Tag Archives: Ustad Bismillah Khan

Interactive music museum comes up in Bengaluru

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UTTAR PRADESH :

Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27.

Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks
Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks

Bengaluru :

Indian Music Experience (IME), a city-based museum that explores the evolution of Indian music with interactive, multi-sensory exhibits, is organising its grand launch on July 27. Announcing  this at a press conference,  M R Jaishankar, chairman and managing director of Brigade Group and founder of IME, said, “The grand launch of the IME is a culmination of nearly a decade of effort to set up a truly world-class museum and arts centre in India. We are hopeful that the IME will grow to become a pre-eminent arts hub of the country and preserve and propagate India’s rich cultural heritage to the next generation.”

Many dignitaries, including Tejasvi Surya, member of Parliament, Bengaluru South and S M Krishna, former union minister for External Affairs, were present. On the occasion, there will be musical confluence by Ustad Zakkir Hussain and Louiz Banks at 7pm. Talking about IME, museum director and classical vocalist Manasi Prasad, shared, “The performing arts teach us to create, communicate and collaborate. India has the most diverse musical culture in the entire world and the museum celebrates this. Going forward, the IME aims to be a centre of music education and research, providing a platform for artistes and art lovers.”

The exhibit area of IME consists of eight thematic galleries showcasing various facets of Indian music, an instruments gallery with over 100 musical instruments, three mini theatres, and several computer-based interactive installations that allow visitors to experience the process of music-making. The exhibits feature memorabilia belonging to the Bharat Ratna musicians of the country— Bismillah Khan, Bhimsen Joshi and M S Subbulakshmi.

In addition, it will also feature a rare phonograph and gramophone, a selection of microphones, gramophone records and other artifacts.
The launch will be held at IME grounds in JP Nagar at 4.30pm.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Bengaluru / by Express News Service / July 27th, 2019

Umrao Jaan gets a tomb in Varanasi

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Faizabad / Varanasi , UTTAR PRADESH :

Rekha as Umrao Jaan
Rekha as Umrao Jaan

Lucknow:

Umrao Jaan, the courtesan and poetess immortalised by Rekha in a 1981 classic, has got an address 80 years after her death.

A local club of sportspersons and social activists who had found Umrao Jaan’s nondescript grave in Varanasi in 2004 have built a tomb and decorated it for public viewing.

The tomb at the Fatman graveyard in Sigra was thrown open for public viewing on Tuesday (December 26, believed to be her death anniversary) and over 2,000 people have paid tribute to her since then.

Although there is no authentic research available on her, the general belief is that Umrao Jaan, on whose turbulent life at least a dozen films have been made in India and Pakistan and who inspired Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s novel Umrao Jaan Ada, left Awadh at the turn of the 19th century and lived in many places since, slipping into oblivion.

Shakil Ahmad, the president of the Derbyshire Club, a group of sportspersons and While trying to gather more information about her, “I was working on the grave of (shehnai exponent) Ustad Bismillah Khan one-and-a-half years ago when someone told me Umrao Jaan’s resting place was near his.”Some local people and I discussed and decided to renovate her grave. . The grave has been kept open at the centre in keeping with Islamic tradition, which says a grave shouldn’t be completely covered

None of the films made on Umrao Jaan, including the 2006 movie in which Aishwarya Rai Bachchan played the courtesan, mentions that she spent her final years in Varanasi.

source:  http://www.telegraphindia.com / The Telegraph, Calcutta, India / Home> India / by  Piyush Shrivastava / December 28th, 2017

A maestro and his love for ‘Benglor topi’

Arts, Culture & Entertainment,

BismillahKhanMPOs12oct2015

As the world celebrates the birth centenary of shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan this year, Bengaluru and Karnataka have their own links with the Ustad to cherish.

His youngest daughter, Bengaluru-based Kaneez Fatma recalls that he loved his ‘Benglor topi’, as he fondly referred to the special topi he had received from the then king of Mysuru Jayachamaraja Wadiyar after one of his concerts at the palace. “He wanted to wear his ‘Benglor topi’, which he cherished, for every small function and kept it safely packed after use,” recalls Ms. Fatma.

TopiMPOs12oct2015

Organisers of his concerts here too have fond memories of the maestro. Imagine Bismillah Khan making audiences sway in unison to his Ram Dhun, says S.N. Varadaraj of Sree Ramaseva Mandali, Chamarajpet. “He was such a pious devotee of the Ganga that he would bring water from Varanasi for his entire stay here,” he said.

Bismillah Khan’s shehnai playing for the Kannada film Sanaadi Appanna and his subsequent association with Rajkumar, who played the role of a shehnai player in the film, remains etched in Karnataka’s memory for its heritage value. “His modesty was so apparent. In 1977, after the recording, he used to show us pictures and proudly declare that Kannada hero Rajkumar had lunch with him,” recalls the maestro’s son Zamin Hussain Khan.

And when it came to gastronomic delights, the maestro could not resist some of the delicacies of Bengaluru, reveals his family members. “He loved the shami kabab that his friend Nazeer used to prepare for him here. Mysore bonda and vada were also among his favourites and he even used to source them when someone visited Varanasi from Bengaluru,” says his grandson Afaque Haidar Khan.

Soma Ghosh concert in Bengaluru today

Special concert

As a tribute to the shehnai maestro Bismillah Khan during his birth centenary year, Bengaluru Art Fest, steered by Suma Sudhindra and Veena Murthy Vijay, will feature a Hindustani vocal recital by Soma Ghosh, whom the maestro regarded as his adopted daughter, on Sunday at 6.30 p.m. at the National Gallery of Modern Art.

“I feel humbled to have been acknowledged by Khan saheb nearly two decades ago at a mehfil in Varanasi when he singled me out and said my style reminded him of time-honoured yesteryear mehfil gaayikas. Khan saheb’s love for the neo-classical poetic mehfil genre, mainly sung in courts for a closeted royal crowd, had him revive some of the signature darbari mehfil facets into his own styling.

Nobody is singing mehfils these days, and I plan to present some components such as kajari, thumri, tappa, dadra, hori and ghazal during by Bengaluru concert,” said Ms. Ghosh.

source:  http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Ranjani Govind / Bengaluru – September 20th, 2015