The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Rudra veena — re-emerging from oblivion
By Vandana Shukla

TWENTY generations of the Dagar parampara has produced numerous well-known Dhrupad singers. But their contribution in producing a tradition of instrumentalists is not so well known. Their long-time efforts in researching and improvising instruments like the tanpura, sur bahar, rudra veena and many others has remained in the background, supporting and improving the quality of sound and music.

It was to the credit of late Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar that the rudra veena was brought back from oblivion. He took 30 years in re-shaping the instrument which used to be made of a simple bamboo rod. After studying the acoustics of different timbers, metals and shapes, he with the help of Kanhai Lal and Sons of Calcutta gave the instrument its present shape. The changes brought forth by his labour of love are evident in the improved quality of sound and greater freedom in providing fine tonal adjustments to the artiste. Now, it is his son Baha-ud-din Dagar, elegant and self-assured,who plays the instrument with great elan. He was in Chandigarh on an invitation from SPICMACAY to give concerts in the local colleges.

The Dagar parampara came into being with Swami Haridas Dagur and produced a string of maestros who kept alive the mystical and sacred tradition of Dhrupad gayaki. Though all eight Dagar brothers practised vocal as well as instrumental music, their public performances were strictly restricted to their profession.

So, Ustad Zia Mohiuddin Dagar produced many vocalists, but never performed on the stage. Similarly, Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar trained Bahauddin in rudra veena after his father’s demise, but never played it on the stage. Sustaining a musical career in an unusual and not-so-popular instrument must be a difficult task for the Dagars. Even in the vocal tradition, when others have been singing khayals, the listeners for Dhrupad have always been selective, it has not been a very popular style of singing.

Following this tradition for 20 generations, Dagars have acquired an unusually stoic temperament which is more than evident in Bahauddin despite his very young years. In the absence of any concrete help coming neither from the government nor from the corporate, the family has started its own small gurukul in Palaspe, near Palvil, a suburb of Bombay. With a few resources they manage to keep students for five years, train them in vocal Dhrupad tradition and in instruments like sitar, sarod, sur bahar, chalo and flute and then provide them a stage to perform as professionals.

Despite a severe restrain of resources, some of them have made great success stories from this small gurukul by sheer devotion and hard work. Gundecha brothers who used to eat only one meal a day for years together to manage within Rs 300 of scholarship shared with the family, are a well-known name today in the world of music. With just three veenas that they have, each instrument costs around Rs 75,000 and would take three to four years’ time in making, his father managed to produce students who are playing this instrument abroad; in France Philip Teuje and Philip Rugniye and Jack Luis in the USA.

Bahauddin says there is no dearth of good artistes, but they fail to come to the limelight, because the resources are made available only to a few stars. Yet, he does not complain. He believes ultimately it is the quality of music that matters, not the stardom. He does not want to chase popularity, nor does he want to switch over to playing popular instruments like the sitar.

He says, “I don’t even play fast taans on the sitar because my instrument is not well suited for it. You cannot make an elephant run like a deer”. He is complacent. He says people might like the unique grace of his instrument, or they may not like its slow pace, but he will not make it a hybrid for playing to the gallery.

He says, “Whatever I search for in music, I have not yet realised. I want to explore it through this medium.” To him, his instrument is like a computer that can measure and produce finely augmented and diminished notes barely discernible to untutored ears. The veena does not have sympathetic strings. This enables it to produce micro tonal variations.

The instrument looks bulky and the artiste holds it like one holds a sitar, but it is light in weight. Matching the looks, the sound too has a deep resonance and a fine tonal quality. The artiste plays it in a slow majestic pace. The body is made of teak wood. The hollow ‘tumbas,’ made of dried pumpkins, are elaborately decorated. Bahauddin says even the amount of decoration affects the quality of sound in the instrument. Hence, the decoration should neither be a little less nor a bit more. The slightly curved bar allows the sound to create a sphere of sound waves, unlike the sitar which has a straight bar where the sound waves reflect back. In rudra veena it keeps moving in a sphere, thereby, improving the tonal quality, but at the same time, this sound cannot be recorded nor a mike can be of use. So, to get over this problem he uses a mike inside the tumba. The frets are movable and have all three octaves. The four main strings are tuned to shadaj, pancham, and madhyam. Three chikari strings are for keeping ‘taal’ and one string of laraj is played between the phrases. A mass-scale production of the instrument is not possible. Each piece has to be created, and no two instruments can have similar quality of sound.

There is a three-tier system of learning to play the veena. First, the student has to understand, by practice, the classical system of music; then, he or she is trained to play the sitar; thereafter, they are made to play sur bahar for a few years. Only then are they considered fit to play the veena. The road is long and arduous and success not ensured.

