Music,for them,is a route to God. But for their fans,Padma Bhushans Pt.Rajan Misra and Pt. Sajan Misra are symbols of musical excellence. The resonance between the brothers,best known to cinema lovers as the main voices of Sur-Sangam,touched a new high when they performed for 14 hours in Mumbai last week To the uninitiated,they hardly look as one of the foremost classical maestros of the nation,as they are dressed in trendy shirts and trousers. Pt.Rajan-Sajan Misra,as they are known,have been performing since 1967. The world has been their oyster,and the honours they have received in over 40 years would occupy too much print space. As time is at a premium,we meet in the suburban hotel in which they have been staying and continue the interview on their journey to the airport for a flight back home to New Delhi. So attuned are they to each other that they are known to speak just like they sing one seamlessly completes what the other is singing. Pandit Rajan does speak a bit more to us,but that is entirely because we get 10 more minutes with him. So we mention them as one entity,for it is impossible to recall how they divided their answers,much the same way in which we never know how they divide their vocals. Marathon achievement Their 14-hour concert on October 31 in Mumbai is an unparallelled and unprecedented achievement for any single classical entity. But with casual humility,the two brothers merely express happiness that the people who were there since 8 a.m. (when it began) were still seen when they concluded around 11 p.m. We did take three short breaks and a longish one,which was necessary for the audience too, says the duo. But though we felt physically drained,our vocals were never tired that is the beauty of Indian classical music. As always,we also kept the session interactive,with queries and comments welcomed from the audience,where we satisfied their quest for knowledge. But the one long session made it a unique experience. Before this,we did the same concert in Pune,but we had divided it over two days of six hours each. The concept was with them from the time they were invited to Germany,way back in 1992. The Germans had discovered the relation of time with our raags and had asked us to expound on them in the ballroom of a top hotel. We had again performed there from 10 a.m. to nine at night,but in three divided sessions of two hours each, say the maestros. The Mumbai concert,aptly called Bhairav Se Bhairavi Tak, was widely advertised in serious musical circles,and the brand name was enough to get in the crowd. The time for Bhairav raag is around 4 a.m. in the time-circle of raags, they explain. After that we presented the Bairaagi Bhairav,Nat Bhairav and so on. We ended with Bhairavi,the late evening raag. The ocean of Indian music How has this time circle in Indian raags come about? The duo informs that as the sun begins to rise,everything the state of human mind,the cosmic energy and the earth itself,begins to change. While the seven shuddh notes and the five komal notes of Indian music do not change per se,there are subtle changes in their shrutis (or micro-tones) during the 24-hour cycle. You are asking us to fit in the vast subject of music in this short time! smile the brothers. What is important is that Indian classical music is incomparable if our music was not so deep and so scientific,it would not have withstood so many invaders into our country and the arrival of other cultures. Our raags have been there for thousands of years and it is believed that Raag Bhairav first originated from the mouth of Lord Shiva. There are so many such raags that are called aadi raags. It is said that the seven notes of Indian and Western music do correspond. Why then do they not have time cycles in Western music? Pt. Rajan Misra explains,Their music is a product of their culture and of nature. Indian music has its origins in spirituality,in the body chakras. Which other music is related to and actually acts therapeutically on the parts of the human body? This is why we have music therapy,and in terms of body chakras,even colour therapy. The mantra-swar combination works wonders. And Pt. Sajan Misra continues,India was a very advanced country in terms of knowledge,centuries ago. So much work was done here in all fields. Had we not come up with the concept of zero or shunya,it is a fact that computers would not have existed today. Even in this age of pop music,Indians are opting to study our raags. Its a tapasya. We ask the learned musicians to explain one more concept: how,in Indian music,when the raags remain the same,are there so many gharanas. Pt. Rajan and Pt. Sajan