Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty and Purbayan Chatterjee present the nuances of Hindustani music

Pt. Ajoy Chakraborty performing at the Sursagar festival
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Purbayan Chatterjee showcased the melodic potential of the sitar to its fullest, offering an aesthetic experience for connoisseurs of music. He commenced his concert for the  42nd anniversary celebrations of Sur Sagar, a collaborative venture with the Kolkata-based ITC Sangeet Research Academy (ITC-SRA), with a popular melody in raag Purya Dhanashree. The alaap stood out for its serenity and every note of this well-known raag was invested with poise and clarity. The jod-jhala delineation with the surge, sink and rise of the notes was a witchery of sound patterns.

 Purbayan’s raag vistar in the medium tempo jhaptaal composition in the gat was testimony to his prowess. His gats abounded with tonal shades and rhythmic complexities. Senior tabla artiste Yogesh Samsi turned the concert into a  rhythmic extravaganza in the Madhyalaya Jhap taal, a cycle of ten beats, and the drut, a fast-tempo composition in Teen taal,  a cycle of 16 beats. 

Purbayan Chatterjee
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

Purbayan left the audience awe-struck with the popular chota khayal bandish ‘Payaliya jhankar mori’ in Purya Dhanashree. In a rare gesture of a guru acknowledging his inspirational debt to his sishya, Purbayan rendered a captivating ‘dhun’ from the Benaras region in raag Mishra Khamaj, which he had picked up from his student Abhishek Mishra. Singing the ‘dhun’  ‘Dagar bich kaise chalu magroke kanhaiya bepeer’ in Dadra, a rhythmic cycle of six beats, Purbayan wove a tapestry of raags effortlessly  into the Khamaj matrix. This provided glimpses of the richness of our Lok Sangeet traditions. Yogesh Samsi’s accompaniment was feisty.

 The second concert of the evening featured the inimitable Pt Ajoy Chakrabarty. His rendition of the night melody raag Bageshree showcased his impeccable craftsmanship devoid of gimmickry. His was vintage raagdari music marked by classicism and ethereality. This came through in his unhurried alaap in cyclic avartans of the vilambit Ek taal bandish ‘Kaun gat bhayi’. 

Ajoy Joglekar on the harmonium was equally resourceful in negotiating the improvisations of the maestro, coupled with Yogesh Samsi’s tabla sangat.  

Pt. Ajoy’s rendering of  ‘Binati suno mori, awadh pur ke basaiyya, Janaki pati Ram’ was drenched in devotional fervour.

As a disciple of the Patiala gayaki of Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, Pt. Ajoy rendered two classic thumris of the Ustad: ‘Ab to aavo sajna’ in raag Mishra Pahadi and ‘Ka karu sajni aye na baalam’ in Bhairavi in taal Keherwa. 

Pt. Ajoy’s disciple Deborshi Bhattacharjee lived up to the guru’s expectations with his saath.