Is he optimistic about the revival of rudra veena? Bahauddin’s pragmatic approach is truly philosophical. First, he is trying to get a few more instruments made. Then he proposes to offer scholarships from his own resources and train a few students in his gurukul. The rest he will leave to the forces of time and divine will.

Bahauddin has been awarded the Xal Praxis Foundation Scholarship and has performed in prestigious sammelans and samarohs in India and abroad. He played raga Madhuvanti on the veena in his unique style of long and slow paced ‘alaaps’ and ‘taans’ at GCG, Chandigarh. He was accompanied by a very competent pakhawaj player Sanjay from the accomplished Nana Palse gharana.

SIGHT AND SOUND

by Amita Malik

It wasn’t cricket — not even tennis

IT was melodrama, drama and finally, for sports lovers, a tragedy. But it made for excellent television. In three action-filled days, the Hanse Cronje story unfolded in bits and pieces and then by leaps and bounds. Then came the advance announcement, on Tuesday that Ali Bacher would make a statement at 7 p.m. (IST). So we set our watches for that suspenseful moment. The poor fellow had got the famous confession in the early hours and considering his more than disturbed sleep, read out the climax in slow, measured, pained tones, in the kind of language that no script-writer could have bettered. The president, he said, and the country had been deceived and all hell was let loose I think by far the best coverage came from Star News/Plus, which not only kept up moment to moment reporting from the morning onwards, with frequent link-ups with South Africa, but rapidly scooped up interviews with those who mattered. Zee tried to keep up, but was left far behind. DD didn’t even try. For me the most innovative and exciting coverage, was when Rajdeep Sardesai matched the police transcript of the conversation between Chawla and Cronje just before the Nagpur match, comparing it sentence by sentence, ball by ball and player by player with visual sequences from the actual match, proving how faithfully the pre-arranged fixing of runs, wickets and the rest was followed. A revealing, shattering and truly sad experience. Bravo Rajdeep.

But I must fault Barkha Dutt for the way she virtually ruined the 10 o’clock news hour, where she was co-anchor on Tuesday. I have received repeated complaints from viewers, who fully acknowledge Barkha’s recognised and now awarded-considerably talents as a reporter, but resent what they describe as her “rude, overbearing ways as a co-anchor. She should certainly have given way to her betters in the field of cricket. Instead, she cut short cricket official Bindra from Chandigarh, then a first-rate sports correspondent like Amitabh Revi hardly got a chance to talk, while the hapless Arnab Goswami sat around patiently as usual, trying to get a word in. Then she usurped the discussions with Mira Nayar and on Jhumpa Lahiri. The art of co-anchoring needs a lot of restraint and unselfishness, Barkha. And enthusiasm must be tempered with humility.

DD on its part, again betrayed its amateurishness over the Davis Cup. The reception on the underdeveloped Sports Channel was grainy, in poor colour and sometimes broke down, with no apologies. After the first singles ended, about 20 minutes lapsed without any commentary or filler footage, just a silent view of the deserted court. Utpal Bhattacharjee’s verbal diarrhoea, went on loud and non-stop, with a bizarre reference to what he called “tennis folklore”. Some relief came from the more professional Amrita and Jaideep Mukherji, but our best commentator, Naresh Kumar, was in the audience. How one longed for Vijay Amritraj, but DD is more interested in spending its new found wealth on its upgraded news anchors.

Saeed Naqvi’s latest mishandled scoop for DD. His correspondent, V.K. Sashikumar, was sent up for a series of reports, Afghanistan. The View From The Front-Line from the Panjshir Valley of Afghanistan, including an exclusive interview with General Ahmed Shah Masood from his secret hide-out in the rugged territory, involving some exciting aerial shots, from where he is fighting the Taliban. The first by an Indian journalist and TV team, with some important disclosures about Pakistan’s role. DD’s PR was too busy publicising her bosses to bother about issuing advance press notes or excerpts about such vital programmes, scheduled with characteristic lack of news sense.

Cricket Scam Gaffes: Karan Thapar’s Big Q on the subject was hopelessly dated, Zee carried the ironic Kronje ad for Hampstead suiting. DD’s sing-song midnight anchor’s headlines ran: “The P.M. has said, the Samjhauta Express and last and least, the Kronje disclosure.

ART & CULTURE

by Suparna Saraswati

The revival of English theatre

THE birth of the Chandigarh Amateur Dramatic Society in the late 1950s coincided with the emergence of a culturally sensitive and theatre enthusiastic group of individuals in the city. Some of the familiar names of these were Mrs Eulie Chaudhry, Justice G.D. Khosla, Mrs Sneh Pandit, Mr Prem Kathpaliya and Mr Manmohan Sareen. These were the volunteers who laid the foundation stone of the CADS under the pioneering guidance of Mrs Chaudhry. Interestingly the motivation provided for such a creative introduction came from the famous legacy that Gaiety Theatre at Shimla had successfully established.

