FUSION: LAKMÈ TO PARAM VIR

Some time back YT stopped watching Indian news channels out of sheer respect for his own intelligence or whatever is left of it. That leaves him with WWF and Nickelodeon … Therefore we are not in a position to know whether at all World Music Day found a mention in the annals of our august ‘channels’ this 21^st June, or was the Muse muscled out by the Yogi. About the print media, one notes that, alas, the yen for music is now weaker that the Japanese ¥..Hha..Hha …Hhhaaa…., what a silly joke Carl.…Panduranga…asude.!

Reportedly, World Music Day was first celebrated in 1987, in the afterglow of the response to Paul Simon’s album Graceland, the first consciously crafted confluence (wheww…) of various international musical streams. Graceland ranks among the 20 top-selling albums of all times, keeping company with Metallica’s Metallica and Hotel California by the Eagles (selling 15-20 million albums). It also won the 1987 Grammy…

On a more general plane, the term ‘World Music’ was coined by Robert E. Brown in the 1960s. To recall our earlier piece on Pta. Kesarbai Kerkar’s Bhairavi and the Golden Record placed on the two Voyager space-crafts, it was Brown who compiled the unique collection for NASA…

We take a look here at the exchanges between Indian and Western music, and possibilities and attempts of an Indian Western ‘fusion’, which in Ustad Amjad Ali Khan’s words, is more of ‘confusion’! It’s really like trying to mix or fuse oil and water. IK has of course been talking about some silent musical geniuses and their music, and also featuring the east-west interface regularly, illustrating the exchanges with lesser known instances such as the Bond Theme..

The difficulty in reconciling the Indian music system to the Western starts right at the level of swaras or notes. Around the times of the Renaissance, the scale based on ‘equal temperament’ (ET) was introduced in Western Music, to take care of the difficulty in tuning to a changed key-note in a particular exposition, which befell the user of the prevalent scale based on ‘just intonation’(JI). The JI scale is, simplistically put, a collection of a note struck on say a string, and successive overtones. These will follow a mathematically fixed ratio. Making a scale is something like choosing a cricketing squad for a one-day match vs that for a test-match. Different stalwarts for different genres…The ET scale involves choosing a set of notes having minimum mutual dissonance, so as to enable a fixed note instrument like a piano to play the widest gamut of tunes. But the Indian ragas require notes differing by subtle shades. In fact the swaras themselves are said to be imbued with emotions- like the komal rishabh engendering ati karun or raudra emotions.

PV, right with Soumik and Conductor Stephen

 PV, or Param Vir, the musical hero of our adolescence has this to say about some of the celebrated fusion attempts, particularly those of the sitar-gang led by Pt. Ravi Shankar:

“When people look for so-called fusion music, they’re looking for easy elements of musical gesture amalgamated into one cultural artefact. This often involves surface features grafted from one language onto another, and in my view this approach rarely works. I would like to suggest that we might try to look at background structure to see what one music can learn from the structure of another. For example, there is an element of rhythm in Indian Music which also exists in Western Musical theory as a distant relation. I refer to the marvellous parallel between the Indian concept of tala cycles (tali and khali) and the medieval western idea of the isorhythm…”

PV goes on to explain the philosophy behind his latest offering ‘Raga Fields’ in which the excellent British sarod player Soumik Dutta has the lead role:

“I made it clear to the western musicians in the ensemble that there was no requirement of them to try to sound ‘Indian’ in style…any attempt by a musician from western tradition to attempt to adopt this identity merely by adding glissandi to the mix and approximately playing the notes of the raga is probably doomed for inadequacy”. Thus, the whole is not the mechanical or static sum of assorted parts...

Here are the views of Ivan Hewett, writing in the Telegraph:

“No wonder those well-meaning concertos for sitar and orchestra, beginning with Ravi Shankar’s trail-blazing effort in 1971 tend to sound so lame. The narrative is always the same. To begin with, the sitarist rhapsodises ecstatically, just as he would (if) on his own. The orchestra is superfluous, but the composer hides that awkward fact by giving them a drone to play…Later on when things get exciting, the tables are turned. The soloist may seem to be in the lime-light, but the overpowering orchestra, the onward drive of the harmony…tells you which side is really in charge...”

This not to question Panditji's prowess so far as the purely Indian vadya-vrunda is concerned: it can be traced back to his Uday Shankar days and Maihar Band. Just listen to this: if this or that passage does not resonate incessantly in your head like the bee in the bonnet, when you get up tomorrow morning , nothing will:



Reviewing PV’s Raga Fields, he says things are now changing, basically due to the adoption of new rhythms by western musicologist, as opposed to the earlier ‘four square’ rhythms…opening the possibility of a middle ground…three cheers for Jazz I sayyy….! Taking the analogy of planting a tree, the present method  starts from the fruit at the tree-top moving downwards to the seed. But nature starts from the seed- hence the failure of the plant to flourish. In the form of PV or his companions like Soumik, the seed is now planted in the western soil- we are now on nature’s side…

Incidentally, the amazing piano skills of PV and the operas Kid Stuff, Mikado, Oliver Twist and Jesus Christ Superstar created by Barry John-PV for Xavier School, Delhi boys (XOBAD) during the 1970s were YT’s introduction to western genres. PV’s mother was a well-known classical vocalist of Delhi in her day. And Shah Rukh Khan is the product of Barry John’s acting school. In the 80’s PV migrated to UK and has made an indelible mark on the music there…It’s an immense loss to us, but World Music is a gainer…

That brings us to the earliest round of musical exchanges between the Indian music and Western. Back to the Vedas….The last decades of nineteenth century and those of the early 20^th saw great curiosity and interest on part of leading western composers. However the attempts adhered to PV’s concepts rather than to the burden of Pt. Ravi Shankar’s hurried expeditions. The early western composers address the feeling generated by the Indian subject, say a ‘tarana’ they heard, or the story of the Ramayana. It’s like driving at the bhavaarth rather than the shabdik-arth. The Indian element is so minimal in these compositions that forget fusion, one discerns only a soupçon or ‘suspicion’ as the French say, of the Indian. But one does feel there is a rustle behind the curtains, so to say…It’s like musical Impressionism.  Remember individual ragas and raaginis being likened to different Gods in our early music scriptures? Raga swaras were given some prominence however, in the works of Kaikhosru Sorabji, the British-Parsi composer (1892-1988). Some of the compositions ‘inspired’ by Indian themes have, however, literally been world-shaking, such as the Leo Delibe’s ‘Flower Duet’, “Sita” and “Choral Hymns from Rigveda” by Gustav Holst (1911), British composer etc…

