Sukhan - your first date with Urdu

सुख़न                                                                                            سخن

कुछ इस त-हा दिलोजाँसे पेश होती हैं मैफील-ए-सुखन

के तौबा करनेवालोंकोभी मिले उर्दु-ए-खुबसुरती की फुर्कन

(Sukhan Concert is so presented from the bottom of the heart

That the ones who generally avoid Urdu get the proof of its beauty)

There is no chance of me going to a show on Urdu literature. But yesterday I had an opportunity to attend a show called ‘सुख़न’ Sukhan (an Urdu word meaning speech / language / words etc) as one of my old friend – Nachiket Devasthali was one of the ‘फनकार’ (artist / presentor) of the show. This show is about the recitation of ‘नस्र’ (prose) and ‘नज्म’ (poem) of famous Urdu authors & poets and I must agree that I was completely bowled over by the shear zest of the presenters.

My Urdu knowledge is practically zero. I can understand only those words of Urdu which are commonly used in Hindi (Urdu was formed from the amalgamation of हिंदुस्थानी (Hindi) and फारसी (Percian) during Mughal Era). But I could still understand 70-80% of the total content and as said earlier, I am completely zapped by the show.

As curtains are already drawn open, soothing Amber light, burning candles and mild glow from artistic lamp shades on stage welcome you in the auditorium and immediately take you on the trip of some long lost Haveli (Mansion) of Lucknow / Peshawar or Persia. Then you are dosed on enchantingly deep sound of Sarangi (it’s rear to hear a Sarangi played in Pune) with a beautifully sung Ghazal telling us about Urdu – as a common thread between us (we Indians) and our neighbor – Pakistan.

Sarangi

Now the brain behind this show and a key presenter – Om Bhutkar assures you that ‘they have selected the content of the show such that even a lay man can enjoy the show’. He further insists that ‘even if you don’t understand a single word of it, which is rarest of the rare possibility, just try and enjoy the sound of the Language’.  No one from the audience represented the latter case.

Om makes it a point to tell you the meaning of difficult words so that you don’t miss on the content too. He urges you (‘मिस्रा उठाओ’) to repeat the first line of a ‘शेर’ (a couplet) after him which is a usual practice of a ‘मैफील’ (a concert) of ‘शेरो-शायरी’ (couplet recitation) and most of us happily obliged.

The next पेशकश (item) of the evening is a story of a conversation between an Urdu Author and a termite queen residing in an Urdu book in the dusty corner of the library of Delhi University (as now days there is no demand to Urdu books). So bad is the situation of Urdu language in our age that we consider it to be the language of our enemy. This termite queen gives you a small introduction of scope and beauty of Urdu literature. In a way, in our modern corporate terminology this story is like an Induction Program to a beginner.

Then show moves ahead and presents you with the well selected prose and poems of famous Urdu authors and poets like Amir Khusro, Mira Bai, Mirza Ghalib, Hafeez Jalandhari, John Eliya etc and you don’t mind getting drunk by the overdose of an unfamilier language that Urdu is. (My attempt of ill metered couplet at the beginning of this article is the result of such an overdose).

The show combines poetic recitation as well as actual singing of Ghazals and Qawwali, story telling, reading of letters etc to give you a wholesome experience of Urdu literature. The mixture of different styles of reciting the prose, i.e. singly (one person per recitation), simultaneously (2 performers reciting in unison) and one after another (as if it’s a dialogue) help to make the show lively which otherwise had a chance of getting monotonous after some time.

Both of the key presenters of the show - Om Bhutkar (you have seen him in Marathi daily soap ‘Agnihotra’ as a young Mohan Joshi and movies like Astu, Ajoba, Chintu, Ek Cup chya etc) and Nachiket Devasthali (you have seen him in Marathi daily soap ‘Asambhav’ as a young Aandand Abhyankar, and recently in a play ‘A Fair Deal’) are products of the famous Marathi One Act Paly competiton in Pune called Purushottam Karandak and as expected perform brilliantly. They are aptly supported by the team of singers and musicians. The lead vocalists - Jaydeep Vaidya and Divya Chaphadkar are so good in their craft that it shows the years of hard work they have put in to learning music. On Sarangi they have Mandar Bagade, on Dholak Shantanu Ghule, on Tabala Ketan Pawar (Marathi Movie ‘Shala’ Fame) and Devendra Bhome on Harmonium. All of them know their art very well. Their team wouldn’t be complete without mentioning about one more singer (I couldn’t get his name) with rustic voice. Even though this is a first attempt of Om as a director, all of them make a fantastic symposium and you wonder why hasn't he attempted direction before this.

Recent Saregamapa (the best of India's singing competition) winner - Jasaraj Joshi was present for the show and as show is presented in quite an informal way (where auditorium is completely lit), he joined other vocalists for the last Ghazal and show ended with his magical voice.

Best part of the show is that all of the artists put their heart and soul in presenting this show. Their innocence, love for the language and respect for the audience, make it a memorable experience. Their art is still bigger than the artist in them which gives you a different experience.

To add to this already enthralled experience, their backstage team mate Rucha distributes Pan (areca nut (सुपारी), slaked lime paste (चूना), catechu (कात), sweetened dried rose petals (गुलकंद), fenel seed (बडीशोप) etc wrapped in betel leaf (पान)), apply इत्र (Itra - concentrated fragrance) and lit Arabic धूप (Dhoop – thick and short incense piece). This reminded me of stories of Balgandharvan Era (Balgandharva was a famous Marathi theater artist) where audiences were treated to such royalties.

Now on negative side – Letters by Ghalib sounded Greek to me without Om’s translations as those are in most pure and thus most difficult Urdu. I could even see the restlessness in the commoners like us when these letters were being read. Next, it would help if Nachiket can explain more and more words during his recitation. Finally length (duration) of the show is a big no no. It was going on for almost 4 hours. It becomes quite difficult to concentrate at the end no matter how strong the content and performance is as Urdu is an unfamiliar language. As per me the apt length of show should be 2 – 2.5 hrs and definitely not more than 3 hrs. They can do so without reducing much of the content, just by avoiding repetitions (even though they sound great) in Om’s recitations. Actually they must keep some cards unopened to keep the novelty for repeat audience.

Though I would not watch it any time soon, I am sure they are going to get the repeat audience as it is a treat for die heart Urdu fans.

Now, this being a live performance, venue, time, date etc may leave its own impact on the craft of an Artist and on overall experience of an audience. Thus below are the details of the show which I attended:

Venue: Akshar Nandan School

Date: 31^st January 2016

Time: 6.30 pm

P. S. : Now hope Sukhan soon gets to show their talent on National and International level. All the best team Sukhan!