Generation 2000 of Music Gharanas by
Mukesh Khosla
The new generation of the music gharanas is ready to take over the 21st century. Wasifuddin Dagar is the 20th generation Dhrupad singer; Amaan and Ayaan Ali Bangash are seventh generation; Salil Mohan Bhatt is tenth generation; Anoushka Shankar has strong music antecedents and so does Rahul Sharma. All these youngsters, while striving to live up to the family's name, face the daunting task of popularising classical music to a young audience that is getting weaned away by pop and film music....
Amaan Ali Bangash [Background] and Ayaan Ali Bangash [foreground] - seventh generation of the Bangash music dynasty.
In his Wrangler jeans and Reebok T shirt he could be mistaken for one of the college lads who spends a better part of his day with friends - missing lectures, driving fast cars and partying. At home his room resembles a music shop, with a vast repertoire of cassettes, CDs and posters of pop stars adorning his walls. But he is no ordinary boy. Amaan Ali Bangash, older son of the famous sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan, and grandson of Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan, bears the great responsibility of carrying the baton of musical tradition that his father has passed on to him. He and twenty-one year old younger brother Ayaan are being groomed as the seventh generation of the Bangash dynasty. Their six generations removed forefather, Mohammad Hashmi Khan Bangash, a horse trader from Afghanistan who frequently came to India, played the rabab and was drawn to Indian classical music. He settled in Rewa where his son, Ghulam Bandegi Khan studied Indian classical music. Bandegi Khan modified the rabab into the melodious and more intricate sarod, which has passed down generations to Amjad Ali Khan and now to his two sons. The onus of carrying on the family tradition is reflected in Amaan's somber countenance. His routine involves eight hours of daily practice to measure up to his sacred lineage.
Amaan was clear about his future while still in school. He studied at Modern School, Delhi, but unlike many of his classmates he had his goal marked out clearly. For him the school bell meant going home to rigorous sarod training. Such was his single mindedness that he refused to join a regular college and opted for a correspondence course instead. " I thought I could use these three years better," says Amaan.
Amaan and brother Ayaan have been accompanying their father to music festivals in India and abroad. Both Amaan and Ayaan have played in prestigious locations such as the Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, St. James's Palace and Barbican Centre. They have also played, together with their father, at a special concert for HRH Prince Charles at his High Grove residence. Amaan was awarded the Soorya Award in Trivandrum in 1996, and the following year the Prime Minister of India awarded him 'The Best Young Musician of the Year' Award.
Children of an inter-faith marriage, Amaan and Ayaan are devoted sons and disciples. Their mother Subhalakshmi Khan gave up her career in Indian classical dancing to devote herself to her family.
Salil Mohan Bhatt - carrying on 500 years of family tradition Salil Mohan Bhatt, son of Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, plays the Mohan Veena and released his debut album, Raga Puriya Kalyan in January 1998. Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, the legendary musician and Grammy award winner of the 1993 album A Meeting by the River, represents the tenth generation of the Bhatt lineage. Salil feels, being the son of a famous father may have its disadvantages but it sure gives a head start. " I've gone through it. Initially people judge your performances on the basis of the high standards set up by the father. They don't understand the son is just starting off whereas the father has been around for years," says Salil, who has trained on the Mohan Veena for 12 years under the tutelage of his father. The Mohan Veena is a creation of his father - a combination of the Hawaiian guitar and the Vichitra Veena - that catapulted Vishwa Mohan Bhatt from Rajasthan to world fame and fortune. However, 27 year old Salil, who gave his first solo performance at a youth music festival at Mangalore, is a trifle disappointed. " Though people have been praising my efforts they have already started comparing me with my father. They come up to me and say, 'You are good but you are still far behind Panditji. You'll have to work very hard to attain his eminence.' I think that's being very unfair. I may not be as great as my father but then, I am ready to team up with him."
Salil was selected for the Indian Military Academy in 1991 but the pull of the 500 years old music tradition in the Bhatt household was stronger. Salil considers his father his greatest inspiration and ultimate guru.
25 year old Rahul, too, is ready to compete with his father, santoor maestro Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma. Earlier Rahul was just one of the many musicians who accompanied his father in background scores. He gave a stirring jugalbandi performance with his father in Mumbai last December. "I want to popularise the santoor with my generation. I am now starting solo," says the young master.
Wasifuddin Dagar's emergence as the 20th generation Dhrupad singer of his family was heralded by rather tragic circumstances. Although he had been giving solo performances, it was his father, Faizuddin Dagar's death that came as the turning point. Just a few days after his father's passing away Wasif was asked to accompany his paternal uncle on stage. "Just one day before the due date I came to know I was going on stage. I was not at all prepared. I expressed my apprehensions, whether I should accompany my uncle or not. But he was very encouraging. He made me believe I could captivate the listeners." And captivate he did. Wasifuddin now recalls fondly, " that was the most sentimental moment of my life. It was all due to my father's training, and because I was born in a family of great musicians." Many people might not take easily to a singer's son becoming a singer himself. 'Undue advantage of father's position' is the thought that comes immediately to mind. But Dagar says this happens in every profession. " …in performing arts, it is all too visible. A photographer's work is confined to a dark room. And a writer writes in seclusion. Only the sound of music permeates in every corner of the house."