We end the story with the French opera ‘Lakmè’, and the remarkable aria ‘Flower Duet’. The opera was written by Leo Delibes and first performed in where-else-but-Paris in 1883. The story is about Lakmè (French rendering of ‘Lakshmi’), daughter of a Brahmin priest, who falls in love with a British soldier in India. Lakmè is one of the best known operas in history. Likewise, the tune of

Leah Partridge as Lakme

the ‘Flower Duet’, sung by Lakmè and her maid Mallika in the opera is said to be one of the most recognised pieces of music in the western world. The signature tune of British Airways and the boarding tunes of some other airlines are based on the Flower Duet. Hundreds of Hollywood movies, western TV serials and advertisements have drawn on two Lakmè duets, the other one being ‘Bell Song’ - the list can be seen under ‘Leo Delibes’ on Imdb.com. The list contains such distinguished names as ‘The Simpsons’ series, and ‘Friends’, as also innumerable movies including ‘The Hunger’. The Yanni composition Aria is nothing but the ‘Flower Duet’. On Youtube, the combined hits for this duet exceed 3 crores today! Though the Bell Song makes an effort to sound like a fast alaap, the other compositions do not strain to sound Indian. And Yes! JRD Tata’s mother Suzanne was French…

This according to us is India’s contribution to humanity’s journey, rather the Pushpak vimana or plastic surgery…

THIS IS BARRY JOHN

THIS IS JOHN BARRY

Matter of Order!

THE SITARIST'S SITARIST [AHJK 2]

we wrote our despatch on Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan (Sitar Mehbooba Hai Kiski?) in October 2013, with a resolve to follow it up with the resident worm’s eye-view of the Ustad’s personality and his music. However we came up against too many imponderables- what Missus and Senior called mere conjectures of YT, which were open to debate. Like the writer’s view that, post the vyakhya, each sitar recital presented by the Ustad was akin to a cleverly crafted short-story- which view first saw the light of the day in the Sitar Mehbooba Hai Kiski post. Some recitals could be like the great plot-less movies of Mani Kaul, Senior said. Then: the view that  the DNA of the entire body of Hindustani Classical, be it Kirana or Maihar or Mewat- stems from a few good men, among them, Tansen, Sadarang, Inayat Khan, Bande Ali Khan..? We went through endless rounds of googling, thoroughed  every word of Pt. Ramashray Jha’s text-books, and scraped the bottoms of authoritative sites like parrikar.org and maverick ones like baithak2012.wp for succor, and a vindication of these unorthodox views, but alas it was not a path anybody had noticed in the tangled briar bushes, leave alone tread.  It was then officially declared by family that definitive views could be only firmed up after personally interviewing two of the greatest sitarists of all times, namely Ustad Shahid Parvez, and of course, the subject of our discussion mince obsession, Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan. Tall order….ehh…?! Senior, being virtually neighbour of Shahidbhai @ Kothrud Pune, accomplished his mission in a jiffy, but the von Bailiffs, residents of the North East that they were, had a distinct handicap. Moreover, Google Kaur, seemingly, had no inkling of the exact location of Ustad’s residence, which we knew was somewhere in a magic cove in Bandra.

we landed a hot and sultry Sunday early this year at Santa Cruz airport with Missus, and set off for the handsome Bandra Masjid, expecting to bump into somebody acquainted with the Ustad, but alas, the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’  key failed to work. The music stores were all closed. A speaker repairman took us to Bandra’s Banjo Master Rashidmiyan, who summarised the state of Indian Music thus: “haan haan, haan, kaun nahi jaanta unko, bus ye samajhiye ke Sitar ke Raseedbhai huzur hi hain.!” He helpfully suggested we go to Mehboob Studio and check, but we again drew a blank. The guard was a Marathi, and as we spoke in Marathi, we were chillar, ha, ha, aha [1]…. After 5 hours of leg-work, we retreated, exhausted, with the resolution that we’ll do our home-work neatly before we came next time. That took another 3 months to happen, and then it happened: the most intense, fulfilling day in the musical journey of YF and Missus, and Indayanikaathi.com: Ramnavmi day 2014 AD, that is 8^th of April 2014, when we touched reverentially Khansaheb’s feet, and then he embraced us as we had known him for ever and ever! We consciously felt the furrows of those magic hands that gave the Universe the Jafferkhani baaz. When the creases on those mubarak fingers bled from incessant riyaz, the flow was stanched with soft-stone called bilaw and the hands baked over fire lest the bleeding disturb the saadhana... In a trance we sat at his feet for 4 hours, and the dust settled on our so called conjectures about the फ़न of sitarbaazi..Bhatke hue musafir, manzil pe pahunche aakhir..

As we unshackled the elevator gate on the fifth floor on which is situated the humble abode, we heard the unexpected expected- the strains of the sitar! None else than Ustad opened the door, and instantly recognised the anxiety and eternal deewangi writ on our twin faces! We inhaled deeply, savouring the contentment in that air laden with the sheer fragrance of music and human kindness! Bataiye: jannat ke kiwad khule pade hain par zamana yeh ke kisi ko usse koi wasta nahi..! Behind the Ustad was his son, the handsome Ustad Zunain Khan - with teekhe nain-naksh. Little did he expect that we had been stalking him too..”Zunainbhai”, we said “aapka Basant Mukhari to kamal kar gaya Delhi mey…wo Mata Vaishno Devi wali mehfil mey..”. Zunainbhai was taken aback, and we muttered excuse for the stalking part, adding “ab kya batayein aisa junoon sawar huwa hai Khansaheb ka, arse se inki har cheez kai kai baar sun chuke hain aur unke taqreeban har afsaane se waqif hain..”

missus is moved at the spontaneous gestures, the refined human values of the Jaffer Khans. We detect the unspoken dram of gratitude in her eyes, and with an equal silence respond “my dear, all these things go together, intellect, genius, felicity with the sitar, the human decency…Zunain inherits it, so does his little grandson…”

first thing first- addressing the legend: how one legend should address another, he, he, he…those present address him variously. Between Ustad, Guruji and Khansaheb, we settle for the last appellation.

