Shubha Mudgal and Aneesh Pradhan prepared a feast for music lovers at ncpa yesterday, a full day devoted to Begum Akhtar. It was fascinating to hear Rita Ganguly and Shanti Hiranand speak about Begum Sahib in such a riveting immediate way. As wonderful as Shanti Hiranand’s beautiful book on BA is, this was even better. Later it was interesting to see Shanti accompanying BA in a video clip from I guess the late 60’s. She has aged most gracefully. Pt. Arvind Parikh spoke movingly, if perhaps somewhat reticent over delicate matters about his close association with BA. Aneesh P. and Shubha did a masterful job of guiding the conversation throughout. For me this type of anecdote and analysis is the most valuable, interesting, and penetrating kind of musicology Perhaps the only low point of the day was an academic talk by Madhu Trivedi. Although she is probably a brilliant scholar, the presentation was dry and her English lacked fluency. It was remarkable how much more fluent she sounded when speaking in Hindi. Throughout the day I believe the Hindi/English mix was very well done. In fact it was either/or, not a mix- not the atrocious habit of English words thrown into Hindi sentences as is current on tv and in movies. The kind of Hindi spoken by the panelists was a pleasure to hear. Bhupendra Singh was also a panelist. Because I associate him with his gorgeous voice I was surprised to see him looking quite ill. He mentioned how some of Madan Mohun’s ghazal tunes were direct lifts from BA who he was very friendly with. Pt. Arvind Parikh would not reveal the reason for the serious break BA had with Vilayet Khan but I suppose it had to do with a romantic entanglement. He did take pains to rubbish accounts of this written by someone in Delhi (according to him). He revealed that over about two years she had about 15-20 sessions with Panditji learning sitar. This was just before her death (1974). When the panelists were remarking on how ghazal now requires guitar, keyboard and whatever, Shubha Mudgal had a very interesting comment. She noted how mushairas attract vast audiences in north india and there it is only poetry recitation. It begs the question, why for ghazal singing all the paraphernalia is required. Yatindra Mishra, descendant of the royal family of Ayodhya and well-known Hindi author spoke about BA’s close association with his family. He spoke very well and the stories were remarkable. The mutual respect, sophistication and dignity of these people is from a different era. Javed Akhtar was the star in the afternoon. He is a brilliant speaker with a brilliant mind. He said that because of an association of classical music with hinduism (or just India), many good singers in Pakistan turned to ghazal. Although I had never thought about it, I think it makes perfect sense. He also had very interesting analysis on the relation between sadness and romance. How true it is many forms of music. Romantic songs sound sad. The high point of the day was at the end with the Films Division film on BA and then a wonderful informal film from the archives of Doordarshan Lucknow of BA interacting with Kaifi Azmi and her singing of his ghazals. It is a superb film. At the end was her rendition (also doordarshan archives) of the hori, kese mein dhum machaye and it is a masterpiece. Many thanks to Shubha, Aneesh, and NCPA for an excellent program.
