A new tune

The staging of Rabindranath Tagore’s Raktakarabi on 28 August at Madhusudan Mancha marks the debut of sarod siblings Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan as music composers.

Directed by filmmaker Gautam Haldar, Amaan and Ayaan were approached by their family friend to do the music for one of Tagore’s most complex plays to be performed at the nine-day Purba Paschim Theatre Festival, supported by the Prabha Khaitan Foundation.

“It is an honour to be associated with a monumental icon for our very first attempt at composing for a play. We read the English adaptation of Raktakarabi called The Red Oleander after Gautamda approached us. The subject of man and machine was very interesting. It prompts a nice blend of traditional classical music and contemporary thought. So we’ve used Tagore-based ragas and songs to build in that feel,” says Ayaan, who along with Amaan has strummed most of the ragas on the sarod.

The play also marks their first formal work on Tagore. “We may not be as thorough about Tagore’s works as most people in Bengal are but it has been a part of our growing-up process. None of my father’s concerts are complete without Ekla cholo re and Abba was working on the album Tribute to Tagore with Suchitra Mitra in 1990 when we were kids. We love going to Santiniketan for concerts. So Amaanbhai and I were completely charged up when Raktakarabi came our way since it’s also a play that’s rarely been performed after Shambhu Mitra’s genius adaptation,” adds Ayaan, in town recently — with wife Neema — to perform at the inaugural day of the theatre fest.

Ayaan will not be able to attend the staging of the play on Saturday — he will be on his way to LA for the KKN Ananda Utsav.


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