When the artist often cited as the voice of a generation decided to quit playback singing, bereaved fans found respite in his promise to continue his career by returning to Indian Classical Music and after Arijit Singh’s first concert following his retirement where he shared the stage with sitar maestro Anoushka Shankar and percussionist Bickram Ghosh on Sunday, it is safe to say that he delivered on his promise, and impressively at that.
The energy at the Netaji Indoor Stadium shifted from thrilling anticipation to emotional familiarity as the artist walked on to the stage amid thunderous applause to reveal that he was quite humanly skittish about this monumental move at the peak of his career.
"I am very nervous. Thank you for having me,” said Arijit as he went on to perform Maya Bhora Raati a Bengali composition by the legendary Pandit Ravi Shankar and originally sung by Lakshmi Shankar. His vocals blended with instrumentals from the sitar virtuoso Anoushka Shankar and Pandit Bickram Ghosh on the tabla. Probing deeper into the details of the evening, several elements of Arijit Singh’s comeback after breaking away from the commercial space resonate with the very reasons that prompted his retirement.
Beginning with the choice of the song which was made immortal with the vocals of celebrated artist Lakshmi Shankar, sister-in-law to Ravi Shankar who composed it and performed alongside his daughter Anoushka Shankar seemed a fitting portal that merged Arijit’s path to that of journeys made by celebrated legends in the world of Indian classical music.
The melody, part of the Harano Sur (Lost Tunes) collection is representative of a golden era of Bengali music and made the collaboration feel very much like a homecoming for Arijit who wished to ‘go back to making music’ and ‘start again’.
Arijit also joined Anoushka as they performed Traces of You, a track by Anoushka and her Grammy-Award-winning half sister Norah Jones. While the event was all about a captivated audience getting to listen to Arijit’s vocals outside of a recorded song, this track also signaled at his dedication to remain active in the field of contemporary and modern music.
The night definitely lived up to the namesake of the star song - Maya Bhora Raati, wrapping up a truly magical night, filled with musical grandeur.
(Written by Akhila Thomas)
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