To reach the 50th milestone of one’s musical journey as a fairly well-known performer and a very successful guru is not a small feat, but Vidushi Dalia Rahut achieved this distinction despite her reticent and soft personality, heavily dominated by her legendary Guruma Vidushi Girija Devi. It was Vinod Kapur, the lone crusader, who started Purab Anga Gayaki Utsav and featured young talents by organising pan-Indian contests. This, by default, brought their gurus into the limelight. As such, Dalia Rahut is one of the two chosen Gurus who are associated with Kapur’s project of encouraging and grooming not only performers of this multihued Gayaki but also its future mentors.

Apparently, Dalia-Di has a great following. Her disciples, led by their senior gurubehen Abanti Bhattacharya (VSK’s Girija Devi Puraskar winner and a steadily rising Purab Anga Gayaki exponent), celebrated this auspicious occasion by staging ‘Purab ka Rang Phag ke Sang’ at Moulali Yuva Kendra on 9 March. The final part, an interview-based recital by Dalia-di, included an array of genres like bol-banav and bandish ki thumri, dadra, tappa, hori chaiti, etc. that come under the canopy of Purab Anga Gayaki (PAG). Dipped in the beauty of her melodious voice, every item was enjoyable. Moreover, the interviewer (yours truly) made her talk about her own grooming, a few memorable moments at SRA, her alma mater, and her successful teaching methodology.

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The evening commenced with the short recitals by some of Dalia-di’s disciples. Among them, her youngest disciple, Sagnik Sen (a prodigious Patiala Gharana exponent), displayed that with time, he will succeed as a PAG exponent as well. Jhumpa Sircar, as usual, charmed listeners with her soulful golden voice and relaxed way of singing any number of complex phrases across three octaves. As the grand finale of the evening, all joined their guruma to sing Hori.

This love-laden event, beautifully planned and meticulously executed by Abanti and her team, rested on a strong support system that included sensitive tabla accompaniment by Aurobinda Bhattacharya, Sanjib Ghoshal and Dilip Mukherjee and excellent harmonium support by Debashis Adhikary.

Basant Milan

During the spring season, Purab Anga Gayaki (PAG) has always been the focus of Sangeet Ashram, under the guidance of its founder-director, Pandit Vijay Kichlu. Keeping the legacy alive this year, they organised a multihued ‘Basant Milan’ featuring a few highly gifted young vocalists who are striving to scale the peaks of both Khayal and PAG. The vibrantly colourful floral backdrop of the stage at Uttam Mancha set the mood for a rather long evening (5–9 p.m.) on 23 March.

The highlight of the event was a euphoric Duff ki Hori, a genre usually accompanied by a huge Duff and dominated by male singers who tease their sweethearts by showing false anger and, in return, get spicy comments! Under the direction of Vidushi Subhra Guha, all the participants in the event except Ivy Banerjee and Nabhodeep Chakraborty were in the opening and second slots, respectively.

The deep, full-throated voice of Ivy reminded me of that of her PAG mentor, Vidushi Purnima Chaudhuri, but her singing style was independent. She received the seasoned and sensitive harmonium support of Pandit Jyoti Goho while presenting a Kafi thumri (that could do better with correct lyrics) and Maajh Khamaj dadra adorned with sparkling melodic bol banav. Pinaki Chakraborty, a disciple of tabla maestro Gobinda Bose, offered commendable assistance throughout.

Most of the recorded and immortal ‘thumris’ of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan actually come in the category of dadra. Nabhodeep, the young torchbearer of the Kasur Patiala Gharana, possesses a chunk of unpublished treasure from the Gharana. He showcased one such Hori thumri composed by Bade Khan, his dadaguru. Set to raga bihag and jat tala, this was close to khayal, whereas the following Sohini and Pahadi-based hori dadras were in typical Patiala style. He was aided by veteran tabla maestro Samar Saha of Benares Gharana and Sarwar Hussain’s sarangi.

The engaging melodic dialogue between Sanjukta Biswas and Sabina Islam Rahaman was an ideal example of ‘class’ jugalbandi. Moreover, these senior disciples of Subhra Guha followed the highly evolved grammar of thumri (Khamaj, Dipchandi), tappa (Jhinjhoti, rupak), and a (Pilu) dadra singing with élan. Aesthetically supported by Pandit Gopal Mishra’s robust ‘Banarasi’ tabla and Rupashree Bhattacharya’s singing harmonium, their soul-stirring bol-banav, delighting baants, and well-chiselled taans enhanced the Holi-based lyrics’ beauty manifolds.

Debapriya Adhikary presented Persian Rubais set to a tap-khayal (Adana Bahar, addha) genre. This rare cheez was gifted by his loving PAG mentor, Girija Devi. The twisting-twirling tappa-taans carved out neat patterns at a fast pace, superbly played by Gopal Mishra. With an enchanting Kafi Hori, tuned by his Guruma, Debapriya concluded his recital.

Albeit groomed by several legendary Patiala Gharana vocalists, Vidushi Anjana Nath is also admired for her emotive style of presenting PAG that is very different from her equally effective khayal renditions. Her Pilu thumri set to Addha painted a vibrant melodic scene wherein Little Krishna plays the colourful Holi with friends. Samar Saha’s mind-reader tabla and Sarwar’s emotive sarangi helped immensely. A unique hori-dadra in Khamaj was her parting gift of the day as a soloist. Within minutes, Sanjukta-Sabina and Debapriya (dressed up as Krishna), along with Gopal Mishra, joined Anjana for Duff ki Hori, the vibrant finale of the evening.

Personal Passion

Indian classical music was essentially meant for a few class listeners, invited in small baithaks organised by royalties or aristocrats of yore. This trend is reviving due to the personal passion of music aficionados. One such warm Baithak was hosted for a few handpicked listeners by music patron Sanjay Mitra in the spacious living room of his Queen’s Park residence. Curated by tabla maestro Samar Saha, who is known to encourage prodigious talents, this evening one was introduced to a young teen, Prantika Naskar. Blessed with a golden and extremely pliable voice along with a highly fertile mind, she was initiated by her parents, Kaberi and Arup Naskar, to classical ragas and talas very early and now trains with khayal, ghazal, and harmonium expert Ratan Bhattacharya, who accompanied her along with the tabla of Prantika’s father.

Prantika presented her version of slow and fast ektal khayals in Raga Patadeep, replete with many brilliant but unexpected harkat-murkis and phrases akin to ghazals. She also eschewed heavy gamak phrases, or taans, in favour of fast, lustrous, fine-grained taans only. This hugely gifted child can be any top-ranking trainer’s delight. She needs to focus on khayal and its eight segments with proper technique and grammar now. Later, she can easily handle a more lenient form like ghazal. Her next, supposed to be a Pahari ‘thumri ‘, turned out to be a dadra set to kaherwa. Diverse permutations of notes flowed like water. On request, she sang a Chaiti in Chanchar and Keherwa Talfirta with remarkable confidence.

Young flautist Anirban Roy, a disciple of his father Loknath Roy and Pandit Tejendra Narayan Majumdar, has already carved a niche for himself soon after his debut on Sangeet Piyasi’s prestigious stage. This evening, his delineation of Raga Yaman flowed like molten silver. Nabagato Bhattacharya, a worthy young disciple of Samar Saha, was equally brilliant as a tabla accompanist. Together, they also showcased two compositions in Kafi and Bhairavi to the delight of listeners.

The writer is a senior music critic