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A spellbinding recital by Ajoy Chakraborty was the pièce de résistance of the Gunidas Sangeet Sammelan, organized by the Maharashtra Lalit Kala Nidhi at the G.D. Birla Sabhagar (December 20-21). While Chakraborty provided the grande finale, tidy and markedly traditional khayal and thumri singing by Subhra Guha was the best item of the first evening. Developing the vilambit khayals in Nand in the approved Agra style, she showed how good traditional singing could sound. Afterwards she sang only the composition of an ‘adhar bandh’ Khammaj thumri in sitarkhani tala, a Mishra Kafi thumri and a dadra in Pilu with exceptional competence.
In the second half, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, playing an arch-top slide guitar with sitar-sarod add-ons, like tarafs and chikaris, showed more picking and sliding skills than a proper understanding of Puria Dhanashri, the raga in which he played alap and gatkari of sorts. He not only used the rishabh as an end note but also used the Shri rishabh and often played with a rishabh-pancham axis that brought the raga close to one of its constituents: the now defunct raga Dhanashri of the Purvi thaat. Puriya Dhanashri is a clever blend of this raga and Puria. Traditionally, the pancham-sadaj axis, garnished by the ma Ga ma re Ga leitmotif and the complementary uttarang phrase dha (or Ni) `re Ni dha Ni, dh-pa sets up its character. Although Bhatt flaunts his training under Pandit Ravi Shankar, the all-time master of ragas, Bhatt further spoiled the raga with Shri-like re Pa and Pa re phrases. There was also a marked lack of traditional structure (silsila) in his alap and gatkari. The gat compositions he played, however, were in pure Puria Dhanashri: one wonders if these were all that Panditji has taught him in the raga! When someone shouted for Tilak Kamod, he obliged by alternately singing and playing (in true Vilayat Khan manner) the D.V. Paluskar classic chhota khayal, “Neer bharana kaese jau”, which he described as “light classical”! This spoke volumes for his profound knowledge of music. He, in fact, sang more than he played. Ravi Shankar, incidentally, has gone on record criticizing such antics on stage.
Opening the second evening with a santoor recital in the raga Yaman, Satish Vyas, the organizer of the programme, also seemed to prove that having a famous guru (in this case, Shiv Kumar Sharma) does not ensure the ability to produce even tolerably good music. The make- believe alap with the scratchy stick-rubbing device to simulate sustained sound and the naïve bol rhythms of the vilambit teental gatkari seemed to run counter to whatever Shiv Kumar has been able to achieve in classical music. The drut teental gatkari was not any better, with at least two slightly off-pitch passages around the 23rd minute.
Ajoy Chakraborty’s main item comprised khayals in the raga Kaunsi Dhvani in a more exploratory version of the style of Bade Ghulam Ali. Developing the limited spectrum of the raga in the vilambit khayals, initially with slow lyrics-based movements and then with sargams, including those of the raga Gunkeli sung with the gandhar as the tonic (ending with Bade Ghulam Gunkeli asthayi, “E karatar puri karo mana ke ichchha”!), the adroit singer primed the raga to glory. Then came typically Bade Ghulamesque bahlawas, rhythmic sargams and bol-bant: the sargam rhythms ending with sargam tihais and the bol rhythms with bol tihais. The vilambit khayals were composed by Jnan Prakash Ghosh, with the lyrics attempting to convey the sense of a well-known Tagore song.
With the tempo increasing in around the 36th minute, the singer went in for faster sargams, including some that were in an off-the-beat tempo known as mushkilat laya and then into a blitzkrieg of fast aakar taans, fast bol-bant and fast sargam taans. All this was done within an overall structure that was firm and aesthetically evolved. The drut khayal, based on the Bade Ghulam composition that has come to be the signature tune of the raga, was an occasion for rich, variegated and powerful aakar taans and sargam taans that entertained by interchanging the madhyams of two saptaks with an element of surprise. All this climaxed to a grand rhythmic development that provided a fitting finale.
The second item was the famed Bade Ghulam thumri, “Prem ki maar kataar”, in the raga Sohini. It was developed with a touch of Barkat Ali in the vilambit portion and with fast taans being woven into the laggi part. The free-rhythm, exploratory version of the famed “Hari Om” at the end was equally impressive.