After attending Bharathi Prathap's morning concert, Agra gharana patron Javed Gaya is confident that the Bangalore-based vocalist has the makings of a true star
Morning concerts have a charm which is unique. If one is lucky, one gets a chance to hear the most meditative and contemplative ragas in the most ineffable settings — the darkness of the dawn giving way to morning sunlight, the chirping of the birds, the unfolding of a new day.
I had the pleasure of listening to an upcoming vocalist from Bangalore, Bharathi Prathap, last Sunday morning in the forecourt of the Ravindra Natya Mandir at Prabhadevi. The concert was organised by Pancham Nishad. I was particularly interested to hear this artist as she is a disciple of Lalit Rao, the foremost female vocalist of the Agra Gharana. The Agra Gharana is my favourite of all the Hindustani gharanas, as there is a history and grandeur about it, which other gharanas don't have. It has a rich tradition of bandishes (compositions) and some very rare ragas that make it unique, such as Bibhas, Barwa and Ramkali. It is also sadly moribund. Other than the redoubtable Rajamiya, Ustad Gulam Hasnain Khan, Zainul Abedin at the ITC Sangeet Research Academy in Kolkata and Lalit Rao herself, there are few artists of concert quality left. So the arrival of this young singer from Bangalore was an event to look forward to.
Bharathi started with great confidence and sang one of the most evocative and serene of morning ragas, Lalit, perhaps as a tribute to her guru, Lalit Rao. For those old timers, who have grown up on Ustad Faiyez Khan's iconic 78 renditions, the drut in Lalit was sung by Bharathi in the same bandish, Tarpat Hun, and it was exquisitely rendered. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi once remarked that no one understood or got to the essence of Lalit like Faiyez Khan did in that four minute rendition; Bharathi would have made the old maestro proud.
She then switched to raga Anand Bhairav and opened with a highly complex and evocative aalap done in the nom tom style, the hallmark of Agra singers, proud of their Dhrupad heritage. There is nothing so moving as what I call the Agra Pukaar, which is an intrinsic part of the aalap. This was exceptional and was the true test of an Agra vocalist. Bharathi performed it well, gifted with a powerful and resonant voice, which can traverse three octaves, and an innate understanding of the complexity of layakiri (rhythm), she presented the aalap with power, innovation and emotion.
She then proceeded to a Shukra Bilaval, another very meditative raga, which is rarely heard. In order to showcase the tradition and compositions of the gharana, she sang an exquisite composition by the late Ustad Latafat Hussain Khan in Bhairavi briefly. This is one of the glories of the tradition that there were any number of very accomplished composers of bandishes, the treasure trove which Bharathi was able to draw upon. The splendour of the Agra gayaki being the manner in which the words are melded with the layakiri (rhythm) to make the composition memorable. She concluded with one of the most evocative of dadras, "banao batiya" in Bhairavi — one of the favourite and most beloved of the short renditions in Ustad Faiyaz Khan's 78 disc. The audience was enraptured as if a primeval chord had been touched. It was an extraordinarily appropriate manner to conclude what was a wholly memorable and atmospheric morning of great music, at times nostalgic, moving, but always confident by an artist who will certainly go a long way.
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