Setting the stage for India's musical heritage

The Chisti brothers are on stage, their music holding the audience in Mumbai's Nehru Centre auditorium in a Sufi spell. Mid-concert, a tall bearded man can be seen going back and forth, from the wings to the green room and from there to the stage and the sound technicians in their booth at the end of the hall. Founder and managing director of Banyan Tree Mahesh Babu is not trying to hog attention. He's just ensuring that everything, from the artiste's needs to the sound, are okay.

"The moment I sense something not working quite the way I want it to, there is an intense desire to go and attend to it. Anything to make the concert a richer experience for both the performers and the audience is always quite fulfilling," he says.

As someone who's been running Banyan Tree, an organisation devoted to the promotion of Indian performing arts, for 23 years since 1993, Babu should know what he's talking about. Whether it's internationally acclaimed superstar maestros or carriers of living traditions in remote obscure villages, they have all been part of Banyan Tree concerts which are now milestones on the country's cultural calendar. "One wanted to go beyond treating the performing arts as entertainment as each event is also an opportunity to create an awareness of the rich heritage, of the ancient wisdom that has continued to survive despite all odds," explains Babu.

The sentiment finds echo with Shashi Vyas, founder and chairperson of Pancham Nishad, which is also dedicated to preserving, nurturing, promoting and propagating the rich heritage of the performing arts of India.

When this chartered accountant son of the legendary classical vocalist Pt C.R. Vyas started Pancham Nishad in 1996, amongst those on the advisory committee were his santoorist brother Satish Vyas, tabla maestro Zakir Hussain and Kathak exponent Archana Joglekar. "Zakirbhai was one of our directors from 1996 to 2004."

Like Babu, Vyas too is omnipresent in the cultural scene. This affable lover of music enjoys a rapport with not only all top artistes, but also with audiences cutting across segments. Both have given up successful careers to pursue their passion.

While Vyas gave up his successful CA practice of 22 years for the love of music, Babu gave up geophysics for the same.

Babu remembers his first ever four city concerts in 1993. "ANZ Grindlays came to us with a proposal to do something new with classical music. The success and response had me hooked," he remembers and adds, "Yet nothing had prepared me for 1997." That was what he still remembers as the "mother of all concerts" - where 400 of the who's who of Indian classical music were both performers and listeners. "We wanted artistes to hear each other. Audiences went crazy as they sat with these top artistes to watch a concert."

That set the stage for the festivals of seasons and Ruhaniyat (Banyan Tree's Sufi music festival). "We had no sponsors first two years, and I still wonder how we scraped through."

Vyas also looks back at how his initial successes gave him the boost to continue. "In January 1995, we had booked the open ground of Parel's King George school for a concert by the late Pt Bhimsen Joshi; 3,200 tickets were sold on day one. This huge response repeated itself when by the year-end we organised another concert with vocalist Kishori Amonkar, santoor exponent Satish Vyas, vocalist Pt Jasraj and sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, with tabla exponent Zakir Hussain. After that I knew we were on to a big idea."

He still feels that handling the Remember Shakti concerts in 2000 with the English guitarist John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain (tabla), late U. Srinivas (mandolin), Shankar Mahadevan (vocals), and V. Selvaganesh (kanjira, ghatam, mridangam), at Rang Bhavan helped him cut his teeth in organising a classical music event on a large scale.

He rubbishes the suggestion that things were easier for him since he was Pt CR Vyas' son. "Mere opening of doors is only about access. After that its only your conviction and hard work."

Both admit that the laws preventing live music after 10, the loss of public spaces like Rang Bhavan, the struggle to find sponsors, temperamental artistes and fickle audiences create quite the cocktail of challenges for anyone in this sector.

"We are hence constantly looking at re-inventing the format, paradigm and presentation. Hence our emphasis on folk exponents, Sufi and mystic young artistes has been growing," points out Babu.

While classical music aficionados are aware of the cliques and camps in the field of Indian classical music and which organisation is their favourite, Vyas and Babu deny they work only with some artistes and not others. "It's wrong to have this feeling and think of cliques when one is dealing with art," insists Babu.

Vyas, too, insists that he only looks for a balance between commerce and content. "If my economies don't work with someone I have to find an alternative. This doesn't mean I won't work with them again. After all the show goes on."

When it comes to the classical performing arts scene goes, this duo has kept the show going for quite a while.