The highest worship

The Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture (RMIC) and its Vivekananda Hall were beautifully decorated, and veteran anchor Biplab Ganguly— the permanent yet often ‘unsung hero’ of this signature event for more than three decades—was ready to welcome the devotees of Swamiji and the sadhaks of the ‘Highest Worship’. They flocked in on the auspicious day of 12 January to offer their melodic tributes to Swami Vivekananda on his birth anniversary.

This year, duets threaded through all three sessions of the day. Among them were two blessed duos who stepped into this male bastion for the first time: Hindustani classical music’s only flute sisters, Suchismita and Debopriya Chatterjee, and the violin wizard Kala Ramnath with Saraswati veena virtuoso Jayanti Kumaresh.

The sisters, already making their mark, disciples of the flute maestro Hariprasad Chaurasia, represented their ailing guru with his favourite noon-time raga Shuddh Sarang, without his characteristic approach to the raga. On accurately attuned bass flutes, their raga delineation had clarity. The application of volume variation, chhandakari in different tempos, mukam-based phrases, taans and fast-moving passages during alap-jod, and slow gatkari were neat and melodious.

Young tabla exponent Ojas Adhiya offered unobtrusive support in the slow tempo. The fast piece was based on a khayal bandish, Kaise kaise jaawun in Teental. At this stage, it is often seen that tabla players dominate while the main artists keep the nagma. The siblings passed this test, displaying their command over tala. To conclude, they chose Vachaspati; a brief auchar led to a composition set to sitarkhani, followed by an extra-fast jhala in Teental with sawal-jawab. The performance was engaging.

Just as the Chatterjee sisters concluded the morning session, Kala Ramnath and Jayanthi Kumaresh’s duet on Hindustani violin and Carnatic Saraswati veena closed the final session. Accompanied by Yogesh Shamsi (tabla) and Patri Satish Kumar (mridangam), they presented Puria Dhanashri, an early evening raga. The violin took the lead. The slow alap included elongated meends that touched most shrutis between notes. At times, this affected the flow of an otherwise emotive presentation set to Teental and Adi tala.

The Saraswati veena remained regal. The high pitch of the violin and the low, soothing tone of the veena complemented each other. In the hands of skilled exponents, the melody flowed like a confluence of two distinct streams. Yogesh Shamsi’s responsive tabla stood out in accompaniment, and in the tani segment, presented bols with clarity. Despite his skill, Patri’s mridangam could not match the tabla’s brightness. The duo concluded with a short ragamalika set to sitarkhani.

Earlier, Pushapraj Koshti and his son Bhushan Koshti presented surbahar in dhrupad anga. Udhav Shinde Apegaonkar supported them on the pakhawaj during their rendition of Sindhura alap-jod-jhala and a chautal composition.

The post-lunch session revived the audience with a Kathak duet by Deepak Maharaj and Sandip Mallick, disciples of Birju Maharaj. The latter’s energy recalled Durga Lal, while the former reflected Maharaj ji’s style. They were accompanied by Anindo Chatterjee (tabla), Ashish Gangani (pakhawaj), Pankaj Mishra (sarangi) and Sunando Mukherjee (sarod). The performance was effective, except for a few moments of confusion between tabla and Deepak Maharaj, highlighting kathak’s reliance on improvisation.

Following the inaugural address by Swami Supurnananda, the opening slot featured raga Ahir Bhairav by Lokesh Anand (shehnai), Partha Bose (sitar) and Sabir Khan (tabla). The alap-jod-jhala and teental gatkaris showed good coordination. Fast taans on the shehnai were less clear than on the sitar but more imaginative. The tabla was appropriately lively. Their Dadra dhun, based on Hindi folk music, was led by the shehnai and ended with a talfirta.

Next, vocalist Sandipan Samajpati, with Parimal Chakraborty (tabla), Hiranmay Mitra (harmonium) and his son-disciple Sujato on tanpura and vocal support, presented Bilaskhani Todi (slow ektal and medium teental) with sensitivity. At one point, the tabla fell silent, allowing Sujato’s voice at the upper tonic to indicate the sam. This was followed by a composition in Jogiya, set to addha, which was equally emotive. The harmonium was effective here. However, the Lalit-based Bangla composition of guru Manas Chakraborty was less convincing.

The RMIC scheduled the Bangash brothers, Aman Ali Khan and Ayan Ali Khan, in the 2–5 pm slot, a challenging time when few ragas are explored. They chose Bhimpalasi, accompanied by Pandit Kumar Bose. Their second raga, Lalita Gauri, was enjoyable until the very fast jhala, which turned uneven. The concluding dhun blended Bengali and Assamese folk with ‘Ekla chalo re’. Kumar Bose accompanied them with ease.

It was also good to note that as a young host of such events, Korak Basu has grown considerably.