Stringing us along

Santoor maestro Pandit Shivkumar Sharma will enthrall Mumbaikars yet again, when he performs with Ustad Zakir Hussain on Thursday. Their annual concert has become a must-attend on the city’s cultural calendar over the past few years.

Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s first performance in Mumbai was in 1955 at the age of 17. Sixty years later, with his latest concert in the city scheduled for January 15, the santoor maestro is going strong. His upcoming concert at the Nehru Centre in Worli, has been organised by Anand Trust and will see Ustad Zakir Hussain accompanying Panditji while actress Juhi Chawla plays the host.

Revered in the world of Hindustani classical music enthusiasts, and much admired even by those who aren’t seasoned listeners, Panditji shared some of his wisdom with The Mumbai Age over a conversation at Juhi Chawla’s Malabar Hill residence on Monday.

We began with the complex question of an artist’s relationship to his art, and Panditji said, “Being a musician, I have often been inquisitive about the question ‘Who am I Am I this body ’ And often I have come to the conclusion that my body is like a machine, like a car, which I am using every day. Music helps me at this quest — playing music for me is a way of meditation, where one can separate oneself from the body. We call it sakshibhav — a witness to these hands playing the instrument, while somebody inside who is the real self is watching it and also doing it through this body, through this machine.” Talking about the Hindustani music audience in India he said, “Most often, the lay audience is intimidated by Hindustani classical — they fear that they are not competent enough to understand the nuances. But what they do not understand is that you don’t need to know a particular raag to enjoy it. In Urdu we say, mausiki rooh ki raza hain (music is food for the soul); one can just sit back, relax and enjoy the music. However, music is not just to excite or entertain your senses, it has a strong connection with spirituality and I have felt that music and spirituality are the same.”

In several countries abroad, psychiatrists often recommend his music to their patients, which has turned to be therapeutic for many across the globe. “Once a professor-friend of mine had told me that on his visit to Sweden he learnt that a doctor prescribed an album of mine to one of his patients to check his smoking. And apparently it helped! At the same time, I also came to know that many meditation centers are using my music to teach meditation and yoga, it was then that I started to experiment with my music as well,” Panditji said.

“Two years ago I was participating the Womad Festival (World of Music, Art and Dance is a festival that was initiated by the English singer-songwriter Peter Gabriel) in Australia where they had called musicians from all over the world, and they had multiple stages, where they performed simultaneously. My programme was in an open space and after attending a pop concert, the audience came in for my show. They came in holding cans of drinks and food; in our music we don’t permit this. But as they settled down, I asked them to shut their eyes, sit back and relax. I asked them to focus only on the music and not to think about the instrument or the musician. And they kept their eyes shut throughout the alaap. After the concert, many came up to me and spoke about their experiences.”

But when they perform in India, why does it have to be a certain way For instance, would Panditji perform at one of the Weekenders or at the Ziro festival “Why not ” he replied. “The purpose of our music is to reach out to people who don’t know anything about the music. To give them bliss for a while. And I call it, music beyond entertainment.”