Taking new directions on an ancient tradition

SHIVANGI AMBANI-GANDHI speaks with some of the shinning stars of the Ustad's troupe



On our first meeting, a couple of years ago, Niladri Kumar pulled out his Sitar and bowed his head in prayer—after all, Indian classical musicians believe their music is an offering to, and a gift from the divinities.


Just when I expected to hear a classical raga a la Tansen that would part the heavens, Kumar begins head-banging on his 'zitar' - an electric sitar replete with a pick-up and a processor used by guitarists. "I don't play for Gods, but youngsters. And they like the sounds in rock music. So I give them their sounds and my music," he said at the time.


The sound is like nothing you can really describe in relativity to anything else—it is unique. And it is wonderfully hypnotic.


Niladri is quite what many a young musician want to be—he is a fifth-generation sitar player and son of Pandit Kartick Kumar, and yet has been able to grow out of the shadows of this legacy and be recognised as an artist in his own right.


Ustad Zakir Hussain is usually sparse and very tactic with his praise. On stage, while introducing his troupe during the Master's of Percussion is Sydney, he referred to one artist as the second generation of an instrument. Then, turning to Kumar, he said, the 'Sitar Genius'.


Kumar is seeped in his ancient tradition, yet not afraid to experiment. On our last encounter he had said that he feels like two separate people—one who plays the traditional Sitar, while the other head bangs with his band, Sitar Funk, which has played in UK clubs. However, today, Kumar manages to have seamlessly merged the two.


During Masters of Percussion he started off with the traditional melodic rendition, which moved slowly towards the more contemporary—at one point almost a shrieking Zitar.


This kind of experimentation takes courage. In the Indian classical music circles, fusion is almost a dirty word—a blasphemy of a sacred tradition. When I last spoke to him, he had said, that the rejection of fusion music today is probably akin to the reaction when dhrupad gave way to the khayal.


"Khayal singers must have been admonished for being populist, just as we are today. Every musician brings a different form and from that emerges a new gharana. What we look down upon as fusion today may become a revered gharana tomorrow."


So is fusion the new gharana, I asked him this time. "I would not compare fusion with khayal or thumri," Kumar said on this occasion. "Fusion is still not as defined. But, this is the age of collaborations, and fusion music is here to stay in that format. It is up to the musicians to create the language of fusion."


Many other young Indian musicians are creating their own vocabulary, which may indeed soon lead to that new language. Among them, is another of the Ustad's troupe, V. Selvaganesh.


Again, a son of the phenomenal ghatam player, TH Vikku Vinayakaram, Selvaganesh is a magical artist in his own right. His first instrument is the kanjira, but he is masterful with a range of percussion instruments.


He has taken his father's place in Shakti—with Zakirji and John McLaughlin—where he plays the mridangam, ghatam and kanjira. He also experiments with a range of African and Latin American percussion instruments.



"I have been touring with Zakirji since 1990 and he has introduced me to different music cultures and I have been playing different musicians," he says. "I have been to Ghana—there the people are poor, but rich in musical traditions," says Selvaganesh. In a true sign of the times, his range of music instruments, are made in Greece.



While his ghatam has been heard in background scores of films like Vanity Fair, Kama Sutra and Monsoon Wedding, he has just composed his first commercial film music for Vennilla Kabadi Kuzher—and he is proud to reveal that AR Rehman will release the music.


Yet like Kumar, and of course Zakirji, tradition remains intrinsic to his practice. He is part of a new project by his father Vikkuji, called Saptakshar (seven letters), which brings together seven musicians from his family, playing carnatic percussion in a contemporary format.


And there is promise of another musician from the family—Selvaganesh's 13-year-old son, Swaminathan, made his debut performance in Mumbai recently. "He has been learning with and accompanying Vikkuji for some time now—he used to keep the taal. And then Vikkuji told me, 'you must hear your son play'," says Selvaganesh.

"Swaminathan is late," he laughs. "I started when I was seven years old! The music is in the tradition."


Niladri Kumar's latest album, has been released, titled 'Priority' in India and 'Zitar' elsewhere. V. Selvaganesh has released a new album, titled Soukhar—an international collaboration with the many artists he has walked with in his journey so far.