“khansaheb, hum bhi Malwe ke hi hain, aur mohtarma khud Gwalior gharane ki singer hain…!” we launch into an elaborate introduction. Presenting credentials…Khansaheb politely questions Missus about her gharana, fishing out the scrapbook on which he asks his guests to write by way of communication, for by now his auditory endowments have taken the back seat. “swar matra te achook olakhtaat”, says somebody from behind.  And of course the mind is as sharp as ever. Hundreds of Urdu couplets are still in place…Missus writes about her father Prof. Balaji Pathak, originally of Sagar, and Khansaheb remembers him, as also having played at their Ram Mandir at Sagar. He remembers popular disciple Pt. Ram Hershe of Sagar. Normally Pathaks will be Hindis and Phataks Maharashtrians, Khansaheb observes, and she is exceptional everybody says in chorus, led by nacheez…

As if on design, our phone rings. The ring tone is the recurrent 'sthaayi' swara samooh sa re ga ma ga re sa ga re from the 2003 Zilla Kafi, that makes a determined assault at around 15.05 mins. into the masterpiece..(5.05 or so in part 2 of alap). What happens at 6.28 for 7 seconds leaves the gunijan open-mouthed. The fantastic illusion created by the merging of a number of strokes, sounding like one long 'Parvezkhani'  meend !  Everybody gets hooked to the mesmerising strains and Ustad asks us to respond to the caller bhaiya.. “Saheb, Chabiwala Bank ka ek babu hai, apne aap ko Deputy Managing Director kehta hai, apne matlab ka nahi”…we say cockily and launch into the Ustad’s penchant for creating such swar samoohs, which in our view are often fictitious swashbuckling characters in  his narrative. Then we play the 6.47 cut of Kirwani on youtube and write on Ustad’s scrapbook- “iske pachcheeswe second se teeswe second me faisla ho jata hai ke sitar ka malik kaun hai…”. Ustad asks us to elaborate, and we say, “aap teenon, yane ke huzoor, Pt. Ravi Shankar aur Ustad Vilayat Khan ke beech.. chhota muh badi baat muaff karen..”. Ustad has a huge laughter, and evidently enjoys the comment, for he says “ye sab yahan likho barkhwurdar, padhne wale ko samajh aana chahiye…”

the Tansen of sitar!  He is teaching one of his old disciples, a dedicated lady of around 50. Accompanying him in teaching is Pt. Varman, moderator of the day, an accomplished sitarist…Khansaheb firmly takes the reins of the evening in his hands, addressing us by our first names, ordering us to first take our seats. Then he remembers: “Sawkar, inhe Ramnavmi ka prasad khilao- ye lo, Mahim ki mashhoor firni- Sawkar hamesha lekar aata hai..”

“Aur ab itminan se poocho kya samajhne aaye ho…sab batayenge, aur sath me sitar bajayenge hamare  shagird…ye koi jaldi khatam hone wala kissa nahi hai…”. “To fir baaki kissa muqwammal karne hamare ghar aaiyega.?” we scribble, and Khansahab observes sagely: ”bhai Sanjiv..tumhari likhawat padhne se to mai tumhe behtar sun loon…haan haan inshallaah, zaroor ayenge, basharte ke mohtarma Guru Purnima par apna gaana sunayen…”

the exchanges between us dabblers and the practitioners- Khansaheb, Pandit Varman and Missus are the stuff of revelation. Why for instance is the Ustad not heard playing glamorous ragas like Puriya or Darbari…or what constitutes the excellence of a sitar recital… Unfortunately, these revelations are not little shampoo sachets which can be marketed and sold for profit, hence zamana inke liye kyun waqt apna barbaad kare…?. The best things in life under today’s ‘life-model’ are destined to languish in the earnest, hospitable bosoms of irregulars like Gopal, Carl von bailiff, Senior, Junior, Missus, Mugdha, Jawahar Reddy and some deewane readers…

the discourse that followed is best cocooned into another passage. Just let us regain our orientation. So long..! Inshallaah see you behind the break!

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[1] Not as trivial as it seems- big-big guys do that! Happened with Indrayanikaathi—once it was known to professionals that Carl von bailiff was not a Khasi but a khalis Maharashtrian, the blog was dropped like a hot potato, readership plummeted, and its market-cap turned negative, he, he, he- Meghalaya is as far as the spirit of holy curiosity goes, not beyond…Now you know why Shobhaa De speaks excellent Marathi, but without concession to pronunciation…!- 

Sitar Mehbooba Hai Kiski? [AHJK 1]

We have always felt that the tradition of critiquing in Hindustani is superficial, person-centric or individual bound- ad hominem- and therefore, immature...yet to come of age....strong words, ehh...? Missus by and large agrees with this assessment of ours. By way of criticism Gunijan will normally say…So and So vs. the Other, or vice versa, he, he…! For instance, as we recalled on an earlier occasion, HT’s much-archived music critic Raghava R. Menon, the Kumarji aficionado, while reviewing a musical innovation by Pt. BSJ condescendingly remarked that the latter had at last taken a leaf out of Kumar’s book….whew…Something like that. In his book on Kumar Gandharva, Menon says “It was like a meteor that he passed across the Indian sky and cut in his wake the body of Hindustani classical music into two neat halves; one half before Kumar Gandharva and one half after him, a kind of a B.C. and an A.D. in Indian music.” That, even to a Kumar enthusiast like YT, is a grosss exaggeration, hero-worship, plain and simple. Unless someone does critiquing on basis of tools we discuss below, we can't claim that we are putting our heart and soul into the appreciation of our music..

Of course there are researchers who have made a break from the past, and have turned the gaze of new technologies on the subject of Indian Classical. Our own efforts, and those of Senior have been chronicled ha, ha..,in these columns from time to time. Recall the post where Senior analyses a taan from Vad jawu kunala sharana ga by Ashabai Khadilkar, presenting it in a visual that is, graphic, form. Witness also the fear expressed half-seriously by the writer that our music, being amenable to reduction in mathematical formats, could face extinction, if the mechanisation of music carried forward excessively (our Southern brethren A.R.Rahman and Ilayaraja were arraigned). We have also highlighted the efforts of the Kiwi researcher Gregory Booth in studying Indian Classical and Film Music.

The sort of threadbare study we are looking at has been carried on by the NCPA working with scholars of University of Amsterdam since early 1980s. Working on their project called AUTRIM (Automated Transcription for Indian Music), these dedicated musicologists have adapted a Dutch freeware called the PRAAT (Phonetic Research and Analysis Tool, which also means 'talk' in Dutch) into an instrument that automatically converts a recital into a beautiful moving graph. You can read swaras off the moving tracks, interpret taans etc. Let us take a statement 'in Bhimpalasi there is an andolan on flat ni' . The software will report the track location where this andolan can be heard in a recital and seen graphically.

Some of the eminent artistes who have lent their voices to the project are Pta. Ashwini Bhide, Pta. Veena Sahasrabuddhe, Pt. Uday Bhawalkar and Pt. Jayateerth Mevundi. Recently we witnessed Jabbar Patel's movie on Kumar Gandharva 'Hans Akela', in which one sees grandson Bhuvanesh Komkali analysing a Kumar bandish with the PRAAT. It's not clear whether or how the voice graphic can be seen as distinct from that of accompanying instruments?

