...........................................................................................Interview

 Anuradha Pal 

My parents are my best critics - Anuradha Pal

As soon as you enter the home of Anuradha, you get into the artistic ambience beholded by natural beauty, that the Pal household has successfully captured in their seventh floor rooftop flat. The Pal household consist of a talented couple, and their equally talented daughter. We are talking about none other than Anuradha Pal; daughter of the renowned artist Ila Pal, disciple of tabla maestro, Late Ustad Allarakha. She is the internationally acclaimed female tabla player, who broke the myth that playing percurssion is a male's prerogative.

As we sit appreciating the nature and the decor, we see the young and talented Anuradha, coming in, guarded by her pet dog Sheru, followed by her jaan, 'tabla'. In just few seconds her fingers started running furiously over tabla, as she posed for us. One could make out that she immediately got engrossed in her performance. She took her own time before she transended into our world. Dedication towards tabla is what made her the brightest young stars amongst the Tabla players of the younger generation, both as an accomplished soloist and a versatile sought after accompanist. She has already accompanied maestros of various fields, Vishwamohan Bhatt, Sultan Khan, and Tarun Bhattacharya, to name a few. But for her, climibing the ladder of success was not as easy as it is to play tabla.

"Without any musical legacy, it was really very tough to prove myself and that too, as a tabla player. In the beginning, people never took me seriously, but gradually they started to recognise my talent and after that, it was no looking back. With support from all my gurus, I began my life long journey with music, which started with my learnings in the Banaras gharana," confined Anuradha.

Few years ago she formed India's first all-woman percussion based classical ensemble. "This classical ensemble was formed with the basic idea of promoting new and young talents, specially who does not belong to musical background. In Stree Shakti, and Shanti, most of the vocalist and instrumentalist were new, and we all came out with flying colours."

Today after basking in the roaring success of the ensemble's first album, 'Stree Shakti' and 'Shanti', Anuradha is enthusiatically waiting to release her next couple of albums, 'Sensational' and 'Anokha.' "These albums are very precious to me as they will introduce me as a composer. My previous albums established me as a soloist and accompanist which needs a totally different structure and approach. Now I am in a position to experiment with my ideas."

At the age of 26 she already owns her own, music company, 'Sur aur Saaz', which is releasing her forthcoming albums. Throwing light over her new albums she added, "People always say, 'live concert ka maza, albums mein nahin ata'. So we thought of recording a live performance. Since my concert with Shahid Parvez, in Australia, was replete with melody, device, intricacy and craft, we decided to record and present it to our audience back home." Sensational is the live recorded album. Her second album Anokha, which is her first tabla solo, presents the patterns of different talas of hindustani music which are rendered in devastating new colours. A combination of emotional cadence and breath taking speed; a nimble craft that is self created.

With a dream to explore every aspect of music irrespective of the medium, Anuradha has already tried her hands in the Indian Cinema began with Gaja Gamini's background score, film directed by M F Hussain, who also happens to be their family friend. "I guess background music is a very important ingredient, which helps the story to develop. In Gaja Gamini, I simply tried to knit the whole story with its background score." Later she clarifies that, "I don't think I am competent enough to give music to commercial Hindi Films, but I am always open to film music which requires a classical touch in it. Among the contemporary musicians, I would like to work with A R Rehman, for he is the one who took Indian Music beyond the Indian shores."

The road that she has carved for herself, has seen her life with conviction, of playing tabla. " It was a concious decision by my parents, to make me what I am today. Their confidence in me always helped me to grow. At the same time my parents are my best critics," Unperturbed by the success, Anuradha still believes that she has a long way to go, this is just the begining.

By: Sharmistha Chakraborty
Photographer: Vinayak Prabhu