Misra are carrying on the 300-year legacy of the Banaras Gharana. Almost dismissively,the duo explains,That is just about the style of singing,the expression,the presentation and the bandish. See,it is said that in a population of six billion in the world,there are human beings who often resemble each other,but no ones voice,till date,has ever been identical with anyone elses,not even in the case of identical twins! Total harmony How do they explain their complete harmony with each other? The brothers (Pt. Sajan is younger by five years) have never performed solo. There must have been attempts at driving wedges between them. Of course there were! smiles Pt.Rajan Misra. But there is only prem between us and we never looked at each other as competition. That is the culture taught to us by my father Pandit Hanuman Prasad Misra and his brother Pandit Gopal Prasad Misra,which they imbibed from the teachings of our grandfather Bade Ramdasji Misra. Even today,like our pitaji and chachaji did,we eat food from one kitchen. Those are our sanskaar. My sons Ritesh and Rajnish are upcoming musicians with some standing of their own. But they too share their kitchen. Pt. Sajan even states that his brother is like his guru too. My son Swaraansh has imbibed the same values. He does not dismiss the possibility of a younger musical trio either. For all of us,the stage is not a platform for gimmicks or one-upmanship. We have been taught that it is a means of prayer to God,a sadhana. How do they share the vocals during a recording or performance? In a very,very spontaneous way! they answer. We do not sing like a duet. We instinctively know when to take over from each other. Andar se bhavana aati hai yeh usski upaj hai. In a hectic professional life that gives them merely five or six days at home every month,the brothers have little time now for the classic pattern of daily riyaaz. All our riyaaz now is through our performances on the stage, they state. Collaborations and films The brothers have rarely collaborated compared to trends among classical musicians. We are not against it, they explain. We have worked with Trilok Gurtu in some concerts and Oscar winner Michael Nyman from the United Kingdom on the album Sangam. Coming to movies,the brothers once again state that they are not against films. But how many songs are being made that will suit us today? they ask. Among their recordings are a couple of tracks in Woh Tera Naam Tha composed by Roopkumar Rathod,a song in an animation film for Ilayaraja and an alaap in a Tamil film directed by K.Vishwanath,the South legend. But their greatest and most memorable excursion has been K.Vishwanaths Sur-Sangam (1985),in which they sang seven of the 10 tracks,including duets (since they are one entity) with Lata Mangeshkar,S.Janaki,Anuradha Paudwal and Kavita Krishnamurthi Subramaniam. Recalling that experience,Pt. Sajan raves,We really worked hard on the music. We were made to feel completely comfortable to the extent that director Vishwanathji,who has such an immense sense of music,and Laxmikant-Pyarelal even had a stage built for a baithak for us in the studio and we recorded the way we perform on stage,seated on the floor! Adds his brother,I remember it was evening when I got a call at home. I am Laxmikant, said the voice and I asked,Kaun Laxmikant? and he said,Of Laxmikant-Pyarelal! They told us to fly to Mumbai and we were introduced to K.Vishwanathji and we watched Sankarabharanam,which they wanted to remake. The Sur-Sangam process was a thoroughly enjoyable one,say the brothers. We were given so much love and respect,and they even organised a small concert of ours at Pyarebhais home. Yeh log saksham log the,aur hamein bahut mazaa aaya. We mention that whenever a classical heavyweight sings in the movies,there is an assumption that he has also composed the music himself. Thats not true, they state. We did have lots of discussions. Our sittings and rehearsals for each song ran into hours. But we would only suggest a tweak here and there,which must be happening with all singers. All the compositions,Dhanya bhag seva ka avsar,Saadh re man sur ko saadh re,He Shiv Shankar and the others,were theirs. The duo,however,vehemently deny that the music did not do well when asked the reason why the purest classical score ever in a mainstream Hindi film failed. The music was a huge success. It was the films release that was not handled well. And the same must have influenced the way the music was marketed. There are so many classical luminaries who have raved about the songs. As we said,how many films have such pure songs? rajiv.vijayakar@expressindia.com
