In this brilliant solo performance from Darbar Festival 2017, tabla exponent Supreet Deshpande provides glimpses of a motley styles of tabla playing through age-old compositions and his own brainstorming and ‘taleem’ (learning) in a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats or Teental. He is accompanied by Milind Kulkarni on the harmonium, who adds striking melody to the solo with a rich nagma exploding with notes from folksy Indian ragas.

Deshpande allows Kulkarni to take the lead with a long and evocative alaap on the harmonium. He launches his performance in the Farrukhabad style with a peshkar. Thereafter, with fresh energy and vibrance, he doles out compositions of tabla doyens of the yesteryears. Deshpande has learned from his father, Pandit Kiran Deshpande and also Pandit Suresh Talwalkar. The first ‘qayda’ he plays is from the Delhi gharana and was composed by one of its founding fathers, Ustad Amir Hussain Khan (1899-1969). Citing this as one of his gurus’ favourites, he plays the composition and then improvises it with striking power and clarity.

A Benares gharana composition by Pandit Kishen Maharaj follows, where he blends elements of the Farrukhabad gharana (his maiden style) into its vistaar that lends a unique tonality and glow to the piece. Deshpande also offers interesting narratives before some of the pieces. He plays a ‘challan’ from the Lucknow gharana, describing it as one with a special movement or gait. He muses that just as the movement of a person gives clues of his/her personality, so does a challan of the gharana. He correlates the grace, sophistication and etiquette of the Persian culture that is inherent of the north Indian city of Lucknow to the personality of this challan. Interestingly, to this day, Lucknow city retains the elegance of the Mughal era from the 16th century when the dynasty ruled India for over 300 years.

Deshpande plays an unconventional composition of Ustad Habibuddin Khan (1899-1972), another stalwart of the Ajrada gharana which follows odd clusters of 3 ½ and 4 ½ beats in a cycle of Teental. Projecting his knowledge of some rarer compositions of his gurus, he performs a number of ‘anaghat’ that have a peculiar way of returning just before the first beat of the Teental.

In a hypnotic presentation of a ‘vedam kamaali chakardar’ composed by Ustad Zakir Hussain, he captures the imagination of his listeners with crisp delivery with unwavering energy till the end. An exceptionally played composition of Kanthe Maharaj from Benares gharana sums up his recital after which, he takes a bow following a resounding applause.

Musicians

Supreet Deshpande (tabla)

Milind Kulkarni (harmonium)

Tabla solo in Teental