AHMEDABAD: Pandit Chhannulal Mishra, who performed at the Saptak music festival on Wednesday, presents serious art with the lightness of a personable guru. Under Pandit Mishra’s amiability lies the spirit of a hallowed tradition. He was a disciple of
Ustad Abdul Ghani Khan
, a Kirana Gharana stalwart. Perhaps the programme note that marked Pandit Mishra’s recital as semi-classical is a reflection of his command of forms such as thumri, chaiti, and kajri.
“Pandit Mishra is not the sort of performer who sticks only to singing and leaves the stage when the show is over,” Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the
Mohan Veena
idol, told TOI. “Pandit Mishra interacts with the audience, explains particularly complex phrases, and offers context to compositions,”
Pandit Bhatt
said.
Indeed, on Wednesday, Pandit Mishra’s willingness to clarify his works augmented the emotional heft of his renditions. For patient music lovers, education opens like alaap at Saptak. At the festival, midnight is the moment when rare insights begin to radiate from the stage of Hindustani icons. The artists are heartened by the sight of rasikas who are brightly attentive at the hour when most of the city is asleep. In that quiet prelude to sunrise, the great vidushis and the begums and the ustads and the pandits become warm and expansive, and not only perform for rasikas but also reveal a secret or two of saadhana.
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