Dastan-E-Akhtari

On 4 January evening, Bengalureans were treated to a musical journey enriched with the Dastan (tales) of Begum Akhtar or Akhtari Bai as she is widely known as.

This was presented in collaboration by team Aiyyari, wherein the Dastango or Sootradhar was  Kafeel Jafri, singer was a young rising talent, Yusra Naqvi , on the sarangi was Sarfaraz Khan and Kedarnath Havaldar accompanied them on the tabla.

Begum Akhtar does not need any introduction especially to Hindustani classical music and Ghazal lovers, Mausikars, whose life and journey from Faizabad to Gaya to Kolkata, learning classical , tumris , Dadra, ghazals in her early age was a great inspiration during the pre- Independence and post independence era.

In her initial years she started her training from Imdad Khan who was also a sarangi player, and later from ATA Mohammed Khan , of Patna and later from Waheed Khan of Kolkata.

At the tender age of seven, she would try to imitate the fakirs (bards) on the streets and recognising her immense talent to grasp and reproduce the musical notes her mother encouraged her to train in classical music.

Her first concert was at the age of 15, where she sang for two and half hours mesmerising the audience and then went on to act in a few movies from 1933-38.

Her charming personality and voice quality gave her the opportunity to tour many parts of the country and impressed famous personalities like Sarojini Naidu, Nehru and Royal families during the British regime.

Her contemporaries and friends included Rasoolan Bai, Sheela Dhar and Siddeswar Devi, and she maintained good relations with all people who helped her rise to great heights, though her personal life which was not smooth sailing, with a few broken relationships, restrictions and even a break from singing that affected her health.

But she realised her first love would always be music and sang with classicism, richness and depth and the melody would linger in the minds of the Listener for years to come.

Few people who played an important part in her life were her ustads, Her mother, Saeeda Aapa, later her husband Ishtiaq Ahmed, and some of her disciples who lived with her namely, Shanti Hiranand, Neelam Bai , Anjali Bharadwaj, Manne Khan.

Tying together the life history, music , trials and tribulations of women in those days, Kafeel Jafri in chaste Urdu and Hindi, took the audience effortlessly with him into the era of Taleem, Tehseeb, mausiki, ghazals and tumris.                                             

Yusra’s understanding of the nuances and power of Akhtaribai s renditions were praiseworthy and she immersed herself in the soul of the compositions with ease. Sarfaraz Khan’s sarangi struck the right chord in his beautiful mastery of the melodious instrument. Kedarnath, coming from a family of music and art, gave expert accompaniment on the tabla .

The venue ‘Sabha’, a 150 year old building, converted to have intimate programmes , provided just the apt ambience for the music lovers community who were treated to an evening of lilting music