A soulful something
JITENDRA PRATAP
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Two young artistes were technically impeccable, but then...
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MORE THAN MERE PRACTICE Sarod artiste Sur Ranjan Mukherjee and (below) vocalist Mallika Bannerjee
There has to be something much more in an artist's performance than only the basic fulfilment of the technical aspects, such as the performer's vocal or instrumental tunefulness, total awareness towards the rhythm and an authentic exposition of the ragas to be rendered. It is that `something much more' that reveals the musical genius of an artist who could be considered as `par excellence'. These thoughts came to mind after listening to a vocal recital by Delhi's Mallika Bannerjee and a sarod recital by Lucknow's Sur Ranjan Mukherjee at a musical evening presented by Impresario India in collaboration with the India Habitat Centre.
Mallika Bannerjee had earlier given a much better display of her musical capabilities than her somewhat lackadaisical performance on this occasion. One understands that of late she has not been keeping too well. However, it is rather important, even for musicians, to be physically fit - like sport persons - before venturing to appear on the concert platform.
Mallika's preference to open her recital in the colourful and highly romantic melody of the raga Bihag was indeed a most appropriate choice. The well-known Shah Sadarang composition set to the vilambit Ek tala ("Kaise sukh soven") was handled with a plethora of well-knit taans preceded by a methodical deployment of alap-badhat-behelawa, all of which indicated her sound grooming, earlier by her mother Parul Bannerjee, and later on under the able guidance of Krishna Bisht, a leading exponent of the Dilli gharana and the Dean of the Faculty of Music and Arts, Delhi University. This part of Mallika's recital would have gone well had the singer been able to deploy her vocal forte more effectively, particularly in the upper octave.
The madhya Teen tala piece that followed ("Tadapat beeti sagari ratiyaan") was indeed a rarely heard piece of music that Mallika embellished with appropriate variations in taan-paltas.
The thumri in raga Khamaj ("Laagilee mori una sang") and the concluding Meera bhajan ("Mayeeri main to leeno Govind mol") came as befitting finale to her recital of the evening.
Hectic arrangements
The sarodist from Lucknow, Sur Ranjan Mukherjee, gave the impression that he had just landed at the concert venue after having gone through a hectic journey to Delhi. He would have done well by getting the necessary logistics for his recital fixed up while being present in the green room. Looking for the lead for his electronic tanpura besides the wooden tanpura and a player for strumming it, all of this at the last moment was not very desirable though.
Although one would not consider Sur Ranjan's sarod recital as monotonous, yet it was certainly a `mono-toned' performance, since the tonal flavour of his handling of the sarod was uniformly the same all through his renderings in ragas Malkauns and Bhairavi at the end. His plucking of the strings and the sweeping glides were uniformly toned all through his renderings. Some variance in tonal flavour would certainly have added further charm to his otherwise impeccable renderings.
The alap-jor followed by a Masitkhani gat and two fast and super-fast gat-todas were released with much aplomb. He displayed an excellent command over the rhythm with lively variations in his super-fast renderings. The dadra in the morning's Bhairavi, though brief, was rendered with colourful variations.
While Soumitra Paul on the tabla provided commendable accompaniment to both the artists of the evening, his solo variations with the sarodist were indeed scintillating. Excellent support on the harmonium by Vinay Mishra added much charm to Mallika's vocal recital.
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
