Told by	Smt. Meena Banerjee
Obtained by	Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee
Date	21st February, 2017
Place	Smt. Meena Banerjee’s residence , Rani Kuthi, Kolkata
About the speaker	Renowned Music Critic, Musicologist and Music Connoisseur
Tags	Ulhas Kashalkar, Vilayat Khan, 2003, Mahajati Sadan, Autobiography, Shankarlal Bhattacharya,  Raag, Raga, Sanjh  Saravali, swaravali, Yaman, Behag, Bihag, Hameer, Kamod, Thumri, Bhairavi, Jayanta Chatterjee, Amir Khan, Charhi Lay, Gwalior Gharana
Language	Engllish, Hindi, Bengali

Meena Banerjee Speaks :

Text Version: 

This is about a very memorable recital of Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar Ji. He sang during this seventy fifth birthday celebration of Ustad Vilayat Khan Sahab. We were very excited, we went to Mahajati Sadan, and that evening the hall was absolutely packed. There was that official release of the Ustad’s autobiography in Bengali, penned by Sri Sankarlal Bhattacharjee. That also took place there and Ulhas Ji was suppose to sing.

 

Prior to that Vilayat Khan sahib spoke about his connection with Kolkata, and that he wanted to come back to Kolkata, live here forever, so very emotional kind of beginning, then ulhas ji came and announced that he is going to sing a Raag composed by ustad Vilayat Khan Sahab, and he sang Sanjh Swaravali. It was fantastic, absolutely fantastic, where one experience that, now Yaman came and went away, and then face of Behug, absolutely chiseled Behug came and went away, then Hameer, Kamod, you name an evening melody and their pretty faces, they came and then like a moving, like audio visual, you could feel that they are coming and going away. That was there and then he concluded his recital in Thumri, stripped in spirituality- “ Tum ho jagat ke data” in Bhairavi. That was also composed by Ustadji,

Ustad Vilayat Khan, and let me tell you since then ulhasji’s style took a totally different turn. As I told you that this was the turning point of Ulhasji’s singing career, from where his singing style took a new turn, where lots of surging emotions, one could feel, that earlier his Raga delineation was absolutely very pristine and pure but there was not much of emotions, but suddenly it was so stripped in emotion that I was forced to think what was the force behind it, then I found out that he came very close to Ustad Vilayat Khan Sahab, thanks to Mr Jayanta Chatterjee of Sunny Towers, he is a well known music connoisseur, so Ustadji’s influence worked wonders with Ulhasji’s singing, and that is how we find the Ustad Amir Khan’s elements in his singing and that ‘Charhi Lay’ which was his forte earlier, became much slower than the usual Gwalior style, and in that he incorporated lot of emotive aspects.

Verbatim: Rajeswary Ganguly Banerjee

 

Data processed at SAP-DRS Lab, Department of Instrumental Music, Rabindra Bharati University.