On World Music Day, say cheers to Culture Cocktails

Kolkata: In a spectacular gig at the impressive Biswa Bangla Convention Centre, Tagore cocktails were served to an enraptured audience. Where Gulzar, Mohit Chauhan, Rekha Bharadwaj and Shweta Mohan blended beautifully with iconic and emerging Bengali performers to celebrate his beautiful legacy.

A challenge affecting arts and culture globally is scalable relevance to emerging generations and Rabindra sangeet is no exception. An intense expression of sincere emotions, its repertoire of 2,232 creations is fairly impossible to translate, in terms of unique sentiment more than just fine language. Thus, the effusion remains restricted to a limited section of cultural natives, whose relationship with both words and tunes evolve with the greying of time and the passage of the brain. But all this is changing due to an inspiring new menu card of Culture Cocktails.

When Mohit Chauhan sang ‘ Prano Bhoriye’ set to Niagara Falls orchestration, the generations seemed to merge effortlessly, as his fanboys and girls swooned with gaping applause. The irony of a home-grown iconicity made relevant by a significant outsider is frankly academic, as long as the connection is established. As proven by similar encores, from multiple genres and ethnicities - classical ( Hindustani, Carnatic and Western), Baul, Rock and Bollywood. Quite suddenly, the Tagore who digitized urban youngsters find little reason to embrace became a red carpet invitee to the playlist, as evident from their delighted expressions.

Not to say that the purist would be disheartened as legacy performers like Sraboni Sen, Ajoy Chakraborty and Iman Chakraborty were the foundation of the evening, setting the illustrious traditional context. At the risk of sounding sacrilegious, the whisky analogy does seem to make reasonable sense. The no-nonsense connoisseur insisting on the Single Malt with Highlands room temperature, the inquisitive explorer regaled by the Whisky Sour or Rob Roy, the ambitious philistine adamant on freezing soda with ice and the curious newbie delighted with a Diet Coke addendum. But in sum, they all consume and enjoy whisky, the tradition persisting in essence and influence while abdicating the caged rigours of form.

Culture Cocktails can be defined as evolving expressions of meaningful tradition, in collaboration or abbreviation, without deviating from the unreplicable core. The objective is usually to attract newer generations unwilling to embrace the orthodox, by dint of changing habits or preferences. At the same time, the purists are not disappointed as authentic versions are available aplenty.

In classical music, we see sufficient evidence. New age sitar exponents are prone to playing super-short alaps and quickly progress to the faster portions. Thumris appear in dedicated concert forms and not just as the indulgent end of an elaborate technical expose. Fusion is now the norm and the alliance with a Western instrument is clearly a compelling cocktail, keeping everybody in business, especially the listeners.

The world of food and drink has a few valid candidates with many more to follow. Children resistant to pure-play milk can find an able conduit in flavors while a brand like Paper Boat offers retro indulgences in hip formats. As homes rapidly lose the skills and commitment to develop traditional feasts, restaurants take over to offer the flavours of tradition, not the real thing but stylish as a bonus. On drinks, the cases are endless as traditional bases arrive in innumerable variations, vodka being a base in point.

Audio books have been in vogue for a while as reading acumen is reducing in the current cohorts. Movie scripts are being smartly converted to OTT serials as binge customers revel in the continuity on call, while on the other extreme shorts are becoming  mainline cinematic construct. In fact, the entire metaverse is a Cultural Cocktail potentially, most strenuous experiences easypeasy in the much loved digital format.

There will always be certain timeless exceptions, that will refuse to be served in a cocktail format. Religious traditions like fasting or restraint including Lent, Navratri and Ramadan or the elaborate festive rituals. The sheer experiences of physical travel whether as a tourist in The Vatican or a mountaineer scaling Kilimanjaro. Sound of Music live, whether in London or BKC, and the majestic arena of Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals. Test Cricket has spawned multiple abbreviations and they happily co exist with the spiritual maestro.

Back to music and the seductive world of Tagore where the layers of meaning are comparable to a Babushka doll. Traditions may retain their essence but the purveyors may well be a deeply talented but thoroughly disruptive artist cadre, who arrive with their  barracks of regimented followers. Thus the tables get literally turned, as the seemingly underwhelming executor drives the overwhelming tradition, however formidable the latter may be. It's happened for whisky and  it's happening for Tagore and that is a reasonable track record.

Culture Cocktails are clearly here to stay and must graduate to a business plan and not just an intuitive continuum. They will happily bridge generations and give us newer reasons to bond, on everybody's ownable terms. Perhaps there is a larger lesson for civilisation at large, and on this peaceful note may all bars be declared open.