Classical artists generally live apart and look down on other musical genres. They tend to think that they are pure and as puritans they have every right to frown on from Rabindrasangeet to Bollywood hummables. It demands an iconoclast to rescue music from the clutches of these moral police forces. Kaushiki Chakroborty is such an iconoclast.
Kaushiki can play with plaintive notes of Bhimpalashi, her favourite raga, as subtly as she does in kirtan- based pyrotechnics Lagi Lagi of Shantanu Moitra at Coke studio. She has no qualms of suggesting her inclination to sing under the direction of Ismail Darbar. The ivory tower attitude of classical musicians might have been shaken by such a candidly robust declaration. But she seems to not care a fig.
Well convinced is she that music can fall only under two categories — good and bad. There can be no other categories. And there should not be. Good lyrics and good compositions matter. So she had been fed with Salil Chowdhury’s memorable note-twister Jhilik jhilik jhinuk khnuje pelam… as a means of voice training by her illustrious father Pundit Ajoy Chakroborty.
A smiling assassin of musical untouchability, Kaushiki is following in the same footsteps of the doyen of Indian classical music, Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan, who once stole the heart of nation with Hari Om Tatsat.
From Ustad Bade Gulam Ali Khan To Kaushiki, Patiala gharana is a house of difference. A rebel. Not in words. But in acts.