At the 23rd edition of annual Ustad Chand Khan Music Festival, santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma transformed the festive and hectic inaugural evening to a state of bliss and fulfilment with his meditative aalap-jod in Kausi Kanada and a couple of compositions set to Rupak and Teentala, accompanied by Pandit Ram Kumar Mishra. Earlier, Ustad Iqbal Ahmad Khan, the Khalifa of Dilli Gharana, rendered khayal in Anandi-Bihag, the favourite of his Gharana in a combination of ragas Nand and Bihag.
The two-day festival also showcased two young talents of Dilli Gharana, trained under Ustad Iqbal Ahmad Khan. Asghar Hussain opened the first evening with Shyam Kalyan on violin. His compositions set to eleven beats cycle and Teentala spoke of his remarkable control over both, melody and rhythm. Farid Hasan’s vocal recital opened the second evening with raga Puriya Dhanashri.
The hall packed to capacity with enthusiastic audience and the connoisseurs in the front few rows applauding each and every nuance of the performers, inspired them to offer their best. This was especially evident in the substantial treat offered by the Kolkata-based senior sarod player of Maihar gharana, Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar and vocalist of Jaipur Atrauli Gharana, Vidushi Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, who took the music festival to its climax.
Musically mature, Majumdar is always at peace with himself, a very rare quality in the classical music scenario these days. The tonal quality of his sarod and the choice of his ragas sounded freshly minted. His reposeful aalap-jod-jhala in raga Shuddha Kalyan and the slow and drut composition in teentala adhered to the traditional structures yet full of rhythmic play that generated a sense of wonder, dodging the tabla accompanist with ateet and anagat (coming to ‘Sam’ a fraction of a beat earlier or just closely later). The drut or faster composition was a ‘Do-Muhi Gat’, where the sam would appear twice in one avritti. There were, in fact, lovely challenges for Akbar Latif, the young tabla player of Dilli gharana, but he mostly found an easy and populist way out.
The Manjha-Khamaj, on request, came as a delicious dessert in Dadra style, set to slow paced Dadra Tala. Whether the sensitive rendering of the main raga or the romantic Bol-banav of the Dadra; Majumdar’s music, totally devoid of artifice and gimmickry; reached the hearts of the cognoscenti and the Rasikas alike.
Vidushi Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, the authentic vocalist of Jaipur Atrauli Gharana, gave a pleasant surprise to the discerning audience by choosing the Carnatic raga Vachaspati for her main raga and treating it in such detail that the raga sounded perfectly adapted to her own gayaki. The Bada Khayal “Man Mohan Shyam…” set to slow Ektala and the Chhota Khayal set to fast Ada Chautal, a difficult tala of 14 beats cycle; were both her own compositions. Nayaki Kanada, a famous raga of her gharana came next, with the traditional composition in rupak “Mero Piya Rasiya….” . Any other vocalist would have opted nayaki for the main raga and Vachaspati (if at all) for next but Ashwini doesn’t believe in following the hackneyed trodden path, instead creates her own afresh. She concluded her recital and the festival with the Dadra “Ho gayi beriya, Piya ke avan ki…” immortalised by Begum Akhtar. Ashwini had inspiring accompanists in Vinay Mishra on harmonium, Vinod Lele on tabla and two of her own well-trained disciples for vocal support.
