For a scent of the soil
Jitendra Pratap
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These recitals reminded one of the pros and cons of artistes settling abroad.
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The husband-wife duo of Rajkumar and Chandrima Mishra is permanently based in London. One is not very sure if a permanent or prolonged sojourn in a foreign land is conducive to the development of one's artistic capabilities. It has often been observed that such circumstances do, to quite an extent, have an adverse effect on an individual's artistic capabilities, as has often been the case of some of our top-notch artistes who settled abroad almost on a permanent basis. However, some of our leading artistes, like sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and the late sitar legend, Ustad Vilayat Khan, to name just the two, did occasionally tour abroad but preferred to stay mostly in their home towns in India.
The adverse effect of a prolonged stay abroad was more noticeable in the case of Chandrima Mishra's Hindustani classical and semi-classical vocal recital, which distinctly indicated her lack of form and the desired vocal forte. There were indications of her good understanding of the ragas and an erudite approach in her rendering of khayals and thumris, which is not saying much for one having been trained by the late maestro of the Patiala gharana, Ustad Munawwar Ali Khan, the son and disciple of the legendary Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. She graduated in music from Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata.
Chandrima's choice to commence her recital in the dusk-time (sandhi-prakash) raga Puriya Dhanashree was indeed apt. The slow-tempo composition of Shah Sadarang, set to the 12-beat Ek tala, "Ab to rutamaan" was remarkable for her methodically developed and well embellished variations in alap-badhat, taans, sargams and the bole-taans all inserted with good artistic insight.
Equally pleasing was the Madhya Teen tala piece in the same raga. The concluding thumri in Mishra Khamaj did contain quite a few colourful sequences. A neat and warm tonal flavour would have added further charm to her recital, for which she had good accompaniment on the harmonium by Vinay Mishra and on the tabla by husband Rajkumar.
Solo tabla
The evening commenced with a solo tabla recital by Rajkumar Mishra with commendable lehra accompaniment on the sarangi by Delhi's Murad Ali. Rajkumar hails from an illustrious family of Kathak gurus of the Jaipur gharana.
He had the good fortune of first being trained by the gharana's doyen, his great-grandfather Pandit Chunilal, and later by his grandfather Pandit Jiyalal and father Pandit Ramgopal. He received further guidance from the late tabla maestro of Bengal, Pandit Jnan Prakash Ghosh, while his mother Sushmita Mishra, an acclaimed Kathak exponent, guided him in the subtle nuances of accompanying the dance recitals.
The ill effects of a prolonged sojourn in alien lands was less noticeable in the solo renderings of Rajkumar. Besides being a soloist he is also a sought after tabla accompanist and a Resident Teacher in the Arts Faculty of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in London. As such he is in constant touch with his instrument and its rhythmic contents. His well-developed exposition in slow Teen tala, gradually developed into a super-fast tempo, did attain a well-established edifice with leisurely deployed rhythmic sequences of thaat, peshkaar and qayedaas besides scores of intricately permuted parans and tihaais.
The rela-ang laggi-qayeda of the Banaras idiom was a delightful presentation towards the end, with scores of complex phrasings with 7/8 and 8/8 permutations. Last but not the least were his bold and at times subtle tapings and the padding over his well-tuned drums that added further charm to his lively performance of the evening.
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Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
