Mesmerising Raag Multani | Meeta Pandit | Khayal Vocal | Indian Classical Music

#multani #vocalmusic #khayalvocal #gwalior #indianclassical #darbarfestival
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Soothe yourself with Raag Multani by Meeta Pandit, who is one of the youngest and undisputed exponents of the Gwalior style or gharana of north Indian classical vocal music. In this video, Meeta elaborates Raag Multani through a 'bandish' (composition) adhering to the structure of Gwalior gayaki (style) with full authenticity to her tradition.

Raag Multani is an afternoon Raga whose mother scale is Todi. But despite that, there is hardly anything that Multani draws in essence from the Todi Thaat. It is performed during the third quarter of the day, between 12 pm and 3 pm. It uses 5 notes (pentatonic) in its ascent and all notes (heptatonic) in its descent. Re (2nd), Ga (3rd) and Dha (6th) are komal or flat notes and Ma or 4th note is sharp or raised (teevra). The characteristic feature of Multani is its 'meends' or gliding notes – a hallmark that makes Multani a rather rare but popular raga of all times.

The dominant note (vadi) is Pa (5th) and the sub-dominant note (samvadi) is Sa. The pivotal rule of Multani is to highlight Sa, Pa and Ni (1st, 5th 7th notes respectively); This portrays romance and pathos - the two colours which are associated with the mood of the raga. If one follows the rule of its mother scale Todi and highlights Re, Ga, Dha (2nd, 3rd, 6th respectively) then the melodic essence tilts towards Raag Todi and creates confusion.

As a composite whole, the komal Re (2nd) and Dha (6th) in Multani require a special treatment. The core essence of Multani is however deployed by oscillating the Komal Ga or the flat 3rd with the teevra Ma or raised 4th. Because of this oscillation, the raised 4th has a frequency which is trifle sharper than that of the basic teevra Ma. Some scholars of the Gwalior style also prefer a slightly sharp frequency of both komal Re and Ga and believe that to be an additional element that brings out the essence of Multani.

Meeta Pandit is the first woman in her family to take up music as a profession. This career move did not come as a surprise in case of Meeta for she already had this in mind. The timing of it though was pre-emptive. It has a rather disconsolate story associated with it – the sudden death of her brother, Tushar Pandit in a road accident. Meeta learned music first from her grandfather, Late Krishnarao Shankar Pandit and then her father, Lakshman Krishnarao Pandit. As a child, she immensely enjoyed her practice sessions and immersed herself into learning the nuances of the Gwalior style. Her confidence as a performer became solid due to the frequent exposures she was put through by her father in small, private soirees where she performed with 100 percent commitment.

An exponent of such an age-old gharana which is also the mother of all gharanas in north Indian classical music, Meeta has a very open mind and considers change to be a constant in any art form. This openness is what, she thinks, will help connect an age-old art form with the younger generation.

This video was shot in Mulshi, Maharashtra, India, and is part of Darbar’s On Location series - an attempt to capture the essence of a 'baithak' in each performance, where the musician and music blend with the backdrop of a natural setting and the feeling of an intimate soiree is conveyed with the appropriate HD quality video and audio.

WATCH MORE FREE CONTENT by clicking on the below links on our YouTube channel:
Kumar Mardur, Raag Multani |    • Raag Multani | Kumar Mardur | Kirana ...  
Indrani Mukherjee, Raag Multani |    • Dhrupad Raag Bhairavi | Pelva Naik | ...  
Dr. Prabha Atre, Raag Shyam Kalyan |    • Raag Shyam Kalyan | Dr Prabha Atre | ...  
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Some of our titles of full-length HD quality performances in our Digital Concert Hall of other amazing vocal performances include:
Pandit Venkatesh Kumar, Raag Multani
Indrani Mukherjee, Raag Todi
Shruti Sadolikar Katkar, Raag Savani Nat
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Musicians in this video:
Meeta Pandit (vocal)

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