Mr N.C. Thakur, a trained drama enthusiast from Oxford, fondly recollects the years gone by of the CADS. According to him, “The first full-length play to be staged in Chandigarh by the CADS was Jagdish Chander’s ‘Konark’ in Hindi. And it was after this production that I got formally inducted into the CADS and became their stage manager along with Eulie who began directing famous English plays. Hence, the switch from Hindi to English theatre took place.”

This group has been resurrected recently. So, who are its revivalists, responsible for bringing back the CADS by performing two productions till now. The trio that has actively recuperated it by performing “Birthday Honours” (a light frivolous comedy) and the much-acclaimed “Mousetrap” recently consists of Jayshree Thakur, Meeta Mann and Bela Sahgal. According to Bela, who directed “Mousetrap,” “We are keen to encourage theatre by providing an alternative form of meaningful entertainment”. Meeta adds: “Chandigarh has come of age and drama needs its due in the city”.

As regards the casting of their plays, it has been a pleasurable experience for these enterprising professional women to interact with “a committed and focused lot”. CADS productions have so far been sponsored events with minimal ticketing in order to ensure a full hall audience. Asked as to why they decided on such a repeatedly performed play such as “Mousetrap,” Bela and Meeta jointly replied: “Chandigarh craves for globally recognised popular events and this play fits the bill perfectly. Also it provides a wide range of characters to experiment with”.

Regarding the revival of the then CADS, Mr Thakur feels, “As there is a lack of good English theatre in Chandigarh, it is, therefore, the need of the hour sort of thing to once again put together the spirit and character that the CADS was associated with in the present times”.

Well, we wish the promoters of English theatre all the very best.

French classical spell

Set in the artistic ambience of the Rock Garden open-air theatre, one was treated to a marvellous concert of the French music for string instruments on April 9. In the 90-minute presentation by the quartet “Art Cordes”, one was made to travel through time to the ecstatic realms of western classical music. The quartet comprised four young French artistes, Arnand Crozatier playing the cello, Quentin Hindley on the Alto, Survier Flores Lopez and Jacque Gandard were the two violinists. All belonged to the prestigious music school of Boulogne-Billancourt. The concert highlighted the evolutionary journey that the French classical music has experienced from the middle ages right up to the present times.

* * *

Chandigarh witnessed an impressive exhibition-cum-sale, “Maati Art from Earth” with 10 women potters putting their heart and soul into their artistic commitment. The objects ‘d’ art of these talented studio potters constitute a “Jhur-Muth” (cluster) of amazing shapes and designs varying in size. Each artist’s work is reflective of her style/the kind of technique applied in the making of her piece. The range is an extensive one. Be it Monica’s stoneware or Rachna’s landscape paintings on ceramic platters or then Manisha’s ‘Raka’, or Leena’s effective glazes (this unique display is bound to change the stereotype image that pottery has had for long among the city dwellers/residents).

AUDIOSCAN

by ASC

LARA LAPPA (T-Series): Harbhajan Mann is now a big name in Punjabi pop. So why should little brother Gursewak Mann be behind the side curtains? The wannabe pilot too has now cut a disc to apportion his share of the limelight.

Not only does he resemble Harbhajan physically, but his voice is also quite similar. It is another matter that he has not done as much work on this debut cassette as he should have done to give a good account of himself.

The biggest mistake is the borrowing of the tune of an A.R. Rahman hit from “Dil Se”. That leaves a bad taste even when you are listening to other songs.

Lyrics (Babu Singh Maan) have a typical rustic quality which goes very well as long as a song is sung in the traditional way. But when there is a simultaneous attempt to palm it off as a pop song, well ….

BAAGHI (Venus): While it is so easy to criticise established composers for their sundry shortcomings, one realises the difficulty of their job only when comparing their creations with those of the newcomers. The freshness that should be the hallmark of those who have just started their career is so rare to find.

Exceptions are of course there but Sajid-Wajid do not belong to that category. The music seems forced and lacking the easy flow. Except for Piya tu kahan hai … by Shubha Mudgal to some extent, there is no song which makes you sit up and take notice.

Jaspinder Narula and Abhijeet tend to be unnecessarily shrieky in Pyar pyar… while Ek kabhi do kabhi…(Kavita Krishnamurthy) is let down by ordinary lyrics (Faaiz Anwar).

Sunidhi Chauhan has been performing well recently and she does not disappoint in Chaha tha tujhe, where Sonu Nigam is her co-singer.

NAMOKAR MAHAMANTRA (RJ Series): This company has been bringing out religious incantations to the public through their various cassettes. Namokar Mantra is rather brief, barely 12 words. On side A Ravindra Jain repeats it 108 times, while Sadhana Sargam does so on side B.

Ravindra Jain is the music director himself but as far as singing is concerned, Sadhana has done a much better job of it.