Then there have been inquiries into certain features of Indian Classical from the point of view of the ubiquitous ‘consumer’. Look at the following line from the excellent paper “Audio Metadata Extraction: The Case for Hindustani Classical Music” by Preeti Rao of IIT, Mumbai (Proc. Of SPCOM 2012, IISc, Bangalore).

“To make the desired music easily accessible to the consumer, it is important to have meaningful and robust descriptions of music that are amenable to search.”

‘Metadata’ is simply the data or information or dimensions like a frequency value which are not tangible in the music. Thus the raga and the tala is not metadata, as it is mentioned on the CD jacket, whereas the graphical sketch of a taan which is extracted through a technique, is metadata.

These young researchers themselves are either artistes, or have deeper knowledge, which can come, say, by marrying to someone like Missus, ha, ha, ha…Preeti Rao’s paper contains many insights. See for example the following lines:

“In Western music, with its emphasis on discrete pitches and absolute tuning and relatively limited forms of ornamentation, the continuous pitch contour corresponds closely to a sequence of stable notes….The musical score in symbolic notation is thus a near equivalent of the melodic contour and music retrieval tasks can operate at the level of symbolic string matching. In Indian classical music, on the other hand, symbolic notation proves inadequate to deal with tuning variations and complex ornamentation that are fundamentally linked to raga characteristics. Being an oral tradition, this aspect has not seriously hampered music education. However for the music retrieval task, there is a need for more complete data representations to be derived from the continuous pitch contour.”

Basically what she says is that representation of a raga in Western notation like this:

has limited utility, given the surfeit of alankars like meends and murkis in the Indian Melodies. To reach those, you need to do the sort of research Senior does. Preeti Rao has done a lot of work on those lines, some of which you’ll see in the paper. You’ll now appreciate the odds against which Pt. Bhatkhande or Pt. Ratanjankar worked in their efforts at documentation. Dr. Rao believes that since our music is transmitted to pupils by oral means, no one acutely felt the need for metadata extraction (till an army of listeners emerged, who rely on secondary media like CDs or computer files for access to the music, and whose resources only can be the guarantee of the survival of our music.)

We shall return later to some other interesting sidelights of Preeti Rao’s paper, but let’s briefly return to our starting point, namely critiquing of Indian Classical, which in turn will chukao the namak of Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan, or to put it in plain English, justify the title of this Post and the next.

The point is that if meaningful and enriching lessons are to be drawn from an exploration of Classical compositions, one must go behind the rhetoric. For instance the profession of ‘gayaki ang’ is what we called the rhetoric, but if you really want to hear the human side of Sitar, there is no one like Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan or Shahidbhai, who never made any hoo-haa about his exalted status. And mind you, this not to say that Halim is the greatest, though that is in the realm of possibility…

All songs are great, Ashok Razdan, the hero of our post Remembering Nobody  said,…All Sitar is Great,  we declare now, and no odious comparisons…but for a real appreciation of the art, it’s essential to step into the artiste’s persona, and to possess lot of curiosity, and imagination with a touch of madness. If Nikhilda specialises in producing yards and yards of silken sitar fabric, Pt. Ravi Shankar is the Creator, Ustad Halim Jaffer is the raconteur and poet of Sitar, par excellence, and Ustad Shahid Parvez, the reigning Narrative Authority. The jury is stillll out on the merits of Ustad Vilayat Khan…Imrat Khan is talking to the jury...

We must have heard a 1000 GB of Sitar since our ear ripened, and always wondered what that Beautiful Lady, the Sitar, wanted to say or utter or articulate, passing from the hand of one Ustad to the other Pandit. What she wanted to say ever since Amir Khusro fathered her, is contained in half a byte of music, in the first 30 seconds of the following Kirwani by Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan, do listen:

And what she says is this, make no mistake: sitar mehbooba hai to bas Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan ki ! Listen two minutes, and you'll know of the whole affair between the two...two minutes of sitar one can and must die for, he, he, he...saare deewan ek taraf, ye chhabees lamhe ek taraf..Uffff...the things he does to her, she reciprocates and surrenders abjectly...she's made for only one man, the rest are mere hangers on, wasting their time and the listeners' time...she's  a wafadar dulhan.... وفادار بیوی میں, hope Mir is asleep...

In the next despatch we discuss Ustad’s personality and his music from the Worm’s perspective, aspects like creation of sthayi like motifs which Preeti Rao cites as the hallmark of a khayal, the Jafferkhani baz…. To us a recital by the affable Ustad sometimes is like a ghazal from Mirza Ghalib and on another occasion, a well-crafted short-story, having a beginning and an ending, like this pictorial illustration they use for the genre.

Somerset Maugham was supposedly the greatest raconteur amongst modern English fiction writers, and this house believes Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan possesses the same felicity with the Sitar. Of course we always felt that Ravi Shankar was economical and played to-the-point, while Halimbhai loves playing a bit about the bush...and boy does IK loves thaaaat... 

More on Ustad Halim Jaffer Khan and the art of story-telling on the other side of the break..

BEAUTY OF THE SITAR:

IF THE SITAR WERE A WOMAN:

After much research and introspection, we made the startling discovery that upon the face of this earth, only one woman can be likened to the Sitar (apart from Missus, that is):

 30 seconds..

GOAN CHEMISTRY

It’s a Truism, that Hindi Film Music has contributed much to ‘National Integration’. viz. while you may not follow the spoken part of a Hindi movie, Music supposedly has no language. Even Yuri Gagarin sang Mera Joota hai Japani….IK agrees and cites another observation in support of the integrative accolade, that much of the serious analysis of Hindi Film Music comes from Tamilians or Malayalis: aadi purush Raju Bharatan, then Ganesh Anantharaman, Raghava R. Menon, Kamini Mathai, Narayana Jayaram, Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti (Andhra?), also some Bengalis like Madhuja Mukherjee…Carl von ‘Bailiff…

Somehow reviewing film music seriously has not been considered very very -mince ‘elite’…or maybe academically fructuous… considered akin, perhaps, to writing reviews for WWF matches. May we aks, why then is writing about Cricket still considered sexy? In fact, the Hindu concept of karma has much to do with Cricket as she is played today- whatever is going to happen tomorrow is already ordained and written….by bookies..ya…One recalls the preface of Raju Bharatan's Journey Down Melody Lane....where he makes the following observation (on how he got the film music beat):

"...cinema coverage got to be contemptuously assigned to me – after all those intellectual heavyweights (manning The Illustrated Weekly of India in The Times of India Building at Bombay’s Bori Bunder) considered it beneath their dignity to handle something so demeaning as ‘films’!"

