No Strings Attached

It’s tough having the legendary Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan as your father. But it was tough love that brought out the prodigious talent in sitar maestro Shakir Khan, finds Suchismita Pai.

- Suchismita Pai

Shakir Khan was home for the Eid holidays and, this time, he got to celebrate the festival with this father, Padma Shri Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan. That’s a rare treat for the young sitar maestro, on whose able shoulders rests the legacy of one of the world’s oldest and greatest classical traditions: the Etawa Gharana.

For the 34 year-old musician, home in Pune is a place filled with revelry and impromptu music sessions. It was Shakir’s great-great-grandfather Ustad Imdad Khan who founded the Etawa Gharana, which has focused exclusively on the sitar and surbahar, a variant of the sitar.

The eighth in an unbroken chain of musical talent, Shakir is very much his father’s son. He has spent years of rigorous training under his dad, and says his heart lifts at the very hint of praise from his reticent mentor. Trained initially as a Hindustani classical vocalist and on the tabla, Ustad Shahid Parvez Khan is recognised as one of the finest living sitar players in the world. Now his son is making him proud with his brilliant performances at some of the most prestigious music festivals across India.

Performing with his father and solo, Shakir has taken the joy and subtlety of the Etawa Gharana to audiences in the US, Canada and Europe, including a performance at the iconic Woodstock Festival in Poland in 2008. 

He has also made a foray into international fusion, with performances with the European jazz ensemble, Taalism, and Indian bands Mukti and Soundscape. Indeed, from Ustad Imdad Khan, whose performance was lauded by Queen Victoria, then monarch of England, to the highly decorated Ustad Shahid Parvez, Shakir Khan has had rather large shoes to fill.

Excerpts from a chat with the young maestro....