| Told by | Dr. Amlan Dasgupta |
| Obtained by | Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee |
| Date | 20th February, 2017 |
| Place | Jadavpur University, Department of English |
| About the speaker | Amlan Das Gupta is a Professor of English, Jadavpur University, He has built an archive of North Indian classical music at the School of Cultural Texts and Records at Jadavpur University. He has also offered a course on the history of North Indian Classical Music. Education – University of Oxford. |
| Tags | 1974,1975, Vishmadev Chattopadhyay, Bhismadev Chattopadhyay, Gramaphone Records, Amarnath Dey, Ballygunj Siksha Sadan, Keramatullah Khan, Krisnachandra Bandopadhyay, Kesto Bbabu, Harmonium, Tabla, Buddhadev Dasgupta, Alap, Malkaush, Malkauns, Vilambit, Drut, Bhajan, Ragpradhan, Bango Sanskriti Sammelan, Maidan, Talim |
| Language | English |
Dr. Amlan Dasgupta Speaks :
Text version:
It must have been in 1974 or 75, when I first heard Vismadev Chattppadhyaya sing. I had heard him sing in gramophone records, we had some of his gramophone records at home, We heard long kind of stories about him. My teacher Sri Amarnath Dey had organized a programme at Balygunj Sikhsha Sadan, where he came. Always I was told that he was a very unpredictable singer that mean that mean what will he sing, or whether he would sing anything at all or just go away, no one could predict it at all. But he came and he sat quietly and he asked for lot of tea, I remember I went him caught the tea, and I think it was also ‘Paan’ that he requires so I was put in charge for looking after him for these things. There was Keramat Sahab, and there was Kesto Babu on the Harmonium. So he was sitting there and then he, I think he was playing the Harmonium himself. I also remember small thing when he took Keramat Khan Sahab’s Tabla and played then with Buddhadeb Dasgupta, So there were all kind of thinks that was happening. Then he went on to the stage and sang ‘Alap’ in ‘Malkauns’ and that is I think the really marvelous part of that programme. After that he sang ‘Khayal’ in ‘Malkauns’ then he sang ‘Drut khayal’ ‘Malkauns’, ‘Vilambit ‘ and ‘Drut’, and then he sang ‘Bhajan’, and stopped. After which I think people in the audience, whom he knew, you mean lot of people, there were lot of people there, lot of music lovers, who asked him to go on and say that you can’t leave us like this, and then he pulled the Harmonium towards himself and must have sang some eight or ten ‘Ragpradhan’ songs, That was really marvelous, really marvelous. Went on far beyond the time which we were booked the hall for, we were all standing there, pleading with the hall authorities to allow him to go on singing, saying something is happening which is so marvelous that, it will be really a great pity to, tragedy to stop it. So the thing is that the ‘Malkauns Alap’ I have never heard him before, after I heard him three times perhaps afterwards in ‘ Bango Sanskriti Sanmelam’ and also the programme that we have organized an year after. But he did’nt sing an ‘Alap’ , I never heard any recording later when I was sort of tried to look for the recordings of Vishmababu, I found a couple of ‘Vilambit Khayal’s but no live or recorded ‘Alap’. But that he had training and this was something which was remarked upon by all the artists present there was something that I thought was really marvelous because evidently he was talking about a kind of ‘Talim’ about on which we knew almost nothing.
Verbatim by Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee
Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.