Bandish - Mumbai Mirror - 14 July 2011
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Transcript of Bandish - Mumbai Mirror - 14 July 2011
8/6/2019 Bandish - Mumbai Mirror - 14 July 2011
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BURN PRESENTS FOUR COMEDIANS IN ‘LAUGH IT UP’ ATON TOES, LINKING ROAD, BANDRA (W), AT 9 PM TODAY.
THURSDAY, JULY 14,
MumbaiMirror
www.mumbaimirror.com/lis
mirrorfeedback@indiatimes
up Exhibition: ‘Vidyarthi
2011’, by student artists;
s and still-life paintings, at
hak, Khar (W), till July 16
am to 7 pm.
20460587
o Exhibition: ‘Encounters -
el’ by Radhika Verma, at
a Art Gallery, till July 23,
o 7 pm. Call 9833698982
up Exhibition: ‘Anecdotes’
us artists, at Sakshi Gallery,
till July 30.
103424
up exhibition: ‘Ehsaas’ by
y able-ed and artistic
s by Jagrut, at Navinbhai
r Hall, Ville Parle (E), on July
17, 11 am to 6 pm.20217402
o exhibition: ‘Weaving
by Wahida Ahmed at
r Hirji Gallery, Kala Ghoda, till
11 am to 7 pm. Call
0051
up Exhibition: at Moksh Art
Fort, till July 18, from 1 pm to
Call 9324016017
»Group Exhibition: ‘The femi-
nine form’ at Jamaat, Colaba, till July
15, at 11 am. Call 66387272
» Group Exhibition: By various
artists at Mokash Art Gallery, Kala
Ghoda, from 1 pm to 11 pm, till July
18. Call 9324016017
» Solo exhibition: ‘Luminarium:
A Prelude’ by Sheba Chhachhi, at
Volte Gallery, Colaba, till August 1,
11.30 to 7 pm. Call 22041220
» Group Exhibition: ‘Artists’
Centre’s 12th Exhibition’ including
art, photography, calligraphy and
music, at Kalaghoda, Colaba, till
July 30. Call 66350776
VENTS
hibitions
usic | dance | workshop
sic breads workshop:
make breads like chelsea
nner rolls, party rolls,
heat, etc. at Vile Parle, on
and 15. Call 26206232
inar for deaf students:
reer guidance for deaf stu-
ho have passed SSC Exam,
ati School, Dadar (W). Call
84, 24134488
d Painting workshop: One
kshop, at 10 am, in Thane
9869681850
eberry Trails: Kayakking,
ossing, a night trail and
on the riverside, on the
ka river, on July 16 and 17.
20925721
c make up workshop:
r how to enhance your
with a personal basic make
n, by Prerna Sainani. Call
4496
» Decorative cupcakes: Learn
to make decorative cupcakes, from
2pm to 5pm. Call 9322022550
»Health camp: Stress reliever
and wellness health programme at
Dadar, Chembur and Thane, till July
16, from 11 am to 2 pm.
Call 24385888 or visit
www.imperialclinics.com
» Liqueur chocolates: Learn to
make liqueur with homemade liqueur
like irish cream, etc. at Bandra. Call
9819673854
» Health, healing, happiness
workshop: By the authors of the
book ‘The 20-20-20-20
Formula For Success ’, including
Reiki level 1, on July 16 and 17.
Call 9820302492
» Wellness and Healing work-
shop: Heal the self and others with
Meta medicine from August 1 to 3 .
Call 9930898116
VARIETY
The Bandish Divide
SHANTAGOKHALE
SEPARATING THE BEST FROM THE BANAL ON MUMBAI’S CULTURESCA
Liked/hated her column? Write to Shanta Gokhale at mirrorfeedback@indiatimes
There are vocalists who believe in thebandish and vocalists who don't. Weheard one of each kind on the firstday of NCPA's three-day festival,
"Bandish". Ustad Raja Miyan of theAgra gharana was the believer and UstadRashid Khan of the Rampur-Sahaswan gha-rana, the non-believer.
The believer sings a bandish with fullconviction, giving every word its dueweightage in literal and musical terms. Thewords of a bandish are not necessarily won-derful poetry. As a matter of fact, they sel-dom are. What makes a bandish sublime isthe three-way relationship it establishesbetween words, the rhythmic cycle and themelody. For example, in one bandish, RajaMiyan sang of the stereotypical saas-nanadcombo as the lifelong enemies of the nayi-ka. By changing stress and vocal modula-tion, he gave us three variations of the nayi-ka with the same words-one who was fear-ful, then angry, then resigned to her fate.
When you see how a beautiful bandish
enriches a khayal, you wonder why somevocalists like Ustad Rashid Khan neglect todraw on its potential. With no amount of hard, concentrated listening could I makeout the words of his bandish in Megh. Onlythe first two words of the mukhada (therefrain with which a singer comes to thesama), were enunciated-- "Piya nahin…"What this piya was not doing was lost inmumbled sounds. Later, someone whoknew the bandish, told me the first line-"Piya nahin aaye, baadal bijlee tapke." Onecould only imagine what a believer in ban-dish would have done with the sound of the word "tapake" and the emotional chargeof the words "baadal" and "bijlee".
A bandish is to the khayal what a skele-ton is to the human body. Without it, thebody of the khayal becomes an amorphousmass of melodic sound without structure or
definition. It wasn't by some musical whimor folly that the forefathers of the khayalform attached so much importance to thebandish. It was for them the seed, the store-house of all the musical ideas with which araga could be explored. No wonder there aresome great stories in musical lore aboutbandishes.
One such story is recounted by PanditKapileshwari in his richly informative andhighly readable biography of Abdul KarimKhan. In those days," says the author, "arace to assume pen names and composebandishes was on." The two brothersGhulam Maulvi Khan and Hussain AliKhan who were in the employ of Asaf-Ud-Daula, the Nawab of Oudh, composedmany bandishes under the names of "Sabras" and "Hingarang" respectively. Once
Hingarang was asked by a rival how manybandishes he possessed and in how manyragas. Hingarang snapped back that he wasnot a collector of bandishes like someupstart imposter, and proceeded to com-pose ten bandishes in Malkauns on the spotin one baithak.
Back then, bandishes were like prizedpossessions. Gharana gurus guarded themjealously as private property which couldeven be pawned or given away in dowry.The other side of hoarding was stealing. If your gharana gurus had been miserly inparting with their store of bandishes, disci-ples ended up with just the asthai (first linesthat formed the refrain), and no antaras(stanzas). Believers in the bandish thenbegged, borrowed or stole what they couldfind. Non-believers made a virtue of theirshortcoming-- "We don't bother with
antaras."The number of bandishes a singer pos-sessed in any one raga was, till recently, con-sidered a criterion by which to judge her/hisworth. The music scholar-singer WamanraoDeshpande writes in his memoirs thatPandit Bhimsen Joshi turned cold towards
him after years of friendship, becaushad said in an interview that Bhimsena great singer but not a "singers' singExplaining what he had meant by remark, Deshpande says, "A singers' sinis one who has a large stock of bandisWhy should he have a large stock of bdishes? Because bandishes help the sinto understand how to embellish musnotes to bring out the form and beautyraga."
Today, with thousands of recordavailable to listeners and singers al
there's no question of hoarding bandisEven so, the bandishes that have comsingers as gharana gems, shine witunique lustre. Raja Miyan's rendering osuch gems was a taste of what he couldwith them in fully developed expositionthe ragas.
When you see how a bandish enriches a khayal, you wonder why some vocalists toss it aside so lightly. Bandish is to the khayal what the skeleton is to the body
Ustad Rashid Khan