A triumphant triad
MEENA BANERJEE
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Music A look at three young sitar exponents in Kolkata.
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Stylish Kushal Nag
Of late three young sitar exponents proved with their performances that Kolkata can be proud of producing a generation of musicians with as much depth as style. Deepshankar Bhattacharya gave two superb recitals recently – a solo (presented by t
he East Zone Cultural Centre) and a duet (hosted by Madhyami) with his father-guru Pandit Harashankar Bhattacharya, the one and only Kolkata-based sitar exponent of Jaffarkhani baaj. In this style, devised by Ustad Abdul Halim Jaffar Khan, the conventional mono structure of notes is replaced by multiple notes played with one stroke of the mizrab. Simultaneous use of the nayaki (main) string, along with one or two strings demands more work from the left hand and produces harmonic melod
y. The ornate use of each beat is encrusted with embellishments technically known as krintan, murki, lehek, lad-guthao, zamzama and others. Used judiciously, these make the sitar ‘sing’, literally.
Mature beyond his years, the 21-year-old BCA student made the best of all these with élan. His melodious alap, rhythmic jod, deftly handled gatkari with various rhythmic patterns snugly fitting within the tala and taans, following the gait of the tala, exhibited his command over this rather complex style of sitar playing.
Little known gharana
Deepshankar Bhattacharya.
Mita Nag follows the footsteps of Kalyani Roy, disciple of Ustad Vilayat Khan, and Jaya Biswas, disciple of Pandit Ravi Shankar. In her solo recital, presented by Sangeet Piyasi in the wee hours of of one of its nightlong soirees, she showed great promise to go far in this male dominated arena.
She hails from the family of renowned sitar exponents belonging to the Vishnupur gharana. As Pandit Vijay Kichlu pointed out at a recent jugalbandi between Mita and her renowned father Pandit Manilal Nag, the Vishnupur gharana, essentially a school of Dhrupad, is fast disappearing.
The gharana boasts of legendary dhrupadiyas (Dhrupad exponents) like Jadu Bhatta and Satyakinkar Bandopadhyay among others. The late sitar maestro Gokul Nag, father of Manilal Nag, was an accomplished Dhrupad singer. Mita, a tireless member of the Gokul Nag Foundation, is striving hard to restore the Dhrupad-based tantrakari tradition of this school that inspired and influenced the style of Pandit Ravi Shankar in his formative years. The articulate, stylish musician is very confident of positive results.
Kushal Nag has carved a niche for himself and is fast emerging as musician of repute. Initiated into sitar playing by his father, he is an ardent admirer and follower of the inimitable style of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee. Das, like his mentor, cajoles his sitar to sing heavy and sombre ragas — Shuddh Kalyan, Megh and the like with superb sensitivity.
Intriguing technique
His innovative self came to the fore recently during the Malhar Utsav at Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture. After an introspective opening alap, leaning heavily on the gayaki anga, and inspired jod, he displayed an intriguing technique of jhala that brought an extremely delicate, fresh aural effect. While his left hand played on the main string (nayaki), the mizrab of the right hand relentlessly strummed the chikari strings only. According to Das, inspired by the technique of the usual aarati, this rarely heard ‘Aarati-jhala’ was envisaged by his dada-guru, the late Lakshman Bhattacharya.
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