Legacy indeed makes a big difference, especially in performing arts. Psychologists say it is the environment more than the heredity that inculcates the urge for music in a young child. Thus, Amaan says his training started at the age of four. ".. When you are born into a musical family, the actual initiation starts from childhood. Even when I was a baby, my parents used to sing to me." Dhrupad singer Wasifuddin Dagar concurs with him, saying, "In the initial years I was not given training but what I had was the essential atmosphere. The value of the musical tradition was inculcated in me. The rest I began to comprehend subconsciously. It became a way of life for me". Dagar admits that as a child there were times when he would be distracted by other things. " Many a times I wanted to go out and play but I was made to sit for music lessons. But it never took more than five minutes for my attention to divert from the playground to music."
As a student Dagar was equally tunnel visioned. " While most of the students of my age were pondering what career to pursue, I had my future cut out in front of me. I wanted to be a musician and I never thought of doing anything else."
Anoushka Shankar - tutored by father Ravi Shankar Like Amaan and Ayaan, another youngster who dotes on her father is Anoushka, daughter of Ravi Shankar. The 18-year-old has been tutored by her legendary father for the last 10 years. In 1995 she made her debut in Delhi at the age of 13.
The hopes from a musical progeny can sometimes be over-whelming. Ravi Shankar himself said in an interview recently, " being a father and a guru to a teenager is not easy. But I am trying…"
However, Anoushka doesn;'t mind that at all. In fact she's the proud daughter of a proud father. " It's great to play when he's sitting beside me," she says and adds, My only fear is it would be difficult for me to get out and establish myself once I am out of his shadow. I will always be compared to him."
The comparisons have been positive. Adept also on the piano, Anoushka is developing her own unique style and in the last few years she has performed with Ravi Shankar throughout India, Europe, Asia and the United States.
The high point of her career came in March 1997 when she joined her father and Zubin Mehta for a performance at the London Symphony Orchestra. Three months later in June, Anoushka performed with her father in a special concert at New York's Town Hall that brought them together with Alice Coltrane, widow of one of the all-time greats of jazz - John Coltrane, and her son Ravi Coltrane, who is named after Ravi Shankar.
Says Anoushka, " My father is very patient. If I make a mistake, he will play it again. But he is not happy with the kind of time I put in for my practice. He used to put in 18 hours a day. But I am not doing that."
But the training hours she is putting in are paying big dividends. Music connoisseurs the world over are acknowledging the gifted rising star. She is the youngest ever performing artist to be honoured by the British Parliament with a House of Commons Shield,
In 1998 the former Prime Minister of India I.K.Gujral released her debut album Anoushka at the Carnegie Hall. Her second album, Anourag is due to be released in September 2000.
" If you are a child of a great musician there are many advantages as well," she admits candidly. " It was far more easy for me to make my debut. People would come to listen to me because I am his daughter. After that, it is up to me, it is up to how well I play."
All these young people admit their family background and their fathers' name made things simpler for them vis a vis other disciples, who have had to struggle more to create an identity for themselves. The difference starts from the time of training itself. Wasifuddin feels there is bound to be a difference between a son and a disciple. " While all other of my father's disciples travelled long distances to learn music and after the classes would disappear in the traffic, I lived in that atmosphere the whole day and had all the time with my father. Though he was more strict to my faults, nevertheless I benefited the most from his talent."
Being the child of a very talented father can sometimes be a disadvantage too. The audience is more critical and attentive listening to them. There are some among the audience who have listened to their grandfather too. So the pressure becomes tougher. Adds Amaan, " Sometimes being a great father's son can be a great burden. When you think how daunting the task is of attaining your father's standards, you just want to run away from it all." Does this hint at an element of pressure from the parents? All of them deny it. Amaan says he was never forced into music to fulfill his father's desire. " He never dictated to me or to my brother what we should do in life."
While striving to live up to the family's name, the new generation of musicians faces the daunting task of popularising classical music to a young audience which is getting weaned away by pop and film music. The fathers in a sense had it easier because the musical tastes had not been moulded by western influence as much as they are today. But the confidence of the younger generation is heartening. Amaan feels that media and corporate houses have made all the difference and glamour has entered the field of classical form. "Though tastes may be getting depraved, a time will come when good music will stage a comeback." Interestingly, it is the family's applause that these young musicians cherish. Amaan recalls, " In 1996 at my debut solo performance in Mumbai with Ustad Zakir Hussain, I could see tears in my parents' eyes. It was the greatest joy and reward. I knew I had lived up to the expectations of my teacher and father."
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Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
