Kishori Amonkar

Kishori Amonkar, the famed vocalist, sang khayals in raga Yaman with dashes of Mand and Hansadhwani at a recital organised by Sangeet Kala Mandir last week. This was the second time that this reviewer has heard her doing so.

This is one raga that is usually portrayed correctly by all performers. By repeating her aberrations, Amonkar seemed to be stating that this was the way she thought the raga ought to be delineated. The emphasis on the dhaivat was another aberration. This was at times through odd phrases like re ga dha and ga ma dha.

The vilambit teental khayal, despite starting with some fairly uninspired slow elaboration, was getting into stride with some typically Jaipur Atrauli movements when the aberrations struck. Though the taankari in the final segment did restore the balance somewhat, the Mand element lingered on in its first half.

Kishori Amonkar then sang the Yaman drut teental khayal Eri ali piya bina, that used to be taught to all beginners at one time, in a manner that it made it hard to recognise. The reviewer had heard her doing this once before as well. This suggests Amonkar has re-invented this classic composition as well. However, the original tune did try to peep through the high degree of inappropriate ornamentation once in a while.

The khayal featured some bol-bant-like figures and taankari. The tarana that came next used a shuddh madhyam as well and could have been intended to be in Yaman Kalyan. But the artiste used the two madhyams chromatically at least once in it. This is not done in this raga.

The accompanists were Ananda Gopal Banerjee (tabla), Milind Raykar (violin) and Suyog Kundalkar (harmonium).