Recently, on Saturday, 14th January, renowned sitar player Dipanjan Guha performed in a novel concert in Kolkata’s Academy of Fine Arts. Titled “Music Beyond”, the concert took place in Academy’s North Gallery which was hosting an exhibition of paintings by eminent painter Subhashis Saha.
It is not very uncommon to see musicians of different genres collaborating, but to have a sitar concert inside an exhibition hall and developing in line with the theme of the paintings is quite rare and remarkable. And it was made beautifully possible by Dipanjan, who was once referred to as “the master of creating moods through melodies”.
Indeed, very few art forms have the ability to create or affect the moods like music, and of the different forms of music, Hindustani Classical is probably one of the best suited to do so. It is classical yet open to the interpretation of the creator, traditional yet highly evolved.
The paintings in the exhibition were created during the pandemic times and tell the story of the time, especially the lockdown, with different shades of fear, despair and hope. As an introductory passage in the exhibition brochure mentioned, it was a time of darkness, and at such times, it is the story of darkness that needs to be told. But in every story of darkness, there is a journey towards light. Dipanjan, that evening, created his music accordingly and made it a journey from darkness to light, with myriad shades of emotion in between. The music, based on raag Kirwani, was serene and meditative at times and sparkling at others.
The performance started with a short and deeply melodious _alaap_ , followed by a _jod_ in beautiful rhythm. Then Dipanjan played two compositions in _vilambit jhaaptaal_ and _drut teentaal_ , concluding with a fast and melodious _jhala_ . During the entire concert, the melodies from the sitar fused with the mood of the paintings and held the audience in silence only to applaud at the end. Dipanjan was ably accompanied on the table by Mallar Mukherjee, a disciple of late Pandit Sankar Ghosh.
Coming from the Senia Maihar _gharana_ (the style of Indian Classical Music that was created by the great Ustad Allauddin Khan and immortalized by such legends as Pandit Ravishankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan), Dipanjan is a prominent sitar player of the present times, with a style that has been developing to be his own – a style that is at once simple, musically coherent and impactful. A long-term disciple of Pandit Kushal Das, Dipanjan was introduced to the world of music by his mother Sukla Guha, a fine musician herself, at the age of ten and his training began under the guidance of Shri Sailen Das. Later he also studied briefly under Sangeetacharya Ajay Sinharoy. Dipanjan has since played in many concerts in India and abroad including USA, Europe and South Africa which have been appreciated by both the audience and the critics.
But Dipanjan is an artist with a difference. Besides being a musician, Dipanjan is also a published author and appreciates different forms of arts and looks for possible ideas to collaborate. He is also a Computer Science and Engineering graduate from Jadavpur University, and was adjudged the Best All-round Graduate of the university for his year. Also, his work and his love for travel and nature, mountains in particular, have taken him to various corners of the world. With all these experiences of life, Dipanjan, to quote from his website, “aims to embark upon and take his audience along in a journey in time and space, where many experiences and dreams dissolve into the present moment that can be felt with all the intensity of human senses.”