As he sat along the dais, packed with dignitaries, who took turns to speak about him, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan grew impatient. Each said wonderful things about the maestro, filled with anecdotes and reminisces from the younger days of his musical career, but instead of basking in the glory of words, he playfully asked them to cut the talk short. All he wanted was to play the sarod. In the decades gone by, that Khan has toured the world with his music, the one thing that has remained constant or which makes him one of the most loved musicians of his times, is perhaps the fact that he loves his audience as much as he loves his sarod.
It is these qualities that have won Ustad Amjad Ali Khan numerous accolades. The prestigious Sumitra Charat Ram Award for lifetime achievement is the latest addition to the long list. Initiated by Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, the award takes its name after the founder of SBKK, Sumitra Charat Ram, who was almost a mother to Khan. After reminiscences by eminent dancer Kumudini Lakhia, former diplomat Lalit Mansingh and cultural impresario Shobha Deepak Singh, Khan finally took to the stage with his beloved companion — the sarod. He began in raga Mali Gaura followed by Hansakankini and others. Later in a chat with The Hindu, Khan said, “Any award from a music institution is the most prestigious award for a musician. My first award was from Prayag Sangeet Samiti at a very young age of 15 or 16. In our family, there was a firm belief that you can only do one thing properly in your life, be it music or literature or anything else.”
Crucial role
The Ustad being conferred Sumitra Charat Ram Award for lifetime achievement for 2018
The support system that he got as a young boy played a crucial role in his becoming a great musician. “My life began in the corners of Mandi House. Sumitra ji was the one who persuaded my father to send me to school and she personally took me to Modern School. My principal told my father that I would always fail in mathematics but that he would always pass me. He said I did not need to pass maths because all I had to do was play the sarod. Those were extremely rare times and we don’t find such people anymore in schools, who would focus on the creative faculties of the students over their academic fulfilments,” he said. “Whatever years I spent in that school gave me immense strength. The light of Sumitra ji has been immense in my life,” he added. But he did blame it on his teeming audience that he did not complete his education, “I could not complete my school not because I did not want to, but because the people of this country did not let me. I began touring at a young age and after my first world tour, I never could do anything else,” he chuckled.
“The people of India have nurtured me and encouraged me, and have made Amjad Ali Khan what he is today,” he said.
As an artiste, Khan has always believed the need to question everything, something that reflects in his music as well. “Music should not become stagnant,” he stated. “When it comes to religion, for instance, even the educated class just blindly follows the rituals, nobody seems to be questioning things because rituals and conventions are already in place. In our country, we worship conventions.” Similarly, he said, artistes talk of traditions, but they are extremely confused. “Even today they continue with the same old vilambit gat and drut gat. There is so much beyond it. In instrumental music especially, compositions are ignored. The improvisations are never-ending...,” said Khan.
Khan insisted that an artiste’s success should not be judged by his/her titles but the work that they produce. He said that some of the best musicians of the country never even had titles but proved their worth in songs that lasted three minutes. Even the taleem they received was different. “It was different earlier, obviously. The guru shishya parampara doesn’t exist anymore. Everyone talks about it, though. The shagird served the guru like a domestic help. In earlier days, a learned man was considered an institution and now that has become a concrete building. But despite all this, I know that there are a lot of talented young musicians. The future is definitely bright, but one should not consider music as a source of income alone,” cautioned the master.