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News |  03 Feb 2017 18:59 |  By RnMTeam

A journey through the Ragasphere

MUMBAI: Every time our world has encountered some sort of crisis, art has always been the medium to express. Be it grievances, love or sheer ecstasy, art has been the mediator of these emotions. Similarly, during World War 2, India was exposed to a lot of world art given our masters back then had the luxury to invite court musicians from around the globe to fancy their imaginations. One instrument that crept its way into the Indian music fraternity was the Hawaiian guitar. Shortly after bidding our masters goodbye, our fellow countrymen put in extensive efforts to strengthen our cultural roots. West Bengal, aptly called the cultural capital of India, found the Hawaiian guitar to be a household product back in the days. That’s when the two-year-old Pandit Debasish Bhattacharya found his recluse in the stringed instrument.

Pandit Bhattacharya from a very tender age started replicating whatever style of music he would hear, on his guitar. After a point the six strings seemed too confining for him so by the age of sixteen he started designing his own guitars and by the age of nineteen he introduced what he calls the ‘Chaturangi.’ The Chaturangi is a steel-string guitar positioned horizontally with two strings from the sarod and two higher pitched strings on the bottom which are harmonically tuned with an extended fretboard with another 12 strings. The maestro got this creation of his patented at a much later age but throughout the period he faced his share of constant struggles. He had a hard time penetrating the mindsets of orthodox classical musicians with this hybrid instrument of his so much to the extent of being disqualified at competitions. The concept of a western instrument being Indianized could not be accepted but that was merely taken as a hindrance by the maestro.

The Grammy nominee is now a proud father to twenty-year-old Sukanya Bhattacharya, a trained Indian Classical vocalist. Radioandmusic had a little chit chat with the father and daughter duo.

Pandit Bhattacharya is currently touring the USA while daughter Bhattacharya works on her alternative global pop project which flaunts the presence of eminent Bengali drummer Gaurab Chatterjee. It is indeed tragic that the adamance of this man to abstain from commercializing his art has not fetched him his due recognition but that’s the least of his concerns. He says “India is stressed. It is constantly running to meet certain standards and in the process, art has become entertainment. No one wishes to leap beyond the mediocrity that is being served and take interest in their own enriched roots. It is at its peak of westernization and there is hardly space for my music but ironically I have managed to draw an audience internationally because people outside are more interested in our music than an Indian version of their style of music.”

Young Sukanya, on the other hand, is an ardent jazz lover and is open to experimental genres but is firm on her roots. “Indian classical music takes years of dedicated riyaaz to attain a certain level of mastery but still that won’t be enough to certify me as anything more than a student. I shall always remain a student but I love to experiment with my music and I am open to all genres. I think it’s a good way to keep the learning cycle rolling,” says the young vocalist who currently toured Austalia with her setup apart from featuring on NPR with her dad.

The veteran recently collaborated with the jazz king John Mclaughlin on his recent album called ‘Beyond The Ragasphere’ apart from touring with his daughter and his brother. On asking them about their future goals, they said, “To get better at what we do.” We were nothing less than mesmerized.

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