Recently, an unusual concert held a select niche audience enthralled at Delhi’s India International Centre. The vocalist, Dr Shashank Maktedar from Goa is understated and unpretentious as a musician and as a person, and so far has not made the type of waves in the world of music that his performances deserve. He was presented to Delhi audiences by Naad Sagar Archives; an organisation set up by Irfan Zuberi and Naveen Khilnani in 2009.
Naad Sagar Archives have three objectives — to digitise personal music collections of musicians to safeguard them for the future, to try and fill in the gaps in the oral histories of musicians, and to try and cover their complete repertoires by recording them, and thirdly to disseminate classical music through concerts, exhibitions and the like. Irfan Zuberi spoke of having recorded Pt Rajshekhar Mansur, the Professor cum singer son of the legendary late Pt Mallikarjun Mansur, who was considered an authority on rare Jaipur Attrauli raga and compositions.
Pandit Mansur recorded 25 raga, meant to be performed throughout the day for the Archives, singing several bandishes that he had never sung before on a public platform.
Zuberi admitted that the organisation tried to even curate what raga and compositions would be presented at the concert so there is no duplication, and so the discerning niche audience know what to expect. Earlier, artists from the same unique vocal tradition that Dr Maktedar represents (a combination of Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur Attrauli gharanas) included Pandita Subhadha Paradkar, Pandita Vijaya Jadav Gatlewar, and Apoorva Gokhale. He said we try to pick artists who are knowledgeable, have the integrity to maintain the sanctity of the traditions they hold training in. They also have had a few instrumental concerts, but so far have focused on vocalists, primarily to preserve rare compositions. Financial support to the endevour comes from the Jnana Pravaha, Banaras, headed by Bimla Poddar of the Calcutta based Neotia family.
The current head of the family, Harshvardhan Neotia has continued the financial support initially given by his late uncle, Suresh Neotia. So far, 20 such concerts have been held, since 2012; Irfan Zuberi was hopeful the financial support would continue in 2018 too. The well chosen artist of the evening, Dr Shashank Maktedar is the senior most disciple of legendary vocalist Pt Ulhas Kashalkar. The tradition he represents is a composite amalgamation of unique aspects of three distinct gayaki traditions. Pt Kashalkar’s teaching to each of his many disciples is so distinct that each sounds different, and each sings in a uniquely modulated voice without an attempt to sound like the Guru. Some of his better known disciples include Pune based son Sameehan Kashalkar, Kolkata-based Omkar Dadarkar, Delhi based Dr Ojesh Pratap Singh, Pune based Manjusha Patil, and Dr Sadhana Mohite and of course, Goa based Shashank. Shashank is also a teacher, Dept of Music, Goa University currently holding additional charge as principal. He started his recital with a raga special to the Jaipur Attrauli tradition, Jait Shri. As the name suggests, it’s a combination of Jait and Shri; and Shashank with great skill kept the sanctity of the mood of the raga intact, delicately exposing each facet of the raga, in the tradition of Jaipur gayaki. He sang two compositions, both in teen taal, before moving on to raga Hameer, starting with a most thorough “auchaar” (short delineation of the raga, without being a full scale aalap).
The first, rarely heard, composition was in tilwada taal (16 beat) “sun sun re balama, mat ja”, the second was in drut teen taal. This raga was presented in the traditional Gwalior style. The third raga of the evening was Paraj, sung in authentic Agra style, in which he sang a khayal of “Sanad Piya”, the pen name of a prolific composer of mainly thumris called Ustad Tawakkul Hussain of Rampur.
The final raga was the much loved raga Des, but Shashank sang an old fashioned, subtly adorned Des, not the romantic Des one usually hears. The sparing use of the komal gandhar, as per Senia tradition, in the composition spoke of its Senia provenance. The lyrics of the khayal were monsoon linked, perhaps inviting the much needed rains in Delhi to alleviate the much talked of pollution in the air. Indeed, it was a most soothing 2 hour concert, untouched by vocal gymnastics, completely melodious, in “shudha” (pure) raga, with beautifully executed taans in varying speeds, and total laya control.
Shailaja Khanna writes on music, musicians and music matters
