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Kishori Amonkar has evolved out of her lineage of Jaipur Attrauli and accepted the emotional freedom

offered by the Jaipur gharana.

Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

Priceless as ever Kishori Amonkar performing at Nehru Park in New Delhi.

The soiree began with a Rudra veena recital by Ustad Bahauddin Khan, the twentieth generation representative of Dagar gharana, who has earned our respect for keeping such a sonorous saaz alive.

His choice of raga –Patdeep –is destined to make rare appearances at concerts mainly because of the raga’s ordained time – early evening. Now, most concerts offer scope for late evening and night ragas only.

One has heard of the golden days when maestros would render ragas from the Sarang familyor the late morning ragas like Deshkar or Bilawal. Is one to remain permanently deprived of such ragas?

Bahauddin’s father, late Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, had made some changes in the traditional design of the veenaand thus enhanced its resonance and tonal quality. Bahauddin’s ‘ragdari’ was mainly done on the traditional Dhrupadi style – a linear note by note progression.

But sometimes an ‘aochari’ style was also found that sounded rather nice.

The pakhawaj accompaniment by Sanjay Agle was sensitive and tunefulwith a good ‘jhala’ portion that improvised upon the na ge ge ge / di ge ge ge/ dha ge ge ge bols.

Padmavibhushan Kishori Amonkar began with a Khayal in raga Bhimpalashree, set to Teen taal. Both the raga and the taal is rare nowadays. As in keeping with the Jaipur Attrauli gharana, she set the tempo in the vilambit, or slowmode and not in the ati vilambit or ultra slow one.

It was a very comfortable ‘laya’ and the raga in all its majesty was slowly unravelled before the audience. There was a time when she was using the ni ga, re sa phrase, when this reviewer thought she was singing raga Bagesree Kanada. It was nothing but a perfect instance of abirbhav-tirobhav of one raga within another.

As the tar or high octave was approached, her ‘ragdari’ became more fluid and complex, quite inimitable in fact.

When one heard the subtle murkis as she touched a note with feather like yet precise touch (known as a kan), then one realised why the gap between a good artist and a great one would always remain unbridged.

Such pitch is not achieved from riyaz alone. It has to be a gift from the Almighty. The rendition was completed with another faster composition in Teen taal in the same raga.

The next item was a Teen taal madhyalaya composition in raga Suha, “Jhanak jhanak payal.” The raga has a limited scope, but is infused with greater emotional impact.

Here, Amonkar’s elusive and multi-dimensional prowess eked out the haunting quality of the composition. The diverse shades of the ragawere displayed to perfection.

Where Kishori Amonkar is concerned, purists have ceased to wonder what gharana to place her in.

The consensus is that she has evolved out of her lineage of Jaipur Attrauli (the gharana of her mother, the late Padmavibhushan Mogubai Kurdikar), and accepted the emotional freedom offered by the Jaipur gharana.

She gives more emphasis to explain the spiritual beauty of the ragas, their rasas and bhavas than the mere accuracy of presentation.

In this context, mention must be made of the latter day recordings of the late Ustad Bismillah Khan saab, where he seemed to have discarded all jugglery in favour of the purest notes, which literally had the power to arrest the passer-by and which is assuredly the reason for all music to exist. This is the goal towards which all artists strive and very few achieve. Kishori ji has reached home. Her concluding item was a Shiva bhajan in raga Bhairavi.

She gave scope to her accompanists to display their skills. They were also her students and did her credit. On the violin was Milind Raiker, vocal support was by Nandini Bedekar, on harmonium was Suyog Kundalkar and on tabla was Vishwanath Shirodkar.

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