Can the santoor play meend?

Playing meend, the glide between notes, is hard on the santoor, because its strings are struck with mallets. So is gamak, the ornamental oscillation. That was the main obstacle to raga performance on the instrument. Bhajan Sopori answered it with thick strings pressed to imitate meend and heavier mallets for sustain, and his style draws on dhrupad, with long alap and meend.