And pray what did Ustad Amir Khan feel about the best film music directors such as Naushad and C. Ramchandra? He asks Bharatan: ‘..what have these names you’re flaunting to do with music as an art form?’ 

(Bharatan, Raju (2010-09-01). A Journey Down Melody Lane (Kindle Locations 147-148). Hay House. Kindle Edition. )

Bhaiyya...!  You have gone on record saying Narayana can show up as a bhikshu, or ahem...Allahtala as a fakir....we are mere insaan... how can you say the classical God is disdainful of the sugam....?

IK is un-pretentious- a Witch’s Brew which welcomes, with open arms, all elements- the Damask Rose Fragrance, the Lorentz Transformation, Tuka’s Abhangas, Chabiwala Bank, Panditji’s taans, Meera’s simplicity, the Shillong weather, Madras Torture Commission…wagairah…wagairah…IK considers itself the spooky spokesman, he, he, he…of the lost tribe of Ustad Nizamuddin Khan, Pt. Khaprumama Parvatkar and Sebastian d’Souza . And Ashok Razdan. People who did not leave their visiting cards behind- they never thought of getting printed one. Watching their foot-prints is itself as delicious a game as Cloud Watching, the game that our friend Abhinav Gupt moots.

The blog’s eccentric eclecticism owes to the Delhi air of the 50s and 60s, when the Lahore westerly wind was allowed un-fettered access to Mera Bharat Mahan…punjabiyat hor wargi hundi si oas vele… you could see old school Arya Samaj ‘morality’  of the ‘Buniyaad’ variety, actually practiced, Aromas of India- roasted coffee beans, sambar powder, maach, rajma-chawal, alfonso, coconut oil, शेवंतीचे गजरे, ..had a free run of the criss-cross lanes and parks of Karol Bagh, New Delhi-5. We relish being in cultural cauldrons, as we have been saying. That’s why we are in the North East, I sayyyy…!

IK is certainly about meaningless diversions, granted, but meaningful interjections are also tolerated, ha, ha, ha…!

Let’s put the record straight insofar as the scholarship brought to bear upon Hindi Movies is concerned. What has taken one seventh of humanity by the scruff of its neck has to be a subject of serious socio-research is it not?…Gregory Booth (Peck illa…),for one, the NZ anthropo-sociologist has delved deep into the subject of Hindi Film Music. Just regard this passage from a paper “Pandits in the Movies: Contesting the Identity of Hindustani Classical Music and Musicians In the Hindi Popular Cinema” published on the Auckland University portal:

“Ustad Halim Jaffar Khan, who worked on Kohinoor, and other films with Naushad, explains that the singing in the scene was undertaken by Ustad Neyaz Ahmad “Naushad spoke to him about this scene. He said, “Please forgive me Khan-saheb, but for this scene please sing some taans and things, but in a comic way, a foolish way” (performed on screen by Mukri). Neyaz Ahmad agreed to do that”…in the same way that ‘blackface minstrels’ in the US epitomized and concentrated the thrust of white racism. Supposedly comic representation of Muslim classical musicians generates a subtle spotlight on  attitudes towards both classical musicians and Muslim Classical Musicians”.

Booth has a lot to say about the Indian brand of Secularism patented by Hindi Movies. For ethnomusicology and anthropological studies, Anna Moran is another name to reckon with. We however must live with Rajan Parrikar's take on the discipline of éthnomusicology: '..the racist term- when did you last hear the music of Beethoven studied under éthnomusicology..'- Well, well Rajanbua, Bruno Netti's wrote one such book, inter alia on the ethnomusicology of the European Composers called 'Thirty-one Issues and Concepts'. Moreover, the original sanskrit texts on 'Hindu' music were basically rescued by the Europeans, and our music subjected to systematic compilation. For instance the Chapter XXVIII on music in the seminal work on Indian arts, Bharat's Natyasashtra was first translated from the sanskrit by Frenchman J. Grosset. Captain Willard, himself a practitioner, wrote his seminal book on the music of 'Hindoostan' in 1834...! If you have to hear Parrikar's rare collection, you have to put up with some highly 'opinionated' opinions also, he, he, he,... The one we really loved was 'National A****M' or 'National Disgrace'? Those stars are important- they stand between us and Liberty, for while Parrikar can take potshots at this holy symbol from the safety of California, we can't, for we are no longer at Shillong. Just read this:   

 "I recall the trauma of my young days, forced to stand to attention to this unworthy, uninspiring, and above all, unmusical rubbish. Pakistan has a tuneful national a****m. (And they deserved to beat India in the recent Cricket World Cup solely on this account – that and the fact that their players looked like real athletes.) As does Sri Lanka. Even the tiny Kingdom of Tonga can claim a more evocative a****m."

That's what we call a real ''opinionated" opinion. It comes from Rajan Parrikar, the self--styled ambassador of the Grand-dad of Cultural Cauldrons! Amgele mogaacho Goa…!

Albert Einstein, when ‘forced’ to describe the Theory of Relativity in one sentence, had famously said: “Time, Space and Gravitation have no separate existence from Matter.” Elsewhere also Einstein had once posed the question to his audience- what would happen to Space if all matter was removed- Space itself would disappear, he proposed. What Matter is to Space, Goa is to Indian Music yes, G -O -A Goa. Count on what we say: aside of Caranatic, all performed music- Marathi Natyageet, Classical, Jazz, most of- all Hindi Film Music will disappear -wooossshhhh…..if Goa is taken away from our Music Universe….! Auchit podlom tujea mogan (Suddenly did I fall in love) is a line from the Konkani song Kedinch Chintunk Naslem (Never did I Think).

Suddenly it may have happened, but every ghati is expected to have his/her share of Goan Cousins. If you think marathis are dull muggles, not zindadil like say Punjabis, we'd say we have passed the taks of jiving and boozing to our Goan cousins! Our own cousins are in a sense opinion leaders of the family,  and we are really clued on to their psyche, or rather, we are one with them on many issues-‘ social justice’ issues for one. In general, Amgele boys, God bless them, will be quite mercurial- some will be mainstream guys like Dr. Vivek Monteiro or our Poona friend Joe Pinto, feisty Super Cop Julio Ribeiro, Mario Miranda, DD Kosambi, Emergency fixer Hiranmay Karlekar, Brothers Moraes, Prakash Shirodkar, Brothers O’Brien,..George Fernandes (he, he, he, he’s a Mangalorean), some will be insular like fictional Albert Pinto’s Australian Cousins, people perpetually planning emigration to Canada or Australia, some will be snooty, classifying their brethren at the Church Congregation into Original-Converts; Original-Converts- something which the Lord forbids.

