Classical Change

Feb 2 : Stepping outside the folds of a tradition which traces its history back several millennia, has to be a brave decision. But this i...

Feb 2 : Stepping outside the folds of a tradition which traces its history back several millennia, has to be a brave decision. But this is not the first time Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma has challenged the engraved-in-stone tenets of Indian Classical music.

The first was, when decades ago, he insisted upon playing Classical music on an instrument which no one had heard of and everybody advised him against the santoor. And this time he has taken a plunge into an arena ruled by people who have attained perpetual adolescence and take impudence pills every morning with breakfast. Panditji has made a music video. Yes, those same attitude-drenched three-minute clips which till now have been the domain of pop musicians. Featuring him and his son Rahul, it is a bold step towards taking Classical music outside its hallowed halls of appreciation and to the masses 8212; and something which is bound to invite aspersion from both sides of the great music divide. quot;Yes, nobody has done a video for Classical music ever but whatprompted me was the fact that most people have wrong ideas about this music that you need to have studied it to enjoy it,quot; says Panditji.

The deciding factor for the maestro was the need to kill this myth. So when Nandini Mahesh of Banyan Tree approached him with the idea, she didn8217;t have to argue her case, at all, quot;I just spoke to him about how I felt, he gave it some thought and agreed.quot; The video will be on air in the next couple of weeks on all channels but the two big ones MTV and Channel V have yet to be convinced as they have a policy of sticking to Rock and Pop. quot;But I have a feeling that they will take it on its own,quot; says Nandini, who is talking to them right now.

Simply because the video is such an iconoclastic move, it raises a lot of questions. When each piece of classical music is played for at least 45 minutes, isn8217;t shrinking it to fit a three-minute clip serious tampering? quot;Forty years ago or so, great masters like Ustad Bade Mian Ghulam Ali Khan and Fayaz Khan did quite a fewthree-minute composition recordings for HMV, which were beautiful something people listened to again and again. So it is not as if Classical music is timebound,quot; says Panditji. But unfortunately, this video does not contain a specially composed piece. Parts of a live recording of a very successful December 1997 concert by Panditji and Rahul have been edited to three minutes by Mahesh Babu, who along with Nandini keeps the Banyan Tree rooted.

While Panditji is all praise for the fluidity of the edition, perhaps because it is live music, the sound is just not clear enough. Also, the video which focuses on the unique relationship which Rahul shares with his father 8212; that of a son and a shishya uses imagery which is beautiful yet a little simplistic. How will it hold its own amidst the high-battery performances and techo-wizardry that most music videos rely on to grasp attention? A valid fear, shared both by Nandini and Panditji but they say that the video, which was shot in just one day by Nandini who isan ad scriptwriter and film-maker, is a low-budget effort something which could not be helped.

The biggest strength of this video lies in the fact that it might perhaps end the cold war between the two edifices of music, paving the way for more Classical musicians to experiment with a new medium. Rahul, who belongs to a generation which grew up on Pink Floyd, Pearl Jam and Enigma, says that Classical music is finding new audiences each day mostly because great musicians like Ustad Zakir Hussain, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia and his father have taken pains to demystify it quot;by playing in colleges and by talking to audiences informally.quot; And who knows better than Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma that Classical music can be a gourmet feast for the soul even for those who have fed on its fast-food equivalent he, along with Pandit Chaurasia, have composed music for blockbuster films such as Silsila Chandni, Lamhe and Darr . quot;I know that Classical music holds universal appeal. People just have to listen to it,quot; saysPanditji with simple conviction. And hopefully this attempt by him will materialise in his belief becoming a reality.