Beautiful sounds enthral senses

Strings Attached

Sarangi player Murad Ali treated audiences to a soulful evening of music at the Chowdaiah Hall recently. Accompanied by Amaan Ali on the tabla and Amir Khan on the sarangi, the concert offered some unforgettable moments.

Murad Ali, who is a sixth-generation sarangi player in his family, was able to capture the attention of the audience quite effortlessly.

While he played ragas, which included raga bihag, raga surdaasi malhaar, thumri in raga mishr tilak kamod and raga mishr bhairvi, many in the audience where seen tapping their feet to the beats.

Murad Ali’s family, which originally hails from the Moradabad gharana, has been playing sarangi for the past 250 years.

So it was quite natural that he took to the instrument. However, it was a long and painful process, quite literally, because the instrument is played with the cuticles rubbing against the strings. It is particularly painful in the initial years of training.
For audience members, who were mostly classical musical enthusiasts, the concert was a break from the routine.

 “I am here because I like to hear such music. Whenever time permits, I like to attend such concerts,” said Simi Muraleedharan.

Deeti Shetty, an audience member, added, “I am interested in music which is why I am here. Although I have heard Murad Ali’s music before, this is the first time that
I will be listening to him live. Whenever time permits or on weekends, I like to attend music concerts since I find them relaxing.”

Vijayalakshmi, who had also come for the programme, said that she often listens to this genre of music. “I recently attended a concert and I liked it. I am here as I feel this too would be a good listen,” she said.

About his experience in Bangalore, Murad said, “It was lovely experience here as it is always with a wonderful audience. It was gratifying that many people came to me after the concert and offered me compliments,” he gushed.

Asked if modernisation is required to draw youngsters towards classical music, Murad said, “Our classical music is very rich so we don’t need to modernise it. But we must try out experimental music so that people can hear the different uses of sarangi sounds.”

According to him, nowadays there are many who are taking to the sarangi and interested in making it a profession.

 “The sarangi has a big place in the music field. Those taking to it can make it big in solo, vocal, dance, tabla accompaniment, fusion music and Bollywood as well,” he explained.