Have good wishes or an aspirations sincerely and leave its realisation to ‘Me’ says lord Krishna in the Holy Bhagwat Geeta. How true ! Born with an ear for music, I always wanted to be an audience to good music – be it indigenous or otherwise. And then I have a special liking for instrumentals. Had it not been for friends and acquaintances like Ashutosh Save, a news reader with Prasar Bharati and Nageshkar, Manager, Auditorium , Nehru Centre, I would have never realised my dream of being an audience to musical concerts. Ashutosh always makes it a point to gather invitation passes for me and my colleagues who share my passion for good music and takes great deal of trouble to deliver them being sure that I will make it to the concerts anyhow. Nageshkar never disappoints me. He makes passes available to me even at the eleventh hour being impressed by my love for Hindustani Classical Music.
Every musical concert has been memorable for one reason or the other and needless to say enjoyable, more of a spiritual experience except the one I attended this week end at Akashwani Bhavan. With Pandit Nityanand Haldipur, a stalwart who honed his skills as a flautist under none other than the legendary Pannalal Ghosh himself, and Nayan Ghosh on the Tabla the evening was expected to be memorable one that would delight the audience . However, on the contrary it became memorable for the wrong reasons.
The concert began at 6.00 pm sharp. The evening opened with Raga Marwah being played in Vilambit Taal that was more than just enough to push the audience into the dark oblivions of serenity. Being used to the present day concerts that are at the most of 3-4 hours in duration, the gradual rendition of Marwah blossoming at a pace that can be compared to the blooming of a bud wasn’t going down with me very well. And both Panditji and Nayan Ghosh, products of old school , as evident from the orthodoxy reflected in their presentation, if I may be excused to say , could not cope with the shortened durations. Ending Marwah as good as they could one could hardly overlook the fact that it was done abruptly. This was followed by Mishra Piloo in madhayam and finally it was Dipawali, a raga invented by Pannalal Ghosh himself, being played in vilambit taal . Having attended Carnatic – Hindustani jugalbandi between flautist Ninad Mulaokar and Shivkumar Ananth Raman, Carnatic violinist on the 1st February i.e just ten days earlier it was but obvious that I would draw comparisons and this was more so because I had been an audience to the well-defined taans and beautiful harkats of Ninads Hindustani flute as he played Bihaag. Pandit Haldipur also played taans, in fact with greater humility, sobriety and more gently however the overall experience wasn’t exactly as exciting as it should have been. Why could Pandit Haldipurs taan not reach the audience the way Ninads taans reached them at Ravindra Natya Mandir ? Was the sound system an issue with the Akashwani? Quite likely. And for a gentle instrument as flute this could cost dear. Just imagine a stalwart in his field putting in hours of riyaaz daily promptly before the concert and failing to reach out to the audience – courtesy poor sound system!! A good sound system a well informed and well groomed host are the assets or pillars of a musical concert and only a naïve would dare to organise a musical concert overlooking these vital points that are mandatory to make any musical concert a success. Prasar Bharati, I think, should be the last entity to indulge is such blunders given the fact that they have such a rich tradition of patronizing the performing arts .
So here’s a hoping as a concerned audience that Prasar Bharati doesnot indulge in such negligence and hopefully Lord Krishna hears this one too and ensures that this too is realised!!- Bhushan Sarmalkar (JAI)
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