Sarangi Legend’s Career Began In Morbi; Saptak ’12 To Be Dedicated To Him
Sarangi icon Sultan Khan – whose pathosdrenched playing in ‘Dil cheez kya hai’ sensitized India to the instrument’s pensive brilliance – has died at the age of 73.
Khan’s genius has illuminated a range of platforms, from Hollywood (Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’) to India’s classical music highpoint – Ahmedabad’s Saptak music festival. Indeed, Khan cherished his connection with Gujarat, because that was the site from which his career took off.
Khan began as an artiste at Akashwani’s Morbi station in 1969. There he met Lata Mangeshkar for the first time, in 1971. And the Nightingale of India played an instrumental role in making Khan move from Morbi to Mumbai the following
year. “Khansahab’s first music album of ghazals of Mirza Galib with Lataji was released in 1972,” recalls Khan’s senior disciple Dr Kashyap Dave, an anaesthesiologist. “The album was conceptualized and planned at the Morbi radio station.”
Khan, an Indore Gharana titan, was severely diabetic and had been beset with kidney ailments for the past few years. He succumbed to kidney failure at his Mumbai residence on Sunday at 2 am.
As tributes and remembrances clogged the mediaspace, a poignant announcement emerged from Khan’s beloved Ahmedabad. “This city was his second home and he was one of closest associates of Nandan Mehta,” said Manju Mehta, the force behind Saptak. “Khansahab has been part of the Saptak festival for the past 31 years. Saptak 2012 will be dedicated to him.” Khan’s cousin Ikram Khan, a0n A-grade sarangi player at Akashwani in Ahmedabad, said: “Though Khansahab belonged to Jodhpur and resided in Mumbai, his heart belonged to Ahmedabad.”
Ikram Khan said notwithstanding busy schedules of film recordings during the peak years and deteriorating health conditions in the recent past, the legendary performer attended Saptak festivals starting from 1980. “He loved to perform for the Ahmedabad audience,” Ikram Khan said.
Mehta said Khan’s death had taken away “the inventor of aunique singing-styled sarangi playing”. Khan’s style has been savoured internationally through his collaboration with Zakir Hussain and Bill Laswell. The three comprised the fusion group, Tabla Beat Science. Khan was conferred Padma Bhushan, the country’s third highest civilian honour, in 2010.
