AHMEDABAD: On Sunday, the city experienced the chill usually felt by someone from whom love has been withdrawn. The ambience was apt for the presentation of Bageshri, a raga that expresses longing for the beloved. Yet, when Pandits Rajan and Sajan Mishra elaborated on Bageshri - on the opening day of the Saptak Music Festival's 32nd season - the desire for the lover did not seem wounded by the frostbite of despair. In fact, the titans of the Banaras Gharana reaffirmed on Sunday that longing was like devotion, which teaches us that the prayers' effects are seldom instantaneous.
The 'bol' of the maestros' rendition was 'Kavan gat bhai mori piya na pooche ek hu baat' (roughly translated: the beloved does not utter a single word to me). The devotional energy of the performance seemed to stoke confidence in the sense of yearning. "If the rendition had a devotional edge, it was because of the genius of the gurujis," said Viraj Amar, one of the very few disciples of the Mishra brothers in Gujarat. "The raga is marked by 'shringar' or romance, which was articulated beautifully."
The wintry pall at the concert venue - Amrut Mody School of Management - started dissipating when Bageshri's flirtatious innocence began to blaze with 'Jamuna jal bharan nahin mohi det Kanhai'. When finale approached with 'Aavan kaha gaye ajahu na aaye', the audience was indifferent to the elements and the only shivers seen in the rasikas were those produced by Bageshri's rhythms. The maestros had bound the audience with the warmth of art.
Such a reaction is not an abstraction; it has been documented by the preeminent neuroscientist Oliver Sacks. "The binding is accomplished by rhythm - not only heard but internalized," Sacks writes in 'Musicophilia'. "Rhythm turns listeners into participants...and synchronizes the brains and minds (and, since emotion is intertwined with music, the 'hearts')."
Amar described the performance as meditative - is that not the outcome of the union of the brain, mind, and heart?Main box:
Legacy in sure hands
One of the highlights of Day One was Taal Vadya Kacheri featuring Hetal Mehta Joshi, the daughter of Manju Mehta and the late Pandit Nandan Mehta, the founder of the festival. Hetal, who upholds the Banaras Baaj tradition of tabla playing in Gujarat, demonstrated the polished verve her father would have admired. She was playing with pakhawaj stalwart Hemant Bhatt, and two folk percussionists of raging flair: Gazi Khan (khadtal) and Firoz Khan (dholak).
With harmonium player Shishirchandra Bhatt, the percussionists orchestrated cascades of rhythm that had rasikas crying, "Saptak is back!" They were particularly delighted by what the khadtal - a pair of thin, wooden blocks held in each hand - could do when wielded by masters like Gazi Khan. He appeared to be conjuring laya in air.
The day opened with shehnai recital of Ustad Ali Abbas Khan, the son-in-law and disciple of the immortal Ustad Bismillah Khan. The protege's exposition of Maru Bihag was the model of magisterial languor - the signature of his guru. In the second baithak, Kartik Sheshadri, one of the most illustrious pupils of the great Pandit Ravi Shankar, explicated Ragas Sankara and Charukeshi. In Sheshadri's accomplished playing, one could spot the solar flares of his mentor.
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