Life Is Music: Meet `master` Percussionist Sanchit Mhatre

New Delhi: Music can do wonders to your mind and soul. Some of the legendary musicians have come together for a musical initiative- #LifeIsMusic- a platform that brings together musicians to rejuvenate your souls.

Master percussionist Taufiq Qureshi along with Louiz Banks and Purbayan Chatterjee launched the musical extravaganza on Monday 15th June 2015.

Speaking to Yoshita Sengupta on the set of #LifeIsMusic, talented Percussionist Sanchit Mhatre talks about his journey as a drummer and tabla player.

Wake up at 5.30 am, leave home in Dadar to get to the engineering college in Panvel in time. Leave college at 5 pm, get home by 7 pm and get down to working on assignments and preparing for tests and exams. Next day; repeat. After following this routine for two-and-a-half years, “the most tragic period” of his short 23 year-old life, Sanchit quit. He hated it. It didn’t leave him any time for music, which he’d spent his lifetime pursuing,learning, practicing, and mastering.

Four years later, while he sits with us in the vanity vanparked outside the sets of #LifeIsMusic, his peers sit in an examination centre taking the final year B.Sc. Physics exams. He’s decided to miss his exams. “Taufiq (Qureshi) sir called me up and asked me to be part of this show. I couldn’t say no to him,” Sanchit says politely.

Start with a bang

At the age of six, Sanchit had started to bang and play pretty much every piece of furniture that came in front of him – mirror frames, television glass, tables, couch arms. There was a fair bit of performing arts influence at home from his grandfather, who’d perform bhajans in their ancestral village and his mother, who is a folk dancer and choreographer. To fuel the child’s obsession and perhaps also to save the furniture in the house from breakage, his youngest maternal aunt handed him an unused pair of Tabla that was gifted to her by a learned Tabla player she closely knew. Soon enough, he started to train under Tabla player Jayesh Dhargalkar, who was like a brother to the same aunt, who had given him the instrument. After learning from Dhargalkar for close to five years and accompanying him and his team for shows, he joined the UstadAllah Rakha institute in Dadar, where he learnt from the likes of Ustad Zakir Hussain. By then, Sanchit had already given his first solo performance in his school.

The other rhythm

At Ustad Allah Rakha institute, on a couple of occasions, Sanchit came across ace percussionist and Ustad Allah Rakha Khan’s youngest son Taufiq Qureshi and his music. He also happened to see his performance on television. “By then, I was just absolutely convinced that I wanted to play percussions and learn from him,” Sanchit recollects.

After his class 10 exams, when Sanchit expressed his desire to learn Percussion from Qureshi, his mother, on several occasions tried to get in touch with the maestro to convince him to train her son. Somehow, however, it wasn’t working.

Life went on, Sanchit enrolled himself in Ruia College and in the first few weeks itself, Taufiq Qureshi was scheduled to take a workshop in college. “I had a friend in college, who was a senior. He told me that Taufiq sir was going to visit and asked me to come along. They were going to play with sir and I also eventually got to play with them. The first time I met sir, I got to perform with him. Not too much, but a little bit,” he recalls.The same friend also happened to be a part of the cultural committee that organized these events and invited Sanchit into the green room.“Suddenly, my friend had some work that came up and he asked me to drop sir to his car. I got the opportunity to walk sir out of college. That’s when I spoke to him. That’s when he asked what I do and I told him that I learn the tabla and that I am a fan of his,” he says.

A couple of days after this incident, Sanchit’s mother called up Qureshi to request him to allow Sanchit to be a part of his classes. “That’s when from behind, I told mom to remind him that I was the same boy who had dropped him to the car when he was at Ruia,” he says. She passed on Sanchit’s message and Qureshi immediately recollected and asked her to send Sanchit for a classon Thursday.

He went for the class, where Qureshi just asked to him sit, listen and decide if he really wanted to train under him. After class, Qureshi walked up to him and asked him if he wanted to continue. Of course, was Sanchit’s answer. “He then asked me to play something for him. I did. I was just so nervous playing in front of him. I was star struck. I wasn’t even sure what I played. He then asked me to start coming from the following Thursday.”

It was while learning under Qureshi when Sanchit decided that he wanted to pursue music as a profession.This was also the time when the engineering college tragedy happened, which just reinforced how much he loved music.

No looking back

Sanchit has not looked back since. Already a Visharad in Tabla, he’s now pursuing an Alankar and also studying B.Sc. in Physics, so he is at least eligible to go abroad and learn sound production, which is where he hopes his future lies. “Music and rhythm arrangement is where I want to grow. That’s my bend of mind. That’s what I like doing. Creating a piece and playing it or giving it to someone to play,” he says.

Meanwhile, he’s already opened a few studio doors for himself and has played a hand in the rhythm arrangement for the background score of a Marathi film, documentaries and the anthem of the Pro Kabbadi League team, Puneri Paltan. The work for another Marathi film is ongoing, he says.