Many have created institutions, but preferred to stay in the shadows- Da Cunha brothers ? Sylvester, father of the great female Indian Idol- noooo, not Madhubala or Indira or Katrina…we mean the Amul moppet- Utterly Butterly delicious- Bharat Dabholkar never tires of talking about the greatness of his Utterly Butterly predecessor …then there is RCVP Noronha, the native ICS topper, like they don’t make anymore, author of the racy “Tale Told by an Idiot”- who did so much for the tribals of Madhya Pradesh….they were all latent…avoiding public gaze…stepping aside for the scoundrels…he, he, he…! ‘Dogged’ Eunice De Souza, from whom we learnt about the real Jim Corbett…! The list is endless…then…contradictions abound…everybody in Goa knows true blue Goan Christian friends whose prized possessions are photo albums dating to their Gaud Saraswat Brahmin days…and finally we come to the subject of today’s entry…matter and music…just hold your breath: Mangeshkars, beginning Pt. Dinanath, Asha, Lata, Hridaynath- Anthony Gonzalves, Sebastian D’Silva, Kesarbai Kerkar, Kishori Amonkar, Prabhakar Karekar, Pt. Abhisheki, Pt. Khapru Parvatkar, Remo Fernandes, Chris Perry… the heart that beats in India’s breast is Goa…

PT. RAVI SHANKAR: PROUD OF PT. KHAPRUJI'S SHABAASHI

The mysterious tabla wizard mentioned in the post ‘Parvati Che Pt. Khapruji’, whose photograph was displayed, was none else than Khaprumama Parvatkar of Goa, and the person who started perspiring when he saw Mama sit in the front row was none else than yugpurush of sitar Bharat Ratna Pt. Ravi Shankar,. We have to believe the story for it is in his own voice on Parrikar’s site…

Whew…

As promised, we now touch upon the institution of ‘Arrangers’ in Indian Film Music. Merriam-Webster defines ‘Arranger’ thus: .

(music) a person who adapts a piece so that it can be played on different instruments, or sung by different voices .

Everyone has had occasion to muse upon the phenomenon of what can be euphemistically called ‘presence of external elements in Hindi Film Music’ –‘plagiarism’ is the ugly synonym…. Let’s say you are told  ‘Ai dil hai mushkil..’(CID) is a clone of ‘O my darling Clementine…’ ‘What about copyright..?’., and ‘Why are there no protests from the creators…?’ are the usual misgivings…So far as world-wide copyright period for music is concerned, it’s 50-70 years, broadly speaking…one does not bother to sue is another matter…but one can certainly raise a stink I sayyyy…! So why does nobody raise a stink…?

C.Ramchandra was once asked about Western influences on his music…eena meena dika..for example..he said something to the effect that: नाही नाही, उचलतो हा  बरोबर शब्द नव्हे. आता समजा तुम्हाला  मित्राचा सदरा  आवडला आणि तसलाच तुम्ही विकत घेतला- ह्याला काय चोरी म्हणावं…..?  (you like a friend's shirt, and you acquire a similar one..is that stealing…? Nooo…!)..inspired…yes!

Our Arranger friends played a unique role in the world of Hindi Film Music. The Goans led by Anthony Gonzalves, Sebastian D’Silva, Mark Machado, Chic Chocolate (Antonio Xavier Vaz) , Gomes brothers…also Manohari Singh, who represented the Eastern part of the country, were pioneers in this enterprise….

The ‘counter-melodies’ of Sebastian were to a large extent responsible for the coming of age of Shankar Jaikishan- for example the accordion that fills up the voids in ‘ai mere dil kaheen aur chal…’ of Patita was created by Sebastian (was a harmonium in fact, sounded like an accordion, such was the finesse). The music in ‘Aayega aanewala..’ (Mahal) and ‘Hum aapki aankhon mey…’ (Pyaasa) was created by Anthony Gonsalves.

The Goan musicians were crazy about Jazz and used to be regular players on the Chicago and New York Jazz circuit.  “For a Goan jazzman, the greatest accolade was to be told that he ‘played like a negro’ ”, says Naresh Fernandes writing for the arch-Goan site Goanet. He provides numerous other insights:

“ The pianist Johnny Fernandes, who later married Chic's daughter, Ursula, theorised about Chic : "In Goa, Mahars were grave-diggers. They'd also play snare drums and blow conches in funeral bands. When they came to Bombay, they became good jazz drummers and trumpet players." 

For Hindustani Classical, just replace 'grave-digger' with 'devdasi'...speaks volumes for the dynamic egalitarian culture...

Chic scored music for many movies as full Music Director, for instance Dev Anand starrer ‘Nadaan’ (1951).

“The bit parts in which Catholics found themselves cast on screen weren't an accurate portrayal of the vital role Goans played the Hindi film industry. Until the '80s, India had no pop music save  Hindi film songs. Millions memorised and hummed the compositions of C Ramachandra, Shankar-Jaikishan, Laxmikant-Pyarelal, Naushad and S D Burman, whose names rolled by in large letters at the beginning of the movies. But the Sound of India actually was created by Goan musicians, men whose names flickered by in small type under the designation "arranger". It's clear. The Hindi film classics that resound across the subcontinent and in Indian homes around the world wouldn't have been made without Goans. Their dominance of the Hindi film world is partly a function of the structural differences between Indian and Western music. Indian classical music is melodic. The ragas that form the basis of Indian music are unilinear, each instrument or vocalist exploring an independent line. To move an audience, film scores must be performed by orchestras, with massed instruments playing in harmony….Goans, with their training in Western music, knew how to produce what was required.”

There was also Manohari Singh, responsible for the best in sax in Hindi Film music (‘tere mere sapne ab ek rang..’, ‘bedardi baalama tujhko mera mann…’ etc.)- who hailed from Calcutta.

The Arrangers, apart from being possessors of awesome talent, performed certain important functions. One, they excelled at notation of music, a critical missing element in Hindi Cinema before their advent. But most of all, they were lubricants of sorts- a bridge between Western Jazz, Western Classical, contemporary western popular music of all types- and the world of Hindi Film Music. The Arrangers straddled both worlds, and commanded goodwill in America, having contributed to the music that was home-grown in that part of the globe. That Music was common heritage, and hence the Indian Music Director could just take shelter behind the Arrangers, saying booo to charges of plagiarism. One hastens to add here that the complementarity (?)  between the two classes of musicians was so superb that each Hindi Music Director could retain his individuality while reaping the crop sown by the Arrangers! It took the genius of both the classes to create a remarkable genre of Music.

