A Tribute To Ustad Ali Akbar Khan & Ustad Bismillah Khan - By Hyderabad Film Club

The Hyderabad Film Club, in association with Swarnanjali, is organising the screening of 2 films - one, of a live concert by Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, and the other, a short film titled Sange Mil Se Mulakat, based on Ustad Bismillah Khan. The screening is being held at Prasad Labs Preview Theatre, at 6:15pm.

The event is a tribute to 2 gems of Hinduatani classical music - Ustad Ali Akbar Khan and Ustad Bismillah Khan. Sange Mil Se Mulaqat is a film on Ustad Bismillah Khan wherein the classical musician from the ancient city of Benaras speaks about his inspirations, his study of music, and his gurus.

About Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan is a sarod player born in April 1922, of the Maihar gharana. Khan was instrumental in popularizing Indian classical music in the West, both as a performer (often in conjunction with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar), and as a teacher. He established a music school in Calcutta in 1956, and the Ali Akbar College of Music in 1967, which is now located in San Rafael, California, and has a branch in Basel, Switzerland. Khan also composed several classical ragas and scored music for films. He was a professor of Music at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Trained as a musician and instrumentalist by his father, Allauddin Khan, Khan first came to America in 1955 on the invitation of violinist Yehudi Menuhin, and later settled in California. Khan was nominated for 5 Grammy Awards, and was accorded India's second highest civilian honor, the Padma Vibhushan, in 1989. He has also won a MacArthur Fellowship and the National Endowment for the Arts's National Heritage Fellowship.

About Bismillah Khan

Ustad Bismillah Khan, born in (March 1916 - August 2006), was an Indian shehnai maestro. He was the 3rd classical musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna. His ancestors were court musicians, and used to play in Naqqar Khana in the princely state of Bhojpur, now in Bihar. His father was a Shehnai player in the court of Maharaja Keshav Prasad Singh of Dumraon Estate in Bihar. He received his training under his uncle, the late Ali Baksh 'Vilayatu', a shehnai player attached to Varanasi's Vishwanath Temple.

Though a pious Shi'ite Muslim, he was also, like many Indian musicians, regardless of religion, a devotee of Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of wisdom and arts. He often played at Hindu temples, including at the Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi.

He brought the Shehnai to the center stage of Indian music with his concert in the Calcutta All India Music Conference in 1937. He was credited with having almost monopoly over the instrument, as he and the shehnai are almost synonyms.

Please contact 2373-0841 for further details.