Back to the classics

To many it may seem that Indian classical music has gotten sidelined over the years, but renowned classical vocalist, Venkatesh Kumar firmly believes that it is still very much relevant and alive. The vocalist will be performing some evergreen compositions, songs sung across all gharanas, as part of a three-day music festival, Bandish 2016. Spanning from July 8 to 10, maestros of Hindustani classical music such as Ajoy Chakrabarty and Hariharan, and playback singer, Parthiv Gohil will also be performing at the festival.

“Listeners of shastriya sangeet may be different from your regular listeners but they are not small in number,” says Kumar, who takes his inspiration from renowned classical vocalists such as Abdul Karim Khan, Prabha Atre and Bhimsen Joshi, who gave him his first major break. While he does concede that not as many early morning or afternoon concerts take place, he is quite happy with the Hindustani classical music scene on the whole. He adds, “Plenty of youngsters come to our programs.”

Evening performances, according to Kumar, does curtail the choice of ragas that he usually gets to perform, since the rules of Hindustani classical music restrict the performance of different ragas to different times of the day. He says, “Most people who come to these concerts are well-versed enough to know which raga to sing when, so they would know if I went against the rules.” However, for a master in the Kirana and Gwalior gharanas, each raga reflects a different mood and each mood can be played upon for hours. “A bandish is only a small part of a raga,” he explains. “I can sing a raga from alaap to the end for an hour or an hour -and-a-half.”

From July 8 to July 10, 6.30 pm onwards, At Tata Theatre, NCPA