Rajib Roy meets Dhrupad maestro F Wasifuddin Dagar during his performance at the Shillong Raj Bhawan a few days ago
F WASIFUDDIN Dagar, the Dhrupad maestro who represents the 200-year-old Dagar Gharana of north India performed at Raj Bhawan’s Durbar Hall recently. The performance was the initiative of Society for Promotion of Indian Classical Music and Culture Amongst Youth, Meghalaya chapter and Indian Council for Cultural Relations, Shillong.
“The body is itself an instrument. But it is up to us to exploit the music it gives off,” said Dagar, who has performed across the globe. He added that Dhrupad is one of the oldest Indian classical forms and the Dagar musical Gharana the oldest. He is now settled in New Delhi.
Paying obeisance to goddess Lakshmi, Dagar elucidated the word classical. “We believe in god and the capacity of person in going classical is as far as he or she feels. Going for refinement or in-depth knowledge in any subject is in itself a classical act,” he said.
Tones, Dagar explained, depend on seven basic notes and 12 universal notes make. “It is your expression. You can say a sentence in various tones and the tones behind the words help us express through music,” he said. His forefathers had devoted their time to and composed microtones.
Asserting that “music is the food of one’s soul”, Dagar rued the lack of television or movie space to classical and folk music. “Media have to popularize these art forms,” he said and took a dig at fusion and all the electronic instruments associated with it. “Music and art are very much for our own self. People are talking about entertainment but it is not what we get to see in the name of entertainment today.”
Dagar added: “How many of you know the real meaning of entertainment? As you see it, the word means that you have to ‘enter’ and it will attend you. But today’s generation has destroyed the meaning. Why they have to jump and shout always in the name of entertainment? This is not entertainment,” he said.
The Padmashree vocalist said media and the recording industry have generally ignored the traditional music of this country and that was one of the major reasons behind people’s obsession with westernization. “Goddess Lakshmi can give us maximum blessings and so let us be satisfied with 100%, which is good enough but why are you looking for 1000% profit?” he said.
The Dhrupad maestro likened the western music fad to preferring synthetic gems to more expensive natural gems of Indian music. The irony, he added, is that the western world has learnt to value Indian cultural heritage. “It is important to know our own culture before aping those of others, and one has to explain the complexities of our cultures in simple language,” he said.
Dagar, however, acknowledged southern India for making Carnatic and folk-based music a part of their daily lives. He is happy that many Dhrupad schools have come up across the country but said most teachers in these schools are imparting Khayal lessons instead of Dhrupad. He urged the government to ensure mainstream schools gave weight to Indian classical music.