The story spans over four generations of a group of people, both from
north India and from the Dharwad region, who are involved in
Hindusthani music – their personal lives, their issues with each other –
and related to their passion for music. From being a student and a
disciple, to giving concerts of their own and developing an original style,
to trying to make a name for themselves in a highly competitive and
politicised industry and to, finally, have students and disciples of their
own, thus completing the circle and starting a new cycle.
Gharana, Suresh Sundaresan
Rating is 5.0 out of five stars based on 5 reviews
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Reviews
Gharana is a story of many musicians across generations and across this vast country. It highlights their beginnings, growth and fading away beautifully,
What helps in this engaging non-linear or non-binary flow of story is the style of writing. Told in first person or "I" but uniquely the narrator changes every few chapters! So, unfolding feels intimate and "detached" at same time. Leaves you with a sense that, no one person can "end" a Gharana, but can only enrich it with unique style.
It narrates the history of a Hindustani Gharana from pre-independence to the current day. Challenges that musicians go through to find the right Ustad(s) to learn, the years of practice before they make a mark, some of the inevitable politics, rivalries, the critical role of some well-wishers for their success, the inevitable cycle of rise and fall, the conflicts between the teacher and the disciple, and their search for the right disciple to pass on their legacy are all portrayed beautifully.
For a debut novel, this was very well written. Weaving a story through traditional classical music isn't an easy task at all. It is about capturing depth of human emotions as much as the depth of the musical form itself and Suresh has done a great job at this!
This story takes you through lives of several ustads across the years to show how a gharana or a music style of a lineage evolves, whilst battling politics that any art form faces. A novel storyline that keeps you hooked till the end!
'Gharana' is essentially an ode to the Guru Sishya method of learning music, where the Ustad of each generation is desperate to find that one student who will keep the Gharana (lineage) alive and thriving. The novel is about the joy and rigor of learning music, but is accessible even to music illiterates like me.
For a novel that flows to its own rhythm unhurriedly, it kept me hooked like a page turner. There are crescendoes and crashes but no where is it forced.
For a country that supposedly places a premium on the classical arts, very little is known about the world and the characters that inhabit it. Gharana is the book that helps the common man understand the people, the music and the complex world of the music. The characters are well etched out and the book traverses about 3.5 decades and we see not just the characters but the country evolve through the eyes of these characters. Thoroughly enjoyable