To mark his 100th birthday, classical vocalist performs to a full house of 1,200

Kolkata: More than 1,200 listeners sat spellbound as Sangeetacharya Amiya Ranjan Bandyopdhyay stepped onstage on Feb 21 — his 100th birthday — and reiterated that age is just a number. The hall filled beyond capacity, and another 200 people turned back, shut out not by lack of devotion, but by lack of space. In a city that honours its veteran musicians, this still felt rare — watching a centenarian Indian classical vocalist command the room with quiet authority, not chasing applause, only offering music shaped by a lifetime.
The warmth in the Vivekananda Hall of the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture in Golpark, which included the likes of Pt Ajoy Chakraborty, Pt Anindo Chatterjee, Pt Kushal Das and Pt Subhen Chatterjee in the audience, left the doyen of the Bishnupur gharana quietly content. "I've seen people who didn't live honestly pull strings for their share of recognition. But the spontaneous, overwhelming response at my centenary concert felt like my reward for an honestly led life," he told TOI.Vocalist Pt Shantanu Bandyopadhyay said that his father-turned-guru performed despite being forced to pause his daily riyaaz while recovering from a viral fever. His routine remains exacting: up at 7 am, a shower at 11.45 am, lunch at 12.15 pm, a nap until 2 pm, writing until 4 pm, teaching until 8 pm, and dinner by 9 pm — still carving out time to compose.Ageism, Shantanu said, doesn't exist in his father's dictionary. Age has only widened his curiosity. At 85, he began learning Hindi so every bandish would sit on the tongue with flawless pronunciation. At 90, he took up computers, refusing to let time dictate what he could or couldn't do. "Before the fever, every morning he practised at home with a tanpura and tabla player. At night, after dinner, he listened back to the recordings, searching for any place he might go wrong. That's how he's kept his brain alive," Bandyopadhyay said. He still teaches around 50 students across the world—some in person, others over the phone on speaker mode, Shantanu added.Saturday's concert by the Sangeetacharya, performed in accompaniment by Pt Samar Saha, became a landmark of sorts for many. Music connoisseur Meena Banerjee listened to Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan after he crossed 100. Yet she never heard of a centenarian offering a centenary concert as his birthday treat to Kolkata. "The Sangeetacharya's music is emotive, mellifluous and peaceful. He is still going strong in Amirkhani style sans longish ‘badhat'. The small, multifarious phrases of raga Bihag, strung aesthetically with the help of delicate meends, cast their spell much before his quicksilver taans, which thrilled youngsters who came in large groups," Banerjee said.