Teen tala composition that followed ("Karat Hun Singar Sajani") was etched with colourful variations.Continuing his recital in ragas Hamsadhwani and Desh, each with two compositions set to Madhya Jhap tala and Teen tala, and rounding up with a bhajan in the morning-time Bhairavi, also in Jhap tala, seemed rather too many for a recital of an hour-and-a-half duration.
It seemed a rather bookish concept for a debutant.
One would like to suggest the vocalist perform on stage without bending his head down, and with his eyes shut. He must make an effort to communicate and establish a rapport with his audience. Frequent oscillations in his vocal mannerism could also be avoided.
A steady vocal forte and reposeful mannerisms would certainly add further charm to his singing.
He had commendable support by his accompanists, Sajjad Ahmed (harmonium), Kamal Ahmed (sarangi), and Pradip Chatterjee (tabla).
JITENDRA PRATAP
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
