There was a hint of wintry chill in the air, and as the venue is barely 200 meters from the river cutting across the heart of the city, for those who prefer to sit in the ‘Bharatiya baithak’ section in two flanks -the chill gets more severe after sundown. Very few people had turned up to listen to Pt. Rattan Mohan Sharma, one of the senior disciples of
Pt. Jasraj. I distinctly recall having heard him very often on AIR when at school, and that was in mid-1960. Both he and Askaran Sharma impressed me greatly. Was curious to see how high or low has been Pt RMS’s flight after AIR and AM radio went out of my life.
He sure was good, flanked by two pretty young things on tanpura, and a pair of good tabalchi and mridnangam. Pakhavaj or mridangam? I had to look and listen carefully. It was mridangam played by Shridhar Parthsarathy, and I was jolted back to reality that Pune stands as the Gate to South. Deccan plateau starts from here, that word is an anglicised version of Urdu word dakkhan, which is a corruption of Sanskrit Dakshin. Oh boy, I have been a South Indian for nearly two decades. How thrilling.
Pt. RMS began with a very masculine sounding deep voice that Pt. Jasraj sometimes resorts to, very effectively. The melodious nature of the Mewati gharana was very much apparent, the decades of riyaaz showed perfection and some experimental forays into the taans and the trickeries that separate the seniors from juniors was very much there. He sang wonderfully well with admirable aplomb and control on singing. The alaap in Raag VaraaLi and vilambit gat were very good.
The sinking sun, throwing whimsical shadows on the advanced LED screens, made amazingly distorted views, weirdly adding to the exuberance. A clutch of koels kept making garrulous noises in the huge trees at the venue. A lot of kites, hawks and an occasional eagle kept circling high up in the sky.
The crowd slowly swelled, the applause got louder and the biofeedback sort of singer-audience symbiosis came into play. Over 10,000 had attended, according to experts. He later on sang a short piece in raag Megh, which also was hugely applauded. Finally he sang an abhang, with the Anna-topi guy with specs, providing excellent accompaniment on manjira, causing the audience to go into raptures. Though he looks like a prosperous trader from North, his singing is authentic, energetic and adventurous, he does not mimic his guru, which is commendable. He sounds very original.
The young duo of Ayan Ali Khan Bangash and Aman Ali Khan Bangash, the sons of Ust. Amjad Ali Khan, were not new to the SGSM regulars. I think I saw them and heard them here some 4-5 years ago, and had liked them. My worry was that the line up was unusual, like the famous Blues-based rock band of Allman Brothers of US who used to have two lead guitars and two drummers! Each sarodiya had his personal tabalchi… that was surely interesting. Ayan Ali Khan had the son of Pt. Anindo Chatterjee -whom I personally rate as the best accompaniment to any artist worth his or her salt because his table sound has a unique personality all his own. Unlike today’s over-commercialized superstars who overwhelm the performer, Anindo always remains where he is slated to be, and shows his brilliance is short spurts. This trait is disappearing in today’s cut-throat scenario where the ’15 minute’ fame scenario predicted by the American Pop artist Andy Warhol, and serious musicians crying hoarse over the 20 minute workshop to teach how to appreciate Hindustani Classical Music.
The youngsters with their duo of percussionists played to the gallery when the time came, but despite my personal dislike for the galloping sarods trying to keep pace with prancing percussion, this performance showed for the first time in my life, that all that high speed frenzied accompaniment can be separated from melodious pattern of the raag still being played. Both are excellent sarodiyas, and it showed.
After a very long time I saw a Bharatnatyam performace, since I am biased towards Kathak. Shobhana Chandrakumar performed making most of the viewers glued to their seats. She seems to be in her 30s, with a dancer’s agile and supple body, astonishingly piercing black eyes, and an amazing control on the ‘abhinaya’, the science and art of using facial expressions to portray a story in dance. There was something wrong the sound engineering set up because she had complain several times wordlessly, using eloquent gestures to say that she could not hear her own payal / ghungrus. This complaint of sound being insufficient rose to a crescendo with the next vocal performance, surely somebody hearing-challenged was manning the controls.
