Tejpal Singh's original Hindi book is translated and published as 'Sangeet-Surjo Ustad Amir Khan'. The most valuable part of the book is, perhaps, in the last chapter of the book where 44 khayal and 7 tarana bandishes, sung by Ustad Amir Khan (1912-1974) are compiled with notation following Bengali method. Translator Meena Banerjee has put in extra effort to provide clue to accurate pronunciation of Hindustani and Hindi by replacing Ba (actually Va belonging to Mridu Vyanjan but pronounced exactly like Ba of Pa-varg) with Tagorean Va (picked up from similar looking Asamese script by Tagore for correct enunciation of his self-tuned Vedic Hymns) and by adding dots under Ka, Kha, Ga, Ja and Fa alphabets (a la Hindi's Devnagari script), as per requirement, to pronounce Urdu words. By following the guidelines, given in the first paragraph of 'Anubad Keno' (Why this Translation), the enunciation of certain words of the compositions will be easily possible.

The threadbare analysis of Ustad Amir Khan's singing style and the methodical compilation of numerous relevant but, so far, strewn facts related to his education and his mentors are the other valuable features of this book by Tejpal Singh. In this there is almost all necessary information available regarding Amir Khan.

According to the author Ustad Amir Khan considered himself as the representative of Indore Gharana. This was accepted by Kolkata-based disciples and admirers of Amir Khan towards the final phase of his life. But many here believed that Amir Khan belonged to Kirana Gharana. One of them was the late Kumar Prasad Mukherji, an erudite expert of Khayal vocalism, vocalist and writer. Just like Ustad Waheed Khan of Kirana, Ustad Amir Khan used to sing Vilambit Khayal in extra-slow jhumra tala. He also adopted some of the ragas and compositions sung by Ustad Waheed Khan and implemented his style of singing elaborate bol-alaap in his own style. These similarities were the reason behind this hypothesis. But, when I listened to Ustad Waheed Khan's recordings, I did not find much in common between the bol-alaap sung by him and that of Amir Khan; what I found was slightly closer to the late sitar player Vilayat Khan's alaap. Even Kumar-babu too agreed in his last analysis that there was enough difference between the characters of vilambit khayals as presented by Amir Khan and Abdul Waheed Khan.

The originality of Amir Khan's medium-fast and fast khayals is accepted by all and there is no dispute either regarding the influence of Rajab Ali Khan on his taankari. Under the circumstances there is no reason why an artiste, who was born and educated in Indore, should not be hailed as the vocalist belonging to Indore Gharana. The second book . . .