Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
Filled with a fine feel
MEENA BANERJEE
|
Sahana Banerjee of the Rampur Senia school impresses Kolkata audience with her melodic play of sitar strings.
|
The evening was dedicated to Ustad Mohammed Dabir Khan, the last descendant of Tansen, who had made Kolkata his home.
Pandit Santosh Banerjee and Sahana Banerjee shared the dais for different reasons on the final evening of a four-day-long soiree organised by Surchhandam in Kolkata this past week.
While the evening commenced with the felicitation of the guru for his life-long struggle to keep the age-old guru-shishya parampara alive, his daughter-disciple, a promising torchbearer of the Rampur Senia School, gave a brilliant sitar recital.
The evening was dedicated to the memory of Ustad Mohammed Dabir Khan, the last descendant of Tansen who had made Kolkata his home and under whose able wings Santosh Banerjee had learnt surbahar and sitar playing. Pandit Shyamal Chattopadhyay, another eminent disciple of the ustad, felicitated his guru-bhai with a lot of warmth and later offered his sitar recital as homage to their revered ustad.
Sahana commenced her recital with raga Yaman Kalyan.
Based on the total canvas of the raga, her alap-jod-jhala was a beautiful blend of poignantly romantic melody and neat ‘gayaki’ technique. The slow and fast Teen tala gatkaris, however, craved for an experienced tabla accompanist. Longish tihais created confusions more than once and the set pattern of alternate solo rounds of sitar and tabla brought monotony.
The concluding dhun in Mishra Pilu, set to dadra, was replete with superb, delicate touches of a delighting thumri.
Why veena?
Sahana’s virtuosity encouraged an obvious question: Despite having one of the most tuneful surbahar players as her guru what stopped her from learning and reviving such a majestic instrument that is on the verge of extinction?
“It is a long story,” explained her father-guru. “I was very fond of alap. My ustad, therefore, encouraged me to learn veena. Veena is one instrument which demands tremendous self-discipline. Traditionally, before handing over the art to the disciple, a scrutiny of his horoscope was necessary. When I suffered from lymphatic obstruction twice, I knew veena is not for me. My ustad, then, gave me surbahar.
The secret
“The main string, no. 6 in steel, is difficult to handle. The secret behind my distinctive ‘tuneful’ baaj lies in the fact that unlike many other eminent surbahar exponents, my gharana adheres to the pure ‘been anga’ that studiedly avoids finer and lighter embellishments like murki, kan, zamzama etc.
“As you know it is more difficult to be direct, simple and yet stunning. It takes almost 20-25 years to master the art of alap and taarparan.
The latter is more like the jod but we play it in the accompaniment of the pakhawaj.”
“In this era of fast life,” he continues, “it is cumbersome to travel with such a heavy instrument that cannot handle thrilling speed of taans and jhala.
The instrument costs a fortune because expert instrument makers are gone now. As the Head of the Department of Rabindra Bharati University’s instrument department, I also realised that students prefer fast rise to success.
All this contributed in the steady decline in surbahar’s status.”
Mother’s initiation
“Sahana,” he says, “was initiated to music by her vocalist mother and played the khayal gayaki anga with élan. I, therefore, encouraged her to learn sitar only.” The disarming simplicity of the master was as charming as his music.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
