Actor Jennifer Kapoor, who constructed Prithvi Theatre in suburban Mumbai along with her famous person husband Shashi Kapoor, all the time needed her buddy Ustad Zakir Hussain to carry out on the tradition hub that opened on November 5, 1978. Nevertheless, this was by no means to be throughout her lifetime.
Some months after Jennifer handed away on September 7, 1984, as a part of the second Prithvi Pageant in 1985, Ustad Zakir Hussain and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma carried out on the theatre on February 28. That day occurs to be Jennifer’s birthday. For the subsequent 39 years, Hussain carried out, curated and hosted what got here to be referred to as ‘Prithvi Memorial Live performance’. Final 12 months’s memorial live performance was particular as Hussain carried out along with his brothers — percussionists Fazal Qureshi and Taufiq Qureshi — at Prithvi Theatre after an extended hole. That’s additionally the final time Hussain carried out on the theatre. Later that 12 months, on December 15, the information of his demise shook music lovers.
The reminiscence of earlier 12 months’s live performance lingers within the thoughts of Fazal, who carried out on Friday in the course of the forty first Memorial Live performance that paid tribute to Hussain. “We (Fazal and Taufiq) are again on the memorial live performance this 12 months. Nobody had ever imagined that we’d be performing with out Zakir Bhai this 12 months. Nevertheless, I really feel Zakir Bhai’s presence each time I’m taking part in tabla,” says Fazal.
Ever since Hussain began holding the live shows, he has by no means missed it. Hussain stored his ‘date’ with Prithvi Theatre by designing evenings of musical encounters. Over time, these evenings have included superb line-ups of musical legends and younger aspiring musicians, each nationwide and worldwide, throughout genres of classical, fusion, jazz and people.
“In some years, the live performance date was modified, perhaps to February 27, however Zakir Hussain by no means cancelled it,” says Kunal Kapoor, son of Jennifer and Shashi Kapoor in addition to one of many theatre’s trustees.
Kunal’s son Zahaan who performed the lead in Netflix collection Black Warrant, provides: “It’s a celebration of Ustadji’s legacy.”
On Friday, as a prelude to the live performance, a bunch of younger musicians carried out a chunk referred to as ‘Candy Sixteen’, composed by Hussain within the 70s, on the theatre’s lobby. The live performance opened with a jugalbandi of Fazal on the tabla and Rakesh Chaurasia on the flute. This was adopted by an brisk efficiency by musician-singer. He sang ‘From the darkish into the sunshine’, which he had written as a tribute to Ustad Alla Rakha, Hussain’s father and a music icon.
Story continues under this advert
In a while, a number of different musicians together with Nastya Saraswati, Arka Chakraborty, Yogesh Samsi, Sridhar Parthasarthy, Sabir Khan and Shikhar Naad Qureshi carried out on the packed theatre. Most of them used to carry out with Hussain and he referred to them as his ‘typical suspects’. Clips of earlier memorial live shows had been performed.
The live performance’s finale piece was Hussain’s composition from his album ‘Making Music’.
Will the memorial live performance be again subsequent 12 months? “We hope to maintain this custom alive. Nevertheless, we don’t know what will occur subsequent 12 months,” says Fazal. “We hope to carry it subsequent 12 months too, Inshallah,” Kunal says.
