At Saptak: A violin tour de force with Gujarat link

Ahmedabad: As Vidushi N

Rajam

plays her violin, the bow traces the arc from her musical enlightenment to the origin of her inspiration. The starting point of her art lies in the sanctum of the Hindustani tradition, where her Bhadran-born guru Pandit Omkarnath Thakur is an epic presence.

Rajam’s recital was featured at e-Saptak on Saturday. She rendered Khamaj among other ragas. Barricading themselves against Covid, rasikas viewing the programme at home would have let her raga essays work as inoculation against the infections of everyday life. The symptoms of that disease are boredom, despair, and the Sisyphean necessity to relive drudgeries.

Vidhwan Kumaresh

, a

violinist

and titan among

Carnatic

musicians, explained why Rajam is a canon-shaping instrumentalist.

“Though Rajam ji talks about the gayaki style on the instrument, I think it is the other way around,” Kumaresh told TOI.

“Many musicians have tried to incorporate her sound through their

voice

.” Rajam’s negotiation of the trickiest raga twists reflects the self-assurance and creative acumen she needed to take the most significant turn in her life of music.

As a young learner, she sought Pandit Thakur’s mentorship to move from the Carnatic to the Hindustani genre.

To understand the impact of the switch, a hint can be taken from Kumaresh’s praise — Carnatic music did not lose, Hindustani did not win; a great artist found the perfect voice.