Mor Mukut Kedia (left) with brother Manoj at a classical music concert in Calcutta. Picture by Sombhu Hazra

Giridih, Aug. 8: Businessmen have been known to be patrons of the arts but not many have the distinction of mastering the arts.

Of late, however, the Kedia family from Giridih has been wowing music-loving Calcuttans. It is not easy to impress hard-to-please aficionados in Calcutta, who are used to listening to the best offered by Hindustani classical music. But even they appear to have grudgingly acknowledged the promise shown by the three brothers —Mor Mukut, Manoj and Ramakrishna Kedia.

The two older brothers returned to the city last month for the second time in six months and enthralled the audience with their jugalbandi on the sitar and sarod. They had earlier performed at the Sangeet Research Academy of the ITC and took the audience by surprise. Last month, the two brothers performed at Sree Satyananda Devayatan at Jadavpur on the occasion of Guru Purnima.

This time they were not accompanied by Pt Shambhu Dayal Kedia, an accomplished tabla player, and the youngest brother Ramakrishna, who is also learning to play the tabla under the watchful eyes of their father. Their mastery over the instruments, their obvious devotion and their disarming simplicity and their reluctance to take recourse to gimmicks, floored the audience on both the occasions in Calcutta. Many of them mobbed the brothers at the end of the recital, curious to learn how they had achieved such mastery in a supposedly backward place like Giridih.

Music appears to run in the family as Shambhu Dayal’s father not only hosted musical soirees by the masters but himself was no mean a vocalist. A prosperous trader dealing in textile, the older Kedia was fond of singing bhajans and the young Shambhu Dayal would play the dholak. They cultivated Pandit Bhatkhande and invited classical musicians of repute to perform in Giridih and stay with the family. The soirees became an integral part of Giridih’s social scene. Some 40 years ago, young Shambhu Dayal happened to listen, for the first time, the mesmerising play on the tabla by Pandit Kishan Maharaj. He became a disciple of the tabla maestro and modestly points out that even four decades later, he continues to learn from him.

Shambhu Dayal Kedia established himself after long years of punishing practice sessions. He travelled widely and accompanied veterans like Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, Pandit V.G. Jog, Pandit Jasraj and Pandit Manilal Nag, among others. He also looked after the family business but hoped that his children would take up his passion for music. A friend and a local musician in Giridih, Prajyanandji belonging to Imdadkhani gharana, took up the task of training the children. The eldest child, Mor Mukut, showed a natural inclination for the sitar while the next son, Manoj, was more inclined towards softer but firmer glides. The father chose the sarod for the second son and in order to create a self-sufficient team of musicians, the youngest son Ramkrishna was chosen to play the tabla.