Antarang, a new dimension to the festival

In the true spirit of the prestigious Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav, the maestros of music are giving some precious food for thought to the seeking music aficionados. On the sidelines of the festival is Antarang,' a talk series that has been introduced this year onwards to lend insights into the nature of Indian classical music.
The first session of Antarang' held at Sawai Gandharva Smarak on Thursday afternoon, had vocalist Pandit Satyasheel Deshpande giving a detailed talk-cum-demonstration on the various styles of singing and on the different gharanas' that emerged in India.
Deshpande, a prominent disciple of Pandit Kumar Gandharva and son of eminent musicologist, Vamanrao Deshpande, established the Samvaad Foundation in Mumbai that houses the largest and most valuable collection of Hindustani archives in the country.
Known for doing comparative analysis between alternate interpretations of classical forms, Deshpande put forth his observations during the session. Besides explaining how the tempo of a bandish' or khayal' can be changed as per the taal,' he also demonstrated the characteristic features of each gharana.'
"Vocalists from different parts of the country lent their own style of singing the same music. This led to the emergence of different gharanas. And why not? There's no point in everyone singing the same style of music in the same way," said Deshpande.
The vocalists have performed accordingly. While the Agra gharana lays emphasis on the artiste to have a significant entry into his performance, the Patiala gharana is known for giving utmost importance to voice culture. The Kirana gharana, to which Pandit Bhimsen Joshi belongs, looks at every swar' in great detail. "Members of this gharana have focused on using each swar from various angles," said Deshpande.
The audience caught the beauty of each gharana gayaki through the tapes on Surashri Kesarbai Kerkar, Ustad Faiyaz Khan and Ustad Abdul Karim Khan that were played during the hour-long session.
"Point is, two singers from two different gharanas exhibit different extremities of voices. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi too, introduced elements of other gharanas in his style of singing. In fact, he was the first vocalist to lend melodrama to singing voice," observed Deshpande.
Despite the rich musical legacy of India, Deshpande felt, we as a society are suffering from monoculture, today. "A programme like Sa Re Ga Ma Pa' has singers performing in a few swars. They can't even exhibit a wide spectrum of pitches, because they prefer to emulate just a handful of singing styles," explained Deshpande.
But great vocalists are not created overnight. "Great artistes try to reach a higher self by getting into a mode of their own on the stage," he explained.
Not to forget the fact that classical singing facilitates an artists given-and-taken between the performing artistes and the audience. And over the years, the audience has matured in their musical tastes.
Festival flick
Shadja,' a special documentary film segment on musical greats began at City Pride Kothrud, on Thursday morning. Antardhwani,' a documentary made by Jabbar Patel on santoor maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma lent a fine artistic mood to the Sawai festival.
From Sharma's days of struggle, to his breakthrough in Hindi film composition to him becoming a legend with the then lesser-known musical instrument like santoor, the hour-long film was a reflection of what goes into the making of a great musician.