Tagore’s songs are fusion: Sounak

Sounak Chattopadhyay tells TOI how he wants to reach out to GenX with his music
Since you don’t belong to a family of practicing musicians, how difficult was it for you to take up classical music as a career?
There is a difference between being a gharanedar musician and someone like me who is doing music for the love of it. For 21 years, I’ve been training in the Kirana gharana under the maestro Ustad Mashkoor Ali Khan saab and his younger brother, Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan.I miss being part of the ambience of gharanedar musicians. But, my parents have been a huge support. Never once did I think of doing anything in life other than music. And that was true even while I was studying at Don Bosco, Park Circus, or at South City College.
Did you stand out among your classmates in school?
Yes, I did stand out from the common herd. I would usually be seen with a tanpura at all inter-school competitions. But most of my classmates would often congratulate me for being a sitar player! They couldn’t differentiate between a tanpura and a sitar. I’m still asked what I do for a living? I’m told: ‘gaan toh korchho but ar korchho ta ki?’ But such comments haven’t deterred me from my musical pursuits. I’ve gone on to win the Dover Lane Music conference talent search, the national scholarship in the field of Hindustani classical music by the Indian government and the Kal Ke Kalakar awards.
You’ve just come out with an album titled Nuton O Shonaton Rabindranath that integrates Tagore’s songs in traditional style with Hindustani classical bandishes. Is it more of an attempt to attract today’s youth?
Tagore’s songs are a readymade form of fusion. I wanted to bridge the gap between traditional undiluted Rabindra Sangeet and contemporized experimentations. I’ve taken lessons from Swagalakshmi Dasgupta and Pramita Mallick. In 2007, I had come out with an album titled Kabir Aangone Rager Alo. That was the first time one vocalist was seeking out bandishes that had uncanny resemblances to Tagore’s songs. Later on, I’ve seen stalwarts like Ustad Rashid Khan and Nachiketa explore this genre further. In my experiments, I’ve taken care not to distort the notations. In the Times Music album titled Nuton O Shonaton Rabindranath, I’ve 10 songs, five of which are in a traditional manner and the remaining five have been fused with nuances of ragas.
Two of the classical compositions in Raga Gaud Malhar and Raga Bahar are your own reinterpretations of Tagore’s music in a khayal style. What do you have more — guts or command over your subject?
I have both in equal measure. When I had first composed a bandish, I had sung it for guruji. He liked it and encouraged me to compose further. I’m very fluent in Brijbhasa and, hence, it’s not difficult for me to compose the lyrics. Ektu pakamo
korechhi when I wrote: ‘Damini chamke damke re/ jhanan jhanan boodan barse/ kab banke piya tu boondaria barsoge mere man me’. That was Tagore’s influence on my pen.
You are also experimenting with your amalgamations of works of Tagore and other poets...
Yes. In the pipeline is a project amalgamating works of Tagore with the English Romantic poets. But I don’t wish to divulge further for fear of plagiarism.
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