At the flip of the Indian Independence, a 12-year-old Devabrata Chaudhuri, arrived at Senia gharana legend Ut Mushtaq Ali Khan’s residence in Delhi and requested to be his disciple. The sitar exponent was immediately displeased and refused. Another scholar, Nikhil Banerjee, had lately left after studying from him for a couple of months and moved on to Ut Allauddin Khan of the Maihar gharana.
The rancour surfaced within the voice as he spoke to his spouse — ‘Dekho ek aur Bengali Brahmin aaya hai seekhne (See another Bengali Brahmin has come to learn’.
But Chaudhuri was adamant. His starvation for music allowed Ut Mushtaq Ali to provide the younger boy from Bangladesh, not simply the secrets and techniques of the swaras and purity of thought course of but additionally an immersive non secular expertise, turning the younger boy right into a grasp of the instrument, permitting him to make a mark on the earth of sitar amid some very vital, profitable and senior musicians of the time reminiscent of Ut Vilayat Khan, Pt Ravi Shankar, Banerjee and Ut Halim Jaffer Khan.
Sitar exponent Pt Devabrata Chaudhuri fondly known as Debu Chaudhuri on and off stage and torchbearer of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, handed away within the Capital within the wee hours of Saturday attributable to Covid-related problems. He was admitted to GTB Hospital on Thursday after his son, sitar participant Prateek Chaudhuri despatched out a social media put up requesting a mattress for his father.
Chaudhuri was affected by dementia and had a cardiac arrest amid Covid-related points. He can be cremated on Monday after his son, who can also be battling Covid, will get discharged from the identical hospital.
According to his pal and Gwalior gharana doyen LK Pandit, “What was interesting about Debu was that he didn’t come with a lineage. His ancestry and inheritance had nothing to do with music. A self-made artiste, the mithas in his sitar will never be forgotten”.
Growing up in Ramgopalpur, a small village Meymanpur in what’s now Bangladesh, Chaudhuri was 5 when he encountered sitar classes in class and requested his father about studying the instrument. A hitting and lots of scoldings later, “because mausiqi (music) was considered below academics” at dwelling, a sitar was purchased after Chaudhuri’s mom intervened.
He got here to Kolkata and completed his greater research right here, after which he went to be taught from Ut Mushtaq Ali, who was not only a strict guru, however clear concerning the purity of the artform. He made positive that sitar was performed with 17 frets and never 19-20 as is common. He was not comfy with the improvements caused by Shankar and others and refused the populist concept of creating his music relatable.
“Which is why he was called the musician of musicians,” Chaudhuri would say. He additionally made positive his favorite scholar caught to custom. And Chaudhuri did. With reverence. He joined Delhi University in 1971 as Reader and was Dean and Head of Music Department moreover performing recurrently. As a tribute to his guru, he additionally arrange Ut Mushtaq Ali Khan Centre for Performing Arts. He authored quite a few books on music which are nonetheless referenced by classical music college students and can also be credited with composing eight unique ragas. “A brilliant musician, his humility was unlike anyone else’s,” says sitar participant Shubhendra Rao.
Chaudhuri was awarded the Padma Bhushan, Padma Shri and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contribution to music.