Gig review/ Anoushka Shankar Project

BY NARENDRA KUSNUR

Anoushka Shankar Project 

Genre: Sitar fusion/ crossover

Details: Shanmukhananda Auditorium Sion, December 16

Rating: ****

After a rage-filled introductory passage, Anoushka Shankar put aside her sitar, stood up and began reciting poetry against a clarinet backdrop. "Let our fury echo through the pages of history, let not this death be quiet like the thousands before it," were the lines penned by Nikita Gill.

Anoushka was on the Mumbai leg of her current tour, playing to a jam-packed Shanmukhananda Auditorium on December 16. These lines were part of her song 'In Her Name', originally written for Jyoti Singh Pandey, who was sexually assaulted and murdered in Delhi 10 years ago, but eventually dedicated to thousands of affected women across the world.

The song struck a chord, and was one of the highlights of the 105-minute performance, divided into two parts without an intermission. Though it started 30 minutes late, as the traffic delayed the arrival of many, it soon settled into an evening of musical virtuosity.

With Anoushka, each project or tour offers something new. Her last Mumbai concert, called Love Letters and held at the same venue in February 2020, had a sizeable chunk of vocal numbers, besides tunes that have become popular over two decades. Her recent Grammy-nominated album Between Us... sees her in live performance with the Metropole Orkest conducted by Jules Buckley and featuring percussionist Manu Delago.

Thursday's show offered something else altogether. In the first part, Anoushka teamed up with British electronic musician Gold Panda (Derwin Decker) to interpret compositions of her father Pandit Ravi Shankar. Appropriately, the suite was called 'Variations'. Overall, it had its moments, with Anoushka doing a medley of melodic extracts from various pieces. Yet, at times one felt there was something missing in terms of coherence and flow, and there was a disjoint between some sitar tunes. It was a great concept, with probably some tweaking required.

In the second part, Anoushka was joined by clarinet player Arun Ghosh, bassist Tom Farmer, drummer Sarathy Korwar and percussionist Pirashanna Thevarajah. Three selections were taken from Anoushka's 2016 album Land Of Gold, including an elongated and improvised version of 'Reunion' From the 2011 record Traveller, she did 'Dancing In Madness'.

One of the evening's special moments came through Anoushka's interpretation of the Ravi Shankar composition 'Fire Night', which featured fabulous portions on clarinet, bass and drums. A piece in raag Jansanmohini was played with pizzazz. Each musician was brilliant, playing as part of the team or with their individual solos.

Like her Love Letters show three years ago, this concert attracted both elder and younger people. Many people in their 30s seem to be very familiar with her music, and the applause between tracks was huge and heartfelt. 

One now awaits the announcement of the Grammy awards on February 5, where Anoushka has two nominations - Best Global Music Album for Between Us... and Best Global Music Performance as featured guest on Pakistani singer Arooj Aftab's 'Udhero Na'. She's earlier been nominated seven times, and her fans are obviously keeping their fingers crossed.