Balancing act: Purbayan Chatterjee talks about art of crossing over without losing yourself

“Heat a piece of Soan Papdi in the microwave for exactly three seconds and eat it with ice cream. It tastes amazing,” Purbayan Chatterjee says, in a fun conversation in between takes of the hectic #LifeIsMusic shoot schedule. Almost immediately, he summons make-up dada,“Aai ye toh sahi, dikhai yet oh sahi kaisa lag raha hoon (come, show me how I look),” he says in jest, indulging in a little vanity, giving final touches to his already in-place hair-do.

A minute later, once the eight-camera set up starts to roll, he transforms into a different man. In about 20 seconds, his head is grooving to the beats and hair, much to make-up dada’s disappointment,is all over the place. Two minutes into the nine-and-a-half minute-long take, he’s belting out one mesmerising solo after another, making his presence felt on the floor that has legends such as Jazz pianist and composer Louiz Banks and ace percussionist Taufiq Qureshi.

On social media, Purbayan Chatterjee is all about being a rockstar. The updates are frequent, selfies are aplenty, word play attempts are regular,‘watch this space for more’ is the go-to closing line and a YouTube video to a delightful track that he calls ‘Sitarway to Heaven’,which features him both in a crisp kurta and spectacles and a shiny leather jacket and dark glasses, is often shared.

His choice of concerts and career follows a similar, dual pattern that may just confuse a new follower about his musical leanings. After becoming a recipient of the Rashtrapati Puraskar at age 16 and performing at the Sawai Gangharva at age 20, you wouldn’t imagine him playing the final act of a jam-packed Rock concert, would you? But he did. In fact, he often does. Ask him about his dream performance and the answer will leave you stumped. “I’d love to play at the Colosseum in Rome; an open air concert, shot by helicopters.” Ask him a question about a composition or a raag that he’d like to perfect someday and the answer is equally surprising, “I love listening to Jazz music and I’m into chromatic solos. I’d love to crack some of the compositions that Chick Corea and his 5-piece band made in the past.”

Start From Scratch

Son of well-known Sitar player Pandit Parthapratim Chatterjee, Purbayan grew up listening to tranquil renditions of Hindustani Classical ragas.The Sitar was handed to him at the age of five, in Switzerland, merely as a distraction. “I was accompanying my father and was being a naughty child. All of a sudden, he picked up a baby sitar kept in the corner, which probably belonged to a student, and handed it to me. ‘You’ll perhaps be less naughty,’ my father said,” Chatterjee reminisces.

He, however,admits to not particularly liking the Sitar till the age of 12. “I preferred cricket,” he says. What changed? He heard the recording of Pandit Nikhil Banerjee and was blown away.“I wanted to play like him. That’s when I pursued it seriously,” he admits.

The Quest For More

After many a classical performances, in India and abroad, with the likes of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma and Ustad Zakir Hussain, Chatterjee starting giving in to his quest for more. His first concrete move in the direction? Designing and developing DWO, the doppelganger of the Sitar.

Electric Sitars have been around for many years;almost since the ‘70s, when someone put an electromagnetic pick on the classic instrument. Chatterjee, however,wanted to go in the opposite direction. “I wanted to pick up the Guitar and put a Sitar neck on it. I wanted to experience a rock-and-roll kind of sound, so I could perform with a rock drummer and play dirty, distorted patches. And I do that now; I play standing up on most occasions, except when I’m giving a pure classical performance, of course,” he explains.

To create the DWO, he brought on board Suman Karmarkar, a dedicated Sitar maker from Kolkata. “I hand drew and gave him the design. He had to research a lot on the electronics of it. It took about five months to make,but he did an awesome job with it,” says Chatterjee.

But owning the DWO was one thing and playing it was another. It took Chatterjee a long time and a lot of practice to play his new instrument with perfection. “You can’t play it like a regular Sitar; it’s a completely different playing technique. You have got to partially unlearn your Sitar playing technique, especially what you do with your left hand,” he explains.

How do you unlearn, but not unlearn at the same time?

“I don’t want to unlearn anything completely and let go off my roots. You have to sort of split your personality, which means that you are one person when you’re going on a classical stage and another when you’re playing fusion, crossover music with a band,” he explains.

How does he strike a balance, though? With his choice of performances, he says. Sure, you’ll often find him delivering a Blues concert with String Fraternity, a band he’s a part of along with Ehsaan Noorani, George Brooks and Sheldon D’Souza.You might also get a Twitter notification from him where he’d have posted a picture of a Rock concert, where he plays with Gino Banks and Stephen Devassy. But,rest assured, he’ll also be delivering at least three to four pure classical shows a month at a venue like the NCPA in Mumbai.

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