Mumbai sitar player pays tribute to Pandit Nikhil Banerjee

Soham Munim (right) and Ravish Shet

When he was nine, late Pandit Nikhil Banerjee got a job with All India Radio. He was the youngest to be employed by the premier institution. Over the years, the sitar maestro - through regular riyaz and an open mind - stamped his arrival. This was the time Pandit Ravi Shankar was at his peak. Banerjee died at 55 in 1986, and his music continues to be heard. On his 85th birth anniversary, Soham Munim (31), a Mumbai-based sitar player, will pay tribute to the whiz.

Nikhil Banerjee

It is then surprising that Munim, born in the '80s, got hooked to Banerjee and not Ravi Shankar (who comes from the same school) or an Ananda Shankar. "He has been a pillar in the development of sitar playing in the last 80 years.
His playing was different from how it was traditionally played, he was more easy-going and open to new ideas, albeit sticking to the text book," says Munim, who learnt under Shri Basab Sen during his schooling at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education in Puducherry.

Banerjee is from the Maihar Gharana, founded by Ustad Allaudin Khan, but Munim believes his exclusivity as a musician is beyond all disciplines. "If you listen to his music, you cannot label him under one gharana. He was a creative sitar player incorporating sounds from all schools of music," says the musician, who picked up the sitar after listening to Banerjee's old recordings. "My father had a collection," he adds.

Munim underlines that he could never watch artistes perform live, but listening to them formed a part of his learning. "I grew up in Puducherry, where the scope for making music was hazy compared to metro cities like Mumbai or Kolkata. But radio and cassettes made our job easier," he adds, confessing that he is yet to decide what ragas to perform in the concert. "It depends on the mood. We usually leave it to the moment. If a member from the audience requests for a particular raga, we play that." He would prefer to play Hemant and Bageshri though. Those were the ragas you would immediately associate with Banerjee.

The concert is being held at a unusual venue, The Seventh Sense Movement Centre, a hub built to promote the therapeutic approach (through workouts, music and alternative means) among people. "They are trying to treat patients through music. You can't call it a medical centre but they are experimenting a lot with music these days. The patients undergo exercises while they are exposed to music," informs Munim.

Tabla player Ravish Shet (from Cochin) will accompany Munim.