Ustad Karamatullah Khan (left) and Zakir Hussain

Starting Sunday, the city can revel in a real feast of classical music, with the tabla in the spotlight. February 20 marks the 50th birth anniversary of tabla player Pandit Anindo Chatterjee.

A programme being held at the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Gol Park, from 4 pm, will find him being felicitated by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Pandit Kishan Maharaj. Two CDs will be released featuring Chatterjee playing jhaptal and son Anubrata, who recently accompanied Ustad Amjad Ali Khan on the opening night of Dover Lane Music Conference, playing teental.

A documentary film on Chatterjee, directed by Gautam Haldar, will also be screened. This will be followed by three performances. Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma will take the stage with Anindo Chatterjee on tabla. Next, it will be Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty. The grand finale will be Ustad Zakir Hussain?s solo tabla recital, with Ramesh Mishra on sarengi.

?I remember my guru (Jnanprakash Ghosh) on this day. It is the most memorable occasion of my life. My birthdays have been quiet gatherings of a few friends at home. Both Amjadji and Kishan Maharaj asked me months ago what they could do. Maharaj is 83-plus. I requested them to be present and bless me. Zakir refused a professional concert to be here,? said Anindo Chatterjee.

Sunday?s magic will be followed up with some of India?s best-known classical artistes paying homage to the late Ustad Karamatullah Khan on the occasion of his 25th death anniversary. The Antiquity Festival of Fine Arts Pays Tribute to the Ustad, a three-day classical music gala, will be held at the Science City auditorium from February 21-23. It will see a clutch of leading lights performing as a mark of respect to one of the greatest tabla exponents the country has produced.

Presented by Showhouse, the festival will kick off on Monday with Ustad Rashid Khan (vocal), Ustad Imrat Khan (sitar) and Arif Khan (tabla solo). Tuesday evening will feature Begum Parveen Sultana (vocal), Pandit Birju Maharaj (kathak) and Saswati Sen (kathak). The curtains come down on Wednesday with recitals by Pandit Jasraj (vocal), Raza Ali Khan (vocal) and Ustad Rais Khan (sitar).

Ustad Karamatullah Khan represented the 32nd generation in an unbroken lineage of the Farrakabad Gharana, which dates back to Mir Akasa in 1132. Born in a family of musicians in 1917 in Rampur, he went on to become the court musician to the Maharaja of Raigarh. His first remarkable performance was with Ustad Bade Fiaz Khan Saheb of the Agra Gharana, for which he received the title of Ustad at a very early age.

The legacy lives on. ?My son, Arif Khan, is the fourth generation and he will be performing at the tribute festival too,? says Sabir Khan, son of the late Ustad. ?This is a very, very small gesture of giving back to Calcutta some of the love it has bestowed on us. The city is home to us and is very sacred.?

Sabir wants to build a tabla academy, as there is no such institution in the city. ?The idea is to build an academy including other gharanas as well.?

Omer Haidar, director, Showhouse, has the last word: ?We wanted to honour the Farrakabad Gharana and its lineage by paying a tribute to Ustad Karamatullah Khan. We also plan to take the Antiquity Festival of Fine Arts to different cities of the country, by identifying similar families and gharanas and finding out about their special connection with that particular city.?