CHENNAI: It is not easy for a group that promotes Hindustani music in a city that is a cradle for another giant school of music. More so, when there are other challenges like maintaining quality and promoting talent with limited funds. However, for Chennai-based Amir Khusro Sangeet Academy that has been actively promoting classical Hindustani music in the city, every disadvantage has been turned into an advantage. The group recently had its show at Queen Mary’s College, as part of the institution’s centenary celebration.
Founded in 2002, the group was the brain child of Munna Shaokath, a qawwali singer and prolific lyricist. He says, “We observed that there weren’t many performance spaces for Hindustani music, while there were many venues in the form of sabhas for carnatic music.”
He adds, “When we talk about Hindustani music, Hazrat Amir Khusro is remembered notably for his contribution to Indian Classical music, Sufism, Qawwali, Persian literature and to the cause of Hindavi, from where Hindi and Urdu find their roots. Therefore, we arrived at the name for the group.”
With regular shows year after year, many prominent and upcoming names performed in shows organised by the group. In its second show, the academy had Shehnai legend Ustad Bismillah Khan performing in a grand show. Among other known names, who performed under the banner for shows here include Kavitha Arudraa, Rimpa Siva, Jasmeet Kaur, Rita Dev Paul and most recently Sulekha Bhatt. The academy also invites aged and senior artistes and felicitates them with Lifetime Achievement Awards. The awards are extended to those in fields apart from music.
Jyoti Nair Belliappa, who is joint secretary of the group and a regular performer at many of its shows alongside Ali, says that there have been odds aplenty for the group, given that there is no source of income. “We manage sponsors and arrange artistes with it. If it is an outstation artiste, there are other costs involved. We haven’t ticketed any of our shows. Yet, we have decided to keep it going,” she says.
Jyoti also attributes the group’s success so far to a few renowned names in the group’s committee like Urdu experts Sajjad Bukhari, Ahmed Basha and Mohammad Younus Shamsuddin, and patrons like educationist Kamini Sundaram, Kiran Bedi, Manjulika Zhaver, P Mahalingam and classical vocalist Meera Savoor.
Ali, who belongs to the tradition of music of Mohammad Abdul Baqi from Bengaluru and Shankar Shambu, says that they hope to find increased patronage and support from people in the city. “But what is gratifying for us is all these years, we have managed it on our own. We will continue to work towards the motto of promoting music,” he says.