And it took the gallantry and self-effacement of the Goans to allow all the credits to be laid at the feet of the Filmfare Award Winners.

TAILPIECE:

Stepping aside for scoundrels: Explanation:

Nineteenth century Speaker of the US Senate Henry Clay meets party enemy Senator John Randolph on a narrow sidewalk over a muddy street, refusing to give way. "I never step aside for a scoundrel," Clay says. Randolph tips his hat, steps into the mud and says, "I always do."

AMAKE SHOONTE DAO

Followers of our blogs on the present/previous site, may their tribe increase, have already been informed about an issue that has been exercising our mind for some decades. That again concerns Indian Classical and the antics of Tabalchis, which are getting on our nerves now. The last straw on Amitabh’s back was the projection of a Little Hirsute Zakir at the CWG inaugural. That was mAtra too much haan! The tabalchis have their side, no doubt, and we shall try not to be too harsh. The author is no expert or authority on the tabla, only an old disciple of Pandit Srikrishna Sawner of Indore. But he speaks on the authority many experts like Appa Madkaikar, Sawner Guruji, and Wife’s Dad, doyen of Bhatkhande, Dr. Balaji Pathak[1] (Dada). JyAstach LAdavtAt sAAle, he used to say. Its semi-parliamentary, but untranslatable.

A word of explanation here. Although he was associated with Ratanjankar and Bhatkhande, Dada was quite a dissolute liberal by their standards. The Ratanjankar-B.V.Keskar axis was behind some of the most sordid sagas of Indian Classical. B.V.Keskar was the first I&B Minister of Independent India, and AIR was his fiefdom. And boy! Did he do full justice to his Maharashtrian Brahmin identity! Mhanje agdi PeshwAi phetyAchA mAn rAkhalAAAA!

The influence that the Gwalior Grandees could not wield through musical felicity was sought to be achieved through All India Radio, where Keskar’s writ ran amok. (Ha,ha,ha!!!) That era can be said to be the ‘Emergency’ of Indian Classical. Senior artistes had to submit to auditions on AIR and listen to discourses by the school-masterish Pt. Ratanjankar. Pandit Maniram, Pt. Jasraj’s father, did not submit to the ignominy of auditions, while the then junior Jasraj did. Ergo, the father was graded as ‘C’, and son as ‘B’! Then- no Harmonium on AIR (Harmonium-phobia was a Raj legacy. Logic was that only 12 notes could be played on it, as there were no notes between the cracks, ha,ha!) The ban on the Harmonium had an unexpected windfall for listeners in the form of the sarangi+ Sabri Khan, though. The then Govt. was definitely laissez faire on the arts. Today a bronze in badminton at the Timbuktu Open merits a hug from the PM. He,He,He!

Back to percussion.

Tabalchis were a humble class once. When that frustrated bachelor Ram Manohar Lohia accused frustrator’s father Pt. Nehru of being dressed like a Tabalchi, no one objected, and some were in favour of more so. Tabalchis gladly accepted playing second fiddle, no reconciled-wiconsiled. The pecking order was like that. Like Victorian girls, they were supposed to be seen and not heard, literally. Yielding types, like the ideal Bharatiya naari, all.

An original episode certified as authentic by missus: Pt. Jasraj played tabla before he graduated to ‘vocalism’. At an Allahabad concert by Jasraj, wife’s brother Baba of previous blog ‘Musicians Ahoy’, complimented a very close relative of Jasraj, and a rival of his, if there was one- complimented on the skills of Pt. Jasraj. Arrrre…wo to tabalchi hai bhaiiiyyyyaaa…aap ko pata nahi? Says Close One.

Graaaadually, tabla caught the fancy of the masses. Here we give three URLs of that magnificent natyageeta sung by three greats, with decades in between. You can observe for yourself the paltas, uthans and other gyrations and convolutions on the rise temporally, ceteris paribus.

Marmabandhatali thewa hi by Dinanath Mangeshkar (1931) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULAEr_iJty0

Marmabandhatali thewa hi by Prabhakar Karekar (1969) http://www.in.com/music/track-marmabandhatil-thev-hi-1969--190105.html

Marmabandhatali thewa hi by Asha Bhosale (2007) http://www.hummaa.com/music/song/Marma+Bandhatali+Thev+Hi/134882#

The tabla in the first one is most simmmple and unobtrusive. It is what is called ‘theka’- marking time. In Karekar’s, it becomes bolder and ventures out into the balcony. In Asha’s its all over the chowpatty. Ashatai was into natyageete, while Latatai did it on rare occasions. No mystery, do you expect a delicate beauty like Aishwarya to believe in wrestling?

Here, in defence of the tabalchis in the latter two versions, it must be said that although the embellishments follow the temper of the times, the tabalchis have done justice, full marks to them. But the trend is clear enough.

For an explanation on technical terms, here is a sample of Uthan which is like prefacing the theka (rhythm).
http://hindustanimusic.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/teentaal-uthan-and-tihai/
and of a paltahttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_K4nIDozzQ

There is a good introduction on http://www.angelfire.com/music3/tabla/karmaker.htm

Here is a sample of domination of the main instrument by the tabla. Of course it happens after the vilambit/ alap part- usually, the tabla is patient initially and demolishes the instrument or gayak in the second half. Therefore we could not furnish the right URL, but you heard them all. Try Hari Bhai’s EMI Pilu with Zakir Bhai on the tabla. It is like a solo by the tabalchi, with lehra by the pandit…Here is Zodun kadhane in Hamsadhwani:

Where Zakir Bhai or Shamsi are concerned, they are big, and the principal player looks upon them indulgently. But we have seen Dr. Amonkar and Sudhir Phadke ‘counsel’ their tabalchis 'suitably'. But then the tabla is a real , slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. Its a bona fide supraman, to use Yossarin’s words (Catch-22).

Why the tabla scores over swara-instruments in audience appeal is also a conundrum in itself, Sir. It seems tala precedes the swara on the human evolutionary ladder. Tribes which don’t have flutes or strings invariably have drums. Drums were used to drive away wild beasts, they say. So..does regular rhythm provide a feeling of comfort and safety, craving for which is ingrained in the primitive part of our brain-our ‘read only’ memory?- our ‘boot sector’? Not convincing, really. Anyway, it does appeal more than the swara to the animal part residing in your right brain- the baser ‘you’ as in bass ha,ha,ha and that is final. Anybody will love sugar and spice, yaar! What’s so great about appreciating tabla?

