A stunning rendering of morning Raag Todi set in the ground of The Rajbari Bawali near Kolkata. Mukherjee is revered for his extraordinary command of the sitar and surbahar - at age 22 veena maestro S Balachander described him as the ‘sitar artist of the century’. He first started learning from his father Pandit Bimalendu Mukherjee, an eclectic multi-instrumentalist.
The Todi raga family is central to the Hindustani tradition, overflowing with musical ideas not found anywhere else on the planet. Musicologist Rajan Parrikar describes Todi as “the most profound, finespun idea in melodic music...from ecstasy to frolic to pathos to bathos to melancholy - every conceivable human emotion has refracted through the Todi prism.” Many hear an unsettling, existentially anxious mood, while others see it has having “the playfulness of a newborn lying in bed content, smiling and playful”. A Sikh writer considers the raga to “explain things that we may be aware of, but fail to ponder upon”. Suffice to say, it is a versatile, ambiguous raga, to connect with on a deeply personal level.
Kaushiki sings the evocative Raag Jaunpuri in the Kolkata botanic gardens at sunrise for an exclusive Darbar on location shoot. Despite being bitten by mosquitos her focus remained unwavered as she meanders through the alaap to the bandish. During the recording a crowd of regular walkers and runn...
Filmed as a farmhouse in Mulshi, Mevundi sings as the rain falls Raag Brindavani Sarang. Accompanying is Dhattatray Bhave (tabla) and Leeladhar Chakradev (harmonium). Born in Hubli, his initial training began at home, informally singing bhajans and other devotional music. He recounts that “there ...
Pandit Ramkumar and Samit Mallick are leading exponents of the Darbhanga dhrupad court music tradition, named for a former state near the Nepalese border. It is said that their ancestors once ended a drought in the area through singing the rain-bringing Raag Megh, and the family still live on lan...
