'They Are Part Of Maa Saraswati': Kaushiki Chakraborty On Her Concert 'Remembering The Divas'
The musical extravaganza celebrates six timeless divas of Indian music with Kaushiki Chakraborty and her entourage of renowned musicians as they stitch together a grand narrative filled with melodies.
Mumbai is gearing up for a melodious night as Classical Singer Kaushiki Chakraborty celebrates the legacy of eminent musicians at NMACC. The musical extravaganza titled 'Remembering the Divas' celebrates six timeless divas of Indian music with Kaushiki Chakraborty and her entourage of musicians as they weave a narrative filled with iconic melodies, stories and legacies. Compiled by the eloquent narration of author and historian Vikram Sampath, the performance will transport audiences through time as Kaushiki pays homage to the legendary figures – Gauhar Jaan, Begum Akhtar, M.S. Subbulakshmi, Shobha Gurtu, Noor Jehan, and Kishori Amonkar.
In a conversation with ABP Live over a video call, Kaushiki Chakraborty shared the idea behind such a concert and also talked about the reason behind choosing NMACC for this.
She said, "This is a concept that I have been thinking, dreaming, contemplating and internalizing, because Indian classical music, semi-classical music, is a tradition and it's very difficult to understand where this legacy and tradition is taking us, if we don't understand where it is coming from. Because it's like understanding the passage of a river."
"It's also important, not only musically, but on a personal level to understand who were those people, what were their lives like, what were their thought processes like, who have handed over this legacy to us. So, in that search, I tried reading, of course listening to their music was always a part of my life, but I started reading about their personal lives, the human side of those musicians," she added.
Chakraborty left no stone unturned in her research. She not only read about them or listened to their music, but she delved into their lives to understand the source of all the melodies she had grown up listening to.
Being passionate about Thumri, she said, "Thumri and female musicians- they're like intertwined with each other. So, it's their life that they sang. It was not a song that they sang, it was their life that they've sung."
"I wanted to understand their lives. And I was fascinated when I started reading and understanding more about them- the difficulties, the challenges, the heartbreaks, the restrictive nature of the society, the number of dead ends that they've faced from the very beginning of their lives, and the number of walls that they've broken to become the icons and the legacy that they've passed on to us," she added.
Kaushiki also travelled to Benaras to interact with the families in ordeer to get a broader understanding of the lives of the divas she wanted to celebrated.
She said, "I visited Banaras and tried to interact with the families of these musicians. After many years of research, we finally kind of tried to put together all the thought and the music and that's when this project started taking shape."
Talking about the concert she said, "We have six musicians, as of now- M S Subbalakshmi ji, Noor Jahan ji, Gauhar Jaan, Begum Akhtar, Shobha Gurtu and Kishori Amankar as the divas that we are celebrating. Hence the name of the concert- 'Remembering The Divas' because they are divas in every possible way. For a singer, for a student of music, they're also part of Maa Saraswati for me."
The show wll be held on March 31 at the Grand theatre in NMACC. As per the NMACC website, each segment in the concert opens with a specially designed audio-visual presentation that chronicles the life and journey of a diva, followed by a rendition of a traditional composition performed originally by her. This will then be followed by a new composition created and performed as a tribute to the diva, imagining how she may have performed the song in.
Sharing the reason behind choosing NMACC for this concert, Kaushiki Chakraborty said, "NMACC at the moment is one such cultural hub and has established itself in only one year. The kind of projects that they've chosen, the kind of art forms that has been presented there, I think it's very carefully curated, very carefully chosen, very carefully selected and combined. So, I have followed some of the musical presentations that they've done. And I have always admired the selection of projects that they have presented. So, it was one of the most obvious choices for something as glorious as 'Remembering The Divas' to come to NMACC and the Grand Theatre, of course."
Alongside Kaushiki Chakraborty, the show presents an ensemble of renowned and talented musicians such as Aruna Sairam, Harshdeep Kaur, and prolific Kathak dancer Prachee Shah.
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