To celebrate 106th birth anniversary of late Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan and 82nd birthday of his devoted disciple Pandit Devabrata Chaudhuri, popularly known as Pt. Debu Chaudhuri, the Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan Centre for Culture in association with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations organised UMAK Festival of Music & Dance at the Azad Bhavan auditorium recently.
Ustad Mushtaq Ali Khan belonged to the Jaipur Senia Gharana, formed by Masit Khan, originator of the Masitkhani Baaj. The practitioners of this gharana play the 17 frets sitar till date and follow the purity of the raga with the ‘Dhrupad style’ treatment, avoiding lighter adornments like ‘Murki’ - ‘Fanda’, and stick to the deeper ‘Meend’ like embellishments.
Adhering to this rule, Debu Chaudhuri, assisted by two of his disciple in Paushali Nandi (sitar) and Neel Ranjan Mukherjee (slide guitar), followed the tradition religiously and regaled the audience with his impeccable performance.
He chose the melodious evening raga Shyam Kalyan and prefacing it with appropriate aalap-jod, created the atmosphere for a Masitkhani and a tightly conceived drut gat full of understated phrases and gentle resolutions. He gave ample opportunity to his well-trained disciples and the ace table player Ustad Akram Khan as and when desired.
Paushali maintained the purity of sur. It was easy to slide on guitar hence Neel Ranjan showcased flair for soot and ghaseet but he often overshot the taar Rishabh sounding beyond the correct shruti. Akram’s chiselled tabla nourished the performance till the end.
Flavours of Dhrupad
The Dhrupad recital by Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar earlier in the evening, opened with Yaman, the most appropriate raga for that hour according to the time theory of Hindustani music and also for the meditative nature of the genre. His reposeful and detailed Alapchari of Dhrupad Ang paved the path for the Raskhan Pada “Adhar lagai…...Bansuri”, set to Chautal, where the dynamic delivery of the dhrupad adorned with the rhythmic variations inspired Praveen Arya on pakhawaj for the sizzling sangat. Wasifuddin Dagar concluded his impressive recital with an archaic ‘manqabat’ composition of Baba Behram Khan “Tum bin kaun aiso dujo…” in raga Malkauns set to Tevra tala of seven beats cycle.
The two-day festival had opened with a Kuchipudi dance recital by the Padma Bhushan awardees Dr. Raja-Radha Reddy, after which Prateek Chaudhuri, son and disciple of Debu Chaudhuri, presented a sitar recital accompanied on tabla by Abhishek Mishra. He gave ample proof of his authentic taalim during the brief alap of Bihag, sketching contours of the raga, underlining its salient swaras with melodious meends. The training was also evident in the selection of the compositions that followed in slow, medium and fast tempos, like the traditional Masitkhani gat, the Jhaptal gat, the compositions of his guru Pt. Debu Chaudhuri and the old ‘taksali’ gat of Ustad Hamid Hussain Khan of Lucknow taught to him by his guru, but their treatment was far from the character of the particular composition.
The reason is simple. There are two components of any performance - ‘talim’ (training) and ‘mijaz’ (temperament). After the initial glimpse of training, the rest of the performance was overshadowed with ‘mijaz, the ostentatious temperament, the tezi-taiyari, the repetitive ghaseet taans and the dramatic pauses for the claps. Abhishek gave an impressive account of his Benarasi Baaj in his appropriate repartees with utmost clarity.
Regaling connoisseurs
There was hardly any time left for Malini Awasthi’s thumri-dadra treat, she was especially invited for. Malini opened with a traditional thumri in raga Tilak Kamod set to the typical Deepchandi Theka. Her imaginative ‘bol-banav’, for instance, on ‘Ras ki boond padi…’ depicted the droplets of ‘rasa’ in myriad hues with the varied ‘swar-sangatis’ she expressed it with. The dadra in Pahadi was a rare one, in the sense that Pahadi is hardly ever used by others except the Patiala artistes. Surprisingly, it was composed by her guru Vidushi Girija Devi, who never sang it herself. Likewise came the century old ‘Sawan’ composed by Ramuji, which was taught to her by her guru who never sings it herself. She also regaled the rasikas with the famous dadra, ‘Kaun albele ki nar…’ popularised by the likes of Siddheshwari Devi and Rasoolan Bai, before concluding with the Bhairavi dadra, ‘Nayan ki mat maro talvariya….” Malini enjoys herself while singing and her joyful relish was reflected manifold in her audience.
The sensitive touches of Pandit Dharm Nath Mishra’s harmonium enhanced the emotions even though he followed the etiquette of confining himself within the boundary of swaras. The vocalist had improvised, whereas Murad Ali, notwithstanding the melodiousness of Sarangi, was seen jumping to the upper ‘gandhar’ or pancham while Malini had hardly reached the tar shadja. Ram Kumar’s enthralling laggis got him repeated applause.