Ustad Mehmood Khan of Calcutta paternal ancestry and identification was with the Kirana gharana, but he was trained in the Sonipat-Panipat style of sarangi playing. Of all the many players I met, he was one of the only two players who used the fourth finger of the left hand as an important integrated element of their fingering technique. The other was Wazir Khan of Agra, also with a Sonipat-Panipat background, who was living in the Minto Road area of Delhi when I knew him.
Like many sarangi players I met, Mehboob Khan was poor. He lived in a flat near Bow Bazaar and lived mainly from accompanying Bow Bazaar tawayafs. The videos show him playing on his own and also teaching his son Shabir Hussain.
We will start with videos from a visit on 12 July, 1997. He began with rag Shuddh Sarang. After playing, hetalked a bit about the Kirana Gharana and demonstrated the fingering of a scale in his unusual four-finger style:
This was followed by rag Gaud Sarang and some talking:
