The perfect tune

Aparna Banerji

His great grandfather Sajjad Hussain Khan was the first shehnai maestro to have taken the musical instrument across the Indian borders — playing it to Queen Victoria at the Buckingham Palace, London. His father Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussain Khan was the one who rendered the lilting notes of Doordarshan’s signature tune (composed by Pt Ravishankar) at DD’s inauguration. Carrying forward the baton of such a rich shehnai tradition, Hassan Haider Ali Khan, the third generation scion of the Benaras and Seni Gharanas is an artist to look out for.

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Speaking on the sidelines of the 139th Harivallabh Sangeet Sammelan, the artist revealed the numerous ‘shehnai’ beatings he received on his tender fingers from his father as a kid and the humble leanings of his ancestors (Ustad Bismillah Khan was a relative on the paternal side), which have kept him going. All of 29 years, he was the only one of his four brothers who first worried about who would keep its strains running in the family after their father. So, Khan’s taleem began at the tender age of five. While for two years he played the instrument using the discarded reeds left by his father, alone — hiding the little secret from the family — his father started giving him shehnai lessons after he discovered his love for the instrument. Born and brought up at Kolkata, apart from his father, (His father comes from the Senia Gharana of Allahabad and mother from the Banaras Gharana, his maternal grandfather was also a shehnai exponent) he has also had his education in music from sitar maestro Pt Arvind Parekh of the Inayatkhani Gharana. “It has indeed placed me in the privileged position of understanding the nuances of various gharanas and made it easy for me to carry the tradition forward,” he shares.

Speaking of his early days as a disciple he says, “When I was a child, I wanted to be an IPS officer and my brothers wanted to be businessmen. But the shehnai intrigued me and one day I picked up one of my father’s discarded shehnais. I fixed the broken reeds a bit and began playing whatever I had understood from listening to my elders.  So for one or two years, I played on my own. At age five my father discovered me playing one day. He gave me a new shehnai and started giving me regular lessons. I faltered a lot and he would hit the shehnai on my fingers. That’s how I learnt. He has continued the practice at public concerts (laughs). His traditional methods have made me the artist I am.”

While Hassan Haider Ali Khan also gives taleem to his nephews and younger cousins, he believes the younger generation needs to be ready to take the beating first — rather than dreaming of making straight to the stage. “It needs years of practice to be a seasoned artist. Young artists need to stop thinking about short-cuts,” he says. He shares that the enthusiasm of many foreign students towards Indian classical music is very heartening.