Pucca gana has nuances, demanding a trained ear. Not so, the tabla. Dhangad-dhinga has no nuances, beg your pardon. So- survival of the fittest, in music-world? Taking our music to masses was an economic compulsion for the very survival of our music, and the tabla did the trick. Prominence to the tabalchi was the opposite of ‘throwing the baby with the bathwater’, if there is an opposite. ‘Throwing the bathwater with the baby’? Ha,ha,ha!!! Preserving bathwater with the baby? Better.

Tabla had a number of other things going for it. One factor was the revolution in sound engineering. Technical advances in sound engineering which jelled with audience preference are also partly responsible for the sorry state of affairs. We had occasion to chat with Appa Madkaikar, percussionist par excellence, who played for leading music directors of the Bombay filmdom, now retired. According to him, in ancient times, the prominence of one player from the other could be ensured only by varying the distances of the microphones which were one or two, effect of which does not amount to much. Anyway, acoustics was poor. Level playing field. Enter, multi-channel-sound- pressure-enhancing machines. Liberation for the devil. The sound level of individual instruments could be enhanced at the turn of a knob by the backroom boys! Backroom boys are big-big music directors now, but that another day. Of course, of course he remains the greatest, no doubt.

According to our Goanese friend Appa, in the infancy of these machines, the decibel level of sound pressure for the tabalchi as read from the sound meters, was maintained by Appa’s troupes at least 10 dB below the level maintained for the principal performer, and 5 dB below other sangatkars. Tabalchis were simply sangatkars. To familarise readers with dB, at a threshold frequency 1 kHz equals 0 dB (this 1 khZ detail is inserted just for technical compleatness, forget it), the noise of a domestic mixie is 65 dB, jet engine at 100 m is 140 dB, and a regular exposure to 100dB can leave you deaf in a few months, esp. if coming from spouse. Thus, in an auditorium situation, if sitar was @ 70 dB, tabla would be @ 60 dB, and harmonium, say 65 dB. Now- they are kept at similar decibels, and at a Mumbai concert, we have actually seen The Hairy One ask for a rise in dB, if not in his fee. Ha,ha,ha!!!

Another development that worked wunnnnders for the tabla was band-width extension. That is the technical term for stretching the spectrum of the desired frequencies. This is what you manually do while setting the ‘equaliser’- bass, treble enhancements. Three types of speakers also came into existence, the Woofer for lower frequencies, Mid-rangers for middle frequencies, and the Tweeters for the higher ones. To give you an idea of high and low frequency, the frequency of maximum amplitude in cycles/sec. for Veena is around 250, for the Sitar, 315, for a Violin, 500, for Shehnai, 1250, and for Tabla, only 110. For a man’s voice, it is 315, and for a woman, 400. Now you know why the Sitar is a she and a tabla, a he. A word about wave-length, frequency and amplitude. Kindly see the picture here. Wavelength and frequency are two sides of the same coin. Amplitude has to do with loudness- higher ‘sound pressure’. As depicted, a higher amplitude of the same swara (more-or-less meaning frequency) implies that the swara is the same, but coming louder.

For a scholarly research paper by S.G.Ranade, from which the data is taken, dial ://www.new.dli.ernet.in/rawdataupload/ upload/insa/INSA_1/20005ab9_55.pdf

Manipulation of the baser frequencies is funnn, isn’t it? Recall Zakir bhai’s train sequence in the Hamsadhwani by Pt. Hari Prasad? It sort of churns your stomach and produces that roller-coaster effect, whole rooms and window panes reverberate, and this cannot be bloody achieved by a sitar. But the things the sitar does to the cognoscenti ear is ethereal. Daroooon. It is witch craft! It takes you to the other world, while the tabla is busy jiving with window panes! It is musical hedonism, and we are not amused, Sir.

In the end, the loser is our music. Advancement in percussion isn’t the whole story. Should we be left with only our ancient drums on qayamat day? You find it difficult to behold the shy and reclusive notes of the sitar, or a delicate caress on the violin in all that din, boss. You miss a lot in those nettlesome intrusions. They detract from the sum and substance of Classical. Okay only up to alap. We need to give a serious thought to this issue. And mind you, this is not at all a purist’s view of today’s music. Surely, we are quite eclectic and catholic. This is just the plaint of a humble listener who feels strongly about it and would like to ‘flag’ the issue for other listeners- listeners who believe that there is still a lot of steam left in our music, it has not reached the end of its tether, nor is it fit to be flogged like a dying gold-mine, flogged by gold-diggers. Ustad Vilayat Khan was a purist who challenged the virtuosity of Robida, who paid no heed, for he was usually abroad with a broad, ha,ha,ha!!!. We believe that the innovations and improvisations of Ravi Shankar and Kumar Gandharva have enriched and given new vitality to our music – given it a jeene ki tamanna- urge to live on. We are not talking in the vein of Shivshankar Shastri of Sur Sangam (Hindi Sankarabharanam) who gets wild with his daughter’s use of rishabh in Kalawati (maika piya bulaye). As dabblers will recall, this was a throwback on Ravi Shankar discovered Raga Janasmmohini formed by throwing in a rishabh into Kalawati Aroha (Ja ja ke ritu from Anuradha). In an imaginary match between Ravi Shankar and Vilayat Khan with yours truly as referee, we’ll certainly raise Ravi Shankar’s gloved (plectrumed?) fist, on points, not a knock-out.

So……..…in the words of Chattopadhyay K., our conscience-keeper, thisss kind of tabla-playing is sheer claptrap, bondhu. AmAke shoonte dao, dada!

But then what? ‘Future is What’? Hope for the storm to pass, he,he,he? Turning of tables on the tabla? We agree with Vivekananda: This too shall pass. This contribution, file under ‘Opinion’.

To get over our Mayoosi, or disappointment with our tabla greats, let us try to imagine what-if Dr. B.V Keskar was allowed to have the last word on the issue. First of all- he would set up IMRA- Indian Music Regulatory Authority, like IRDA or TRAI. No more than so many paltas or tihais per so and so…Penalties?.. Yellow Card. Benching, …may be a Death Sentence also- only rarest of the rare case, ok? There would be a Central Music Authority and it will naturally be headquartered at AIR Bhawan, Sansad Marg, New Delhi 110001, venue of the Last Battle by pro-changers in Rang dè Basanti!

[Note: as far as possible, we have put 'em stupid allusions in smaller letters]

Tailpiece: used in Label : what would be the name of the Bhojpuri remake of ‘Ghajini’ ?- Takla Bhari Padal!
[1] click to see their relationship