Between majestic Darbari and beautiful Bageshri

The electrifying Taans emanating from the chest during a classical music mehfil at the Pak American Cultural Centre (PACC) on Saturday evening reminded many in the audience of the great Ustad Fateh Ali Khan of the Patiala Gharana as the vocalist, Imran Ilyas, is also a scion of the same Gharana.

He himself told the audience that he idolised Ustad Fateh Ali who was his father’s cousin, and had taken guidance from the great Ustad. Imran’s performance was organised by the All Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) to the utmost delight of few lovers of the classical art that are fortunately present in society and need to grow in numbers.

The classical singer was accompanied by Irfan Haider on the tabla, Abdul Ghani on the harmonium and Gul Muhammad on the Sarangi. Before starting his performance, Imran explained his musical lineage. He said his great grandfather’s name was Nabi Bux, who was the brother of the legendary Ali Bux Jernail of the Patiala Gharana. He said the famed brothers Amanat Ali Khan, Fateh Ali Khan and Hamid Ali Khan, who led the torch of the Patiala Gharana

in Pakistan, were the grandsons of Ali Bux.

To the audience’s surprise, he said that earlier he had no interest in pursuing the classical music, and his father Ustad Ilyas Hussain Khan trained his elder brother in the classical art. However, the untimely death of his brother persuaded him to carry forward the family’s musical legacy, after which he started getting musical lessons from his father.

Regarding Ustad Fateh, he said he was his uncle and he would often call him to receive musical guidance. He said the Ustad was famous for his Taans (extremely fast rendition of notes) that he produced in his bass voice, and he tried to sing Taans in his fashion. He also named Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan as another member of the Patiala Gharana who was famous for his taans.

The vocalist started the performance by a Khayal in Raag Darbari. Legend has it that the Raag was developed by Tan Sen to play in the court of Akbar the Great, due to which it got the name Darbari, meaning something which belongs to the regal court.

Darbari is one of the widely performed raags that is classified under the Asavari Thaat (Aelion mode). Evoking the grandeur of a royal court, it is a serious melody based in the Mandr (lower) and Madh (middle) octaves. However, defying the textbook description of the raag that says Darbari is best exemplified in Alaap, the vocalist only did the Alaap for a short time before starting a vilambit (slow tempo) bandish in iktaal, which is a rhythmic cycle of 12 beats.

A reason for the short Alaap could be the time constraints due to the expectation of the audience to listen to multiple raags in around one-to-two-hour performance. The vilambit khayal was followed by a bandish in madh lay (middle tempo), after which a Tarana in the drut (fast) tempo wound up the Khayal. The renditions in the middle and fast tempos were set in Teentaal (16-beat cycle)

Staying true to the spirit of the raag, the vocalist only seldom visited higher notes. Again it was his Taans that captivated the audience most. When after the show, The News asked him if he had not forayed into the territory of an allied raag Adana by extensive use of Taans, he explained that the Taans of Adana were different than the Taans of Darbari. He said he only sang the Taans of Darbari that could be corroborated by recordings of Darbari being performed by Ustads.

After the Darbari Khayal, Imran announced he was going to present a Thumri in Bhairavi, arguably the most popular Raag of the classical music that is not employed in the Khayal genre, composed by his father. Its starting lyrics, “Sawan Beeta Jaaye, Sanwariya Na Aaye”, reflected the longing of a lover in the happy reason of rain.

The Thumri prepared the audience for the final performance of the evening — a Khayal in Raag Bageshri. According to this scribe, that was the best the vocalist had to offer as not only the audience thoroughly enjoyed it but also the instrumentalists seemed to have been reinvigorated during the rendition of Bageshri.

Bageshri is a beautiful raag under the Kaafi Thaat (Dorian mode) with a somewhat romantic disposition. Perhaps the raag is a specialty of the Patiala Gharana as it comes out as beautiful as a fragrant blooming rose whenever masters from the Patiala Gharana render it.

The Khayal comprised Alaap, a vilambit bandish in iktaal and a drut bandish in Teentaal. The vocalist explored the melody in both high and low notes. The performance ended with a series of taan that garnered applause from the audience. The vocalist was too humble in his concluding remarks. He said whatever beautiful in his performance should be attributed to his elders and if there were any faults, those were his.

In her introductory talk, the APMC’s Ayla Raza discussed how her organisation and its activities were badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. She added that the APMC’s programmes had started gaining momentum and the organisation had also found new benefactors, the PACC being one of them.

She announced that the APMC would be holding three events of classical music in a year at the PACC. She also highlighted the current economic crisis of the country that was also having an impact on cultural activities.