Sound of silence

Priyanka Dasgupta / TNN / Aug 31, 2007, 00:00 IST

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While instrument festivals are common abroad, India hasn’t hosted any since Ustad Amjad Ali Khan organised the sarod festival in 1988. TOI checks out what’s keeping Kolkata away from hosting a sitar or a guitar festival.

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Ustad Amjad Ali Khan organised the sarod festival in 1988 (TOI Photo)While instrument festivals are common abroad, India hasn’t hosted any since Ustad Amjad Ali Khan organised the sarod festival in 1988. TOI checks out what’s keeping Kolkata away from hosting a sitar or a guitar festival.
A few months back, London hosted a two-day-long sitar festival.Eight sitarists were invited to perform at the festival in May and if sitarist Pt Kushal Das’ views are to be accepted, the event received a good response from the young audience.
Yet, such instrument festivals are much of a rarity in India. The last prominent instrument festival that India had seen was the sarod festival in 1988, organised by Ustad Amjad Ali Khan saab in Delhi.
Though the festival was a huge success, one wonders why other musicians haven’t taken the onus on them to organise similar or other instrument festivals in India.

Budget and jaded ideas of the ways of classical concert presentations seem to pose as major hindrances. While sponsors are still far and few between for any kind of classical music concert, event management organisers don’t seem optimistic about generating funds for an out-and-out instrument festival. Sponsors, on their part, are apprehensive about whether the audience will find it boring to listen to so many artistes playing the same instruments on all days of the festival.

Says Das, “The London festival had Kalyanjit Das, Padmakar Mishra, Reena Srivastava, Dr Viram Jasani, Partha Bose, Sanjay Guha, Shubhendra Rao and myself. If both the young and elderly listeners can be so drawn to such a festival in London, I don’t see why we should develop cold feet here. I have already begun planning a three-day-long sitar festival in Kolkata for 2009 featuring both young and stalwart sitarists.
The junior group of performers would include Mita Nag, Purbayan Chatterjee, Prateek Chowdhury, Niladri Kumar, Bijayadittya Mukherjee. For the next two days, one could have recitals of Pt Budhadittya Mukherjee, Ustad Sahid Pervez, Ustad Sujat Khan, Prof Subhendra Rao, Prof Sanjay Guha and myself.
I would also like to felicitate stalwarts like Pt Kashinath Mukherjee, Pt Manilal Nag, Pt Santosh Banerjee, Pt Shyamal Chatterjee, Pt Debiprasad Chatterjee, Pt Deepak Chowdhury, Pt Sanjoy Banerjee, Bidushi Jaya Biswas, Bidushi Kalyani Roy.
I would feel honoured if Pt Ravi Shankar agrees to grace such a festival that could cost at least Rs 10 lakh to be organised properly.” The fear of monotonous renditions on the same instrument can be ruled out by effective planning of juxtaposing musicians from different gharanas.
BBC Planet Award for World Music recipient Pt Debashish Bhattacharya intends to host a guitar festival in Kolkata in 2008. The initial plan is to host a guitar camp with legends and students of the instruments from all over the world.
“Primarily, there are guitar players of four prime genres including Rock, Jazz, Fusion & Blues and Indian classical music. I want to include guitarists from these genres in my festival. Renowned guitar teachers from India and foreign universities will attend a camp to conduct workshops. I also would like to felicitate Pt Brij Bhushan Kabra with a lifetime achievement award. This project could require a budget that’s close to a crore.”
What would be interesting about this festival is that it would bring in musicians and listeners of both Indian and Western forms of music. Local bandwallahs as much as classical musicians could take a liking to a festival of this kind.
While Das and Bhattacharya are gung-ho about such projects, there are others who aren’t that optimistic. That’s perhaps why despite having so many great percussionists, Kolkata hasn’t yet seen one percussion festival in Kolkata yet. When CT asked new-age musician Abhijit Pohankar whether a festival of keyboards could be tried out in India, the musician sounded pessimistic.
“India can’t hold just a keyboard festival. Unfortunately, there are only five or six artistes who have been constantly promoted. People are kind of stuck up in the same monotonous way of listening. To promote such a trend requires tremendous media support. Only then we would enjoy like a Woodstock Festival. Tell me one reason why we can’t host a new-age music festival for days where no regular artistes are
repeated? Frankly speaking, I am not concentrating on India since India is just Bollywood. Recognition for deserving artistes can’t happen till people come out of their shells and comfort zone of listening to same stuff all the time without wanting to change.”
One can’t miss out the ‘abhimaan’ in Pohankar’s comment. Perhaps, the city that boasts of all things cultural could do with some serious rethinking.

About the Author

Priyanka Dasgupta

Priyanka Dasgupta is the features editor of TOI Kolkata. She has over 20 years of experience in covering entertainment, art and culture. She describes herself as sensitive yet hard-hitting, objective yet passionate. Her hobbies include watching cinema, listening to music, travelling, archiving and gardening.

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