Been there, done that!
JITENDRA PRATAP
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As many as one hundred snake charmers enthralled the audience at New Delhi's Central Park the other day with a bouquet of compositions.
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PHOTO: AFP
THE CHARM THAT'S BEEN Snake charmers performing at the Hundred Charmers festival in New Delhi.
The Central Park in New Delhi's Connaught Place witnessed an unprecedented gathering of men, women and children recently to attend a `been' recital, Hundred Charmers. The snake charmers seem to be an unhappy lot now, with the Government order forbidding them from keeping snakes in captivity for public performances and thereby earning a living. However, this has come as a boon for the snake charmers to develop their been as a wind instrument to give good music rather than to merely make their snakes dance.
Choreographed entry
Their entry into the performing area from different directions in several groups, walking single file, playing their instruments with tunefulness in unison at the Central Park was indeed very well choreographed and presented a colourful sight.Equally pleasing was their well-disciplined line-up with most of them in a semi-circle around the performing arena and the rest in front.
Their repertoire for the evening was a mixed bag of ragas, folk music and a couple of Scottish melodies. Their rendering in ragas Brindavan Sarang and the Carnatic Saraswati was immaculate and authentic as well. The snake charmers were indeed happy for being twice invited to the Edinburgh Music Festival, at which they were showered with accolades for their performances in Indian classical and folk music and a few Scottish airs, to the utmost delight of the local audience. They were pleased to be well paid by the organisers of the festival too.
Song from "Sapera"
The most pleasing rendering of the evening by the snake charmer ensemble was the musical sequence from the 1950s film "Sapera".
This particular piece of music, based on the song "Man Doley, Mera Tan Doley", was composed by none other than the late shehnai wizard Ustad Bismillah Khan. It was interesting to observe a total absence of shehnai nuances in it, while the snake charmer's been was effectively made use of. The ensemble provided a colourful finale to their performance with a folk tune from the Brij region where a fully veiled woman danced to the music and was soon joined by several men folk.
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