In mesmerising sitar recital, Ustad Nishat Khan liberates Bihag spirit at Aguada jail

Panaji: Water looped around the concert venue from three sides like a necklace at the Aguada Port & Jail Complex, Sinquerim. So when Ustad Nishat Khan took the stage for his sitar recital on Sunday, he had a setting that recalled the Indian peninsula to create landmark moments of Hindustani music.

Indeed, Khan began to engrave memories in the audience from the very alaap of his first exposition, Raga Bihag. Waves were going about their ancestral duty of softening the rocks. The alaap’s notes seemed to glide over the audience and join the waves in fulfilling the elemental responsibility of reshaping the earth.

In press coverage, Khan’s speed of playing is ritually acclaimed. Later in his presentation, he demonstrated that the ritual is warranted. But as Hindustani stalwarts stress with some impatience, the alaap is a prayer for them and only novices hanker after rock-and-roll breeziness. And in Khan’s introductory passage to Bihag, the audience appeared to breathe in deeply when notes as delicate as flowers offered in prayer unfurled their fragrance.

When Bihag reaches its climax, it sets off fireworks of several celebratory moods, notably romance. Here, Khan’s accelerated fluency was in evidence. He produced a fusillade of euphoria, his fingers precipitating a haze across the frets, and emphasising that urgency of expression in music should have the authenticity of a lover’s proclamations.

The piece de resistance of the raga was Khan singing ‘Lat uljhi suljha ja re balam’. “It is a very old and beautiful composition,” Khan told TOI. “I sing classical compositions to enhance the bandish. I don’t sing to sing.” As for the composition, it roughly means, “A lock of hair on your forehead is entangled. Why don’t you detangle it, beloved?” It is perhaps an anthem for a solicitous, attentive lover.

“Ustad Enayat Khan sahab, my grandfather, sang with the sitar,” Khan told TOI. “Then my uncle, Ustad Vilayat Khan sahab, took it to another level. My father and guru Ustad Imrat Khan sahab would do it too. We are the pioneers of khayal ang (style) of playing.” The audience delighted in that bequest of the Imdadkhani Gharana.

The second major presentation of the evening was Raga Nand Kalyan. “This raga is similar to Bihag,” he said. “Subtle way of playing Raga Nand Kalyan makes all the difference.” It is well known by purists around the world that even a speeding Ustad Khan never veers off the expressway of nuance, and the Goa audience relished a reiteration of that fact on Sunday.