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The Arts

Zakir on a new track

Shanthi Shankarkumar

Time: 7 pm.
Date: Sunday, April 16, 2000.
Venue: North Shore Center for Performing Arts, Skokie, Illinois.

Mark your calendars. The stage is set for a dazzling show to cruise through Chicago (or, to be more exact, Skokie). The artistes include Zakir Hussain (tabla), L Shankar (violin), T H 'Vikku' Vinayakram (ghatam), Shivamani (drums), Rajaram (folk drums), Bhavani Shankar (pakhawaj), Fazal Querishi (percussion) and Taufiq Querishi (tabla). And they bring together music, theater, the romance of a train journey and even some philosophy.

While the first half of the show will be a traditional presentation of Hindustani and Carnatic music, the second half will be a multimedia presentation called 'Journey of Life'.

The show has been conceptualized by Kushal Bose, a nuclear engineer-turned-filmmaker. Bose is also the president of Teledec Interactive, which he started with along with Sam Pitroda of Worldtel fame.

While Pitroda moved on to greener pastures, Bose continues to head the company that is provides Web-based services. He is also a documentary maker and teaches Films at the University of Columbia. He is presently working on his first feature film. A music lover and close friend of Zakir Hussain, Bose complements Zakir's passion for experimentation. Bose, who is known for his sense of drama, produced a show in 1998 for which he replicated a village on stage. The show had Zakir Hussain, accompanied by Amjad Ali Khan on the tabla, performing seated on a heap of straw.

The duo then played different ragas signifying different times of the day, while an artificial sun traced its way from east to west, from sunrise to sunset.

This will be Bose's third show with Zakir Hussain. He has been working with him for the past six years but has been his friend for almost 25 years.

"The journey happens in three different levels -- the journey in a train, the journey of life and the journey of time from morning to night. From the moment we are born to the time we die, there are significant milestones in our lives. The train journey is a metaphor for life. It also starts in a station, has a destination, has unique tracks, passengers get off, scenarios change...," says Bose.

Bose says his job is to tell a story while Hussain has to connect the story to music.

"A train has great rhythms to it, and they change all the time. Zakir always tells the story of how Allah Rakhaji learned the first elements of rhythm from the train journeys he undertook. So the metaphor of a train journey provides us an excellent opportunity to experiment with rhythm," he says.

"I try to take Indian classical music to the level of visuals. Indian music is very visual. When you hear 'Bhairavi' you can 'see' the sunrise, so also with the other ragas. They can all be visualized at some level," says Bose.

He says Ustad Sultan Khan will use the sarod to tell the story of a little girl's growth from childhood to maturity, that Zakir and Shivamani will play the sounds of the train that correspond to so many of life phases -- youth, adolescence and old age.

"When a train goes through a tunnel, its sounds are magnified and echo in the darkness. A comparison can be drawn to the pain of a mother in labor during childbirth. Just as a baby comes out from the darkness of the womb to the light of the world, so also does a train emerge from the darkness of a tunnel to light," he says.

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