CHENNAI: Connecting music and wisdom, Banyan Tree Events with their national presenting partners TCS, were back for its 23rd consecutive year of ‘Ruhaniyat’, seeking the divine, at the Madras Race Club, Guindy. Gathered on a balmy Sunday, the symposium welcomed the indigenous artisan rooting from Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, and the Republic of Tuva.
With a dream of transcending barriers through music, Mahesh Babu, curator of the event, said, “Ruhaniyat, more than a multi-city festival, has become a cultural platform to discover rare forms and talents of music. It emerges as a pioneering force of reviving a few of the near-extinction forms of art.”
The Banyan Tree Events, a 28-year-old Mumbai-based organisation, unveiled the talents of the artistes, including Sivasri Skandaprasad, a renowned Carnatic singer, Padma Shri awardee Hemant Chauhan, Mukhtiyar Ali, a folk singer, and Huun-Huur-Tu, a music group from the Republic of Tuva.
Spellbinding performance
Embarking on the musical fete, Sivasri hailed the event with a freestyle Tirumantiram shokla sung in the raga of Kanakangi accompanied by a flute playing the mischievous tunes of ‘Pink Panther’. While signifying the principle of absolute truth and self-belief, Sivasri moved towards the blissful world of Tamil mystics like the Ramanataka by Aruchanalam Kavi and Thirupugal by Arunagirinathar. Collaborating for the first time with Ruhaniyat, she said, “Sharing a stage with the different genres of artiste across India, makes my experience a lot more of a learning.”
Harmonising Gujarat’s melodies
On a journey of performing the tales of Gujarat, singer-writer Hemant enticed the crowd to clap their hands to the rhythm of manjira, rejoicing Garba in the Tamil land. The sounds of Ram Sagar, a tall village-style two-string instrument, and the pleasing voice of the devotional singer expressed the inner meditative state of the divine through the rendition of Guru gam gyani jaage. “There’s a cultural exchange of different art styles that I have cherished from Ruhaniyat for the past 10 years. We take back brotherhood and relations with artiste, separated in boundaries but united through music,” said Hemant.
Tuva’s enchanting tunes
Covering a distance of over 5,000 km, Huun-Huur-Tu band from the Republic of Tuva, intrigued the gala with symphonies of the homecoming. The performance reverberated the captivating tunes of nature, sounds of animals, and folks that took the conclave to the land of mountains. The four-member band is known for singing the overtones and undertones, producing two or three notes simultaneously with their native instruments like igil, khomus (Tuvan jaw harp), doshpuluur, and dünggür.
Sufi & folk magic
Delighting the fete with couplets of Saint Kabir and Meera, Mukhtiyar Ali, a renowned Sufi and folk singer from the lands of Pugal, Rajasthan, rediscovers the Sufiyana Kalam, a devotional poetry with the very own style of his classic vocals. Being associated with Ruhaniyat for the past ten years, he performed a ‘life with no possession’, enclaved by Kabir in the lines of Mann lagyo yaar fakiri mein and the devotion of Meera towards the deity of love, Krishna with Kanuda na jane mhari preet. “Music is a universal language, and the event exemplifies how it unites us. The combination of musical notes remains the same across all regions; it is only the style of singing that varies,” he said.
The programme featured an ensemble of diverse folk music traditions. Various artistes and groups took turns presenting their unique styles and contributions to their music genre. The concept of ‘When Hearts Connect’ incorporated different cultures on the same stage, from Mukhtiyar’s rendition of Laal Meri to the Huun-Huur-Tu’s Chira-Khoo.
The event ended on a majestic note with the younger voices of the Nizami Brothers, known for their Qawwali style of singing. The trio, Faizan, Hasan, and Zeeshan Nizami, performed the energetic tunes of Amir Khusro, a prolific classical poet, and his conversation with the divinity of Hazrat Nizamuddin, the beloved of God.