Ustad Shujaat Husain Khan collaborates with Pandit Rakesh Chaurasia; says, 'Jugalbandi should be surrender, not competition' - Exclusive interview

Ustad Shujaat Khan

• Sitarist Shujaat Khan and flautist Rakesh Chaurasia perform together
• Strings & Wind tour celebrates dialogue, not competition
• Collaboration focuses on spontaneity and musical surrender

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When two masters of Indian classical music meet on stage, the moment is less about spectacle and more about shared listening. For the first time, sitar virtuoso Ustad Shujaat Husain Khan and Grammy-winning flautist Rakesh Chaurasia came together for Strings & Wind, a new musical collaboration that celebrates the dialogue between sitar and bansuri.

Known for his lyrical gayaki ang style and deeply expressive approach to the sitar, Ustad Shujaat Khan speaks to MoneyControl on the organic nature of this collaboration, the idea of jugalbandi as surrender rather than competition, and why, despite different gharanas, music ultimately comes down to the same seven notes.

This marks the first time you are sharing the stage with Pandit Rakesh Chaurasia. What finally aligned, artistically or philosophically, for this collaboration to happen now, at this moment in your respective journeys?

Nothing in my life has been planned. No planning for my career, my life, my thoughts. I enjoy everything to happen naturally, organically by itself. So exactly the same way are getting together or meeting This could have happened 10 years ago, but the thought that it is happening now is maybe we have both matured into musicians who are now comfortable with who we are and are ready to share our feelings and emotions and feed each other ideas as we go through our musical journey on stage and otherwise.

Both of you carry towering legacies of Imdadkhani and Maihar gharanas. When two such distinct traditions meet, what guides the balance between preserving purity and embracing spontaneity?

I know we are from different gharanas, I understand that, but at the end of the day it's still Indian music, Indian culture, it's just those seven notes. So it doesn't matter how different your gharanas might be, how you feel, at the end of the day it's still music. If people just get together and play music and enjoy each other, that is, I think, the last line in what we do. I have never given much thought or any importance to gharanas. Gharanas are usually, maybe just based in different areas of India, in different thoughts or musical thoughts, but at the end of the day we're all musicians who get together and enjoy.

You are known for infusing khayal-like lyricism and even Sufi influences into instrumental music. Whereas Pandit Rakesh Chaurasia's flute playing often feels meditative yet expansive. How do these contrasting temperaments complement each other on stage?

This is true. The bow strings and bansuris have different tonality, but there is a similarity also. I play the gayaki ang, which is the vocal style, which is very close to the flow and melody that is prevalent in our music. I enjoy the bansuri a lot. I love the sound. I love the resonance. I love the sustain it has. So many things that the sitar doesn't. But that is how we feed off each other, contrasting your right temperaments of our instruments and ourselves. This is how we come together. Because if we were totally similar, it would be no fun.

This tour spanned four cities with diverse classical audiences. Do you consciously adapt your raga choices or approach depending on the city, or does the music decide its own path each night?

We don't think about what we played last, or what raag, or what we were to do. We just go out there and play music. So, there is no conscious adaptation to raag choices depending on cities. Cities might be different, but the listeners are the same. They all understand music, enjoy music, and come out to experience this. It's just pure joy of being two musicians who can come together and enjoy playing music.

Indian classical music today exists in a world of short attention spans and digital consumption. How important is an IP like Strings & Wind in re-contextualising classical concerts for contemporary audiences without diluting their depth?

I keep hearing this very often about people who have started getting short attention spans. Then I see that a movie comes out in a theatre which is a three-hour movie, where people are sitting for three hours of watching a movie. So really, I disagree with this short attention span. That means we are not giving enough credit to our new generation. They are extremely intelligent and when they have to put their minds into work, they do. And if it means thinking and wondering about something for a longer time, they do.

They do realise that this is at the end of its classroom. It's not Bollywood. It's not a three-minute shot. It's not like a, I think you guys call it, tequila shot that you're taking. This is like a very nice, smooth, hundred-year-old whisky that you take and enjoy. Funnily, coming from a person who doesn't drink at all. But for me, enjoying something in a relaxed manner is more important than taking it. It's just one hit on the head and that's it. So I think people are ready for that and they still enjoy it in its entirety.

Both you and Pandit Rakesh Chaurasia are torchbearers of your gurus’ legacies. In moments of improvisation on stage, do you feel their presence guiding you, or do you consciously step away to find your own voice?

Torchbearer of gharanas. Yes, that's a wonderful underline to our names. Very fortunate that we have this option and it's beautiful. But I do understand it's a bittersweet thing because it's a huge responsibility that we have. And I can only speak to myself. I always feel the presence of my teacher and my guru, not only my father, but all the other great gurus there - Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, Kishori Amonkar, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi, Ustad Amir Khan Saab, who have spent loads of time guiding me and being with me through these beautiful moments of music that we create.

Jugalbandi often walks a fine line between dialogue and duel. For you, is it about challenge, surrender, or discovery? And what excites you most about that shared musical risk?

Jugalbandi means two people getting together to do some things like a duet. Unfortunately, it has degenerated into pyrotechnics and fighting and just being competitive on stage when two people get together. I hope when you come to our concert, you will realise that for us it is more like surrender and discovery. We discover something new about our music every day and it is to surrender to the beauty of the music and each other's music. Rakesh Bhai is younger to me and no way do I ever feel that there is any competition. In fact, everything he does and I do is to actually enhance the other person's music. That is my pleasure of playing with him.

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Looking beyond this tour, do you see Strings & Wind as a one-time confluence, or the beginning of a longer artistic conversation that could evolve into recordings, global tours, or future collaborations?

This question takes me back to how I started my conversation right at the beginning. I don't plan anything. Same way, I don't plan anything with this confluence either. I don't know if it's a beginning or the end, what it is. I am having a great time. I enjoy the respect and love that I get from my co-artists, from Rakesh Bhai.

And I am having a terribly good time. The artistic conversation is constantly there anyway. Whether it evolves into recordings of global tours or future collaborations, I don't know. Like I said, I don't plan. I am just enjoying my life every day. I don't think of tomorrow, but take it as it comes.