Expatriate Bangladeshi sitarist Alif Laila took audience into the marvels of Indian ragas at a programme on Thursday at Music and Dance Centre of Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. The seasoned artiste presented three ragas of different taste and times and folk dhun at the solo show. Laila was accompanied on tabla by talented Indian artiste Anubrata Chatterjee. Laila, who is also a painter, had her watercolour paintings presented on a slideshow on the back screen, which added to the ambience of the show. The paintings, as Laila said, were selected in connection to the ragas. ‘Raga means colour. I suppose the human mind makes various associations between ragas and colours. Every raga has its distinct colour and has distinct impact on mind. The paintings are my spontaneous reaction to particular ragas’, Laila said.
Befitting to time, Laila began with raga pardwip, an evening raga. Laila and Anubrata moved from alap to bilambit teental to drut teentaal and often created moments of ecstasy and melody. Laila then moved to present raga charukeshi, which is usually presented in the beginning of night. The artiste chose raga bhairabi to end the show. Though bhairabi is a morning raga, but artistes have the tradition to end show with this raga. Laila played a folk dhun as encore.
Alif Laila was initially trained in Indian classical music in Dhaka by late Ustad Qasem Khan. In 1988, she moved to United States and continued taking sitar lessons from Partha Chatterjee, Krishna Bhatt and Kushal Das. She has performed at many places over the world. She has seven CDs and two DVDs too her credit.
-With New Age input
