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Arshad Ali Khan belongs to the musically rich family of Sabri Khan but this performance displayed his familiarity with the mature notes from Kirana gharana. Khan performed in Varanasi recently at a concert organised by Sangeet Parishad.

He is lesser known in Varanasi though he has performed in Kolkata since his childhood.

“It is all due to Ustad Maqsood Ali Khan who taught me how to choose a correct note and to live with it,” Arshad explained. He actually stayed with the chosen notes, in this concert, in order to shape the intrinsic nuances of raga Bihag.

This is a raga which has been nurtured by many vocalists and became famous especially because of Ustad Abbul Karim Khan Saheb of Kirana gharana. After him, Pandit Kumar Gandharva treated this raga differently with aGwalior touch and yet he did it in his own outstanding style.

After these maestros, many contemporary artistes, from Prabha Atrre to Shubha Mudgal, have played this beautiful evening raga. But it was only Ustad Amir Khan who always established the character of this raga by using only two notes, Gandhar and Nishad.

In a way, Arshad did the same, but through other pure notes.

“My Ustad always told me, if I am an artiste, I must establish the beauty of a raga by using its few notes,” he explained.

After Bihag, he recited three other ragas, namely, Harikauns, Desh and Mishra Khamaj. It was actually a thumri in Mishra Khamaj accompanied well on the tabla by the senior tabla player Pandit Ishwar Lal Mishra, who belongs to Varanasi.

The entire Khayal recital of Arshad, proved his taiyari, which might continue the legacy of Bhimsen Joshi in this gharana.

For now, it seems that young artistes like Kaivalya Gurav, Chetana Banawat and Arshad Ali Khan will further the style and reach of the Kirana gharana.

This concert, Sharadotsava, became a witness of such a fact. On this open stage of Shrimandapam, Arshad Ali Khan proved his faculty with intricate taanas.

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