She gave a very convincing performance, with good use of fading of lights and vocal / music support in the background. One peculiar thing I noticed with the high power cameras showing every nuance on her face is that her left arm seems like that of a lady at least 40 years old while the right arm seems like a teenager’s. This could be noticed only from certain angles and it was no illusion. Most of us have one side of the body slightly more developed than the other side. Very few of us are perfectly symmetrical. She won a fulsome set of applause, thoroughly well-deserved
Finally came the giants, Pt. Rajan Mishra and Pt. Sajan Mishra, who were much honoured for their lifetime achievement. Their sons, Ritesh and Rajneesh started off the proceedings with alap in raag Joag, which is a guarantee to thrill. On four different occasions (while at Pune) I have heard the brothers and always found their singing good enough to make me beyond goose pimples and enter the wordless territory fit for Zen thinking and flying in a nameless sky. This time around the sons did the same, despite their repeated complaints the sound level remained too low -finally someone at the control console woke up and after half an hour normal sound was restored. The singing was simply astonishing with no drama, nor an intent to please the gallery. Strangely, after the vilambit, they moved back to allow the senior Mishra brother to take over, who also put in their cent per cent. One could not help but compare the ‘fils’ with the ‘peres’, and the dads indeed possess immensely relaxed style, engage into more challenging juxtapositions of the sur and laya, in brief, they perform like veterans. But the boys are slated to go very far -both impressed the audience very much.
He sure was good, flanked by two pretty young things on tanpura, and a pair of good tabalchi and mridnangam. Pakhavaj or mridangam? I had to look and listen carefully. It was mridangam played by Shridhar Parthsarathy, and I was jolted back to reality that Pune stands as the Gate to South. Deccan plateau starts from here, that word is an anglicised version of Urdu word dakkhan, which is a corruption of Sanskrit Dakshin. Oh boy, I have been a South Indian for nearly two decades. How thrilling.
Pt. RMS began with a very masculine sounding deep voice that Pt. Jasraj sometimes resorts to, very effectively. The melodious nature of the Mewati gharana was very much apparent, the decades of riyaaz showed perfection and some experimental forays into the taans and the trickeries that separate the seniors from juniors was very much there. He sang wonderfully well with admirable aplomb and control on singing. The alaap in Raag VaraaLi and vilambit gat were very good.
The sinking sun, throwing whimsical shadows on the advanced LED screens, made amazingly distorted views, weirdly adding to the exuberance. A clutch of koels kept making garrulous noises in the huge trees at the venue. A lot of kites, hawks and an occasional eagle kept circling high up in the sky.
The crowd slowly swelled, the applause got louder and the biofeedback sort of singer-audience symbiosis came into play. Over 10,000 had attended, according to experts. He later on sang a short piece in raag Megh, which also was hugely applauded. Finally he sang an abhang, with the Anna-topi guy with specs, providing excellent accompaniment on manjira, causing the audience to go into raptures. Though he looks like a prosperous trader from North, his singing is authentic, energetic and adventurous, he does not mimic his guru, which is commendable. He sounds very original.
The young duo of Ayan Ali Khan Bangash and Aman Ali Khan Bangash, the sons of Ust. Amjad Ali Khan, were not new to the SGSM regulars. I think I saw them and heard them here some 4-5 years ago, and had liked them. My worry was that the line up was unusual, like the famous Blues-based rock band of Allman Brothers of US who used to have two lead guitars and two drummers! Each sarodiya had his personal tabalchi… that was surely interesting. Ayan Ali Khan had the son of Pt. Anindo Chatterjee -whom I personally rate as the best accompaniment to any artist worth his or her salt because his table sound has a unique personality all his own. Unlike today’s over-commercialized superstars who overwhelm the performer, Anindo always remains where he is slated to be, and shows his brilliance is short spurts. This trait is disappearing in today’s cut-throat scenario where the ’15 minute’ fame scenario predicted by the American Pop artist Andy Warhol, and serious musicians crying hoarse over the 20 minute workshop to teach how to appreciate Hindustani Classical Music.
The youngsters with their duo of percussionists played to the gallery when the time came, but despite my personal dislike for the galloping sarods trying to keep pace with prancing percussion, this performance showed for the first time in my life, that all that high speed frenzied accompaniment can be separated from melodious pattern of the raag still being played. Both are excellent sarodiyas, and it showed.
After a very long time I saw a Bharatnatyam performace, since I am biased towards Kathak. Shobhana Chandrakumar performed making most of the viewers glued to their seats. She seems to be in her 30s, with a dancer’s agile and supple body, astonishingly piercing black eyes, and an amazing control on the ‘abhinaya’, the science and art of using facial expressions to portray a story in dance. There was something wrong the sound engineering set up because she had complain several times wordlessly, using eloquent gestures to say that she could not hear her own payal / ghungrus. This complaint of sound being insufficient rose to a crescendo with the next vocal performance, surely somebody hearing-challenged was manning the controls.
She gave a very convincing performance, with good use of fading of lights and vocal / music support in the background. One peculiar thing I noticed with the high power cameras showing every nuance on her face is that her left arm seems like that of a lady at least 40 years old while the right arm seems like a teenager’s. This could be noticed only from certain angles and it was no illusion. Most of us have one side of the body slightly more developed than the other side. Very few of us are perfectly symmetrical. She won a fulsome set of applause, thoroughly well-deserved
Finally came the giants, Pt. Rajan Mishra and Pt. Sajan Mishra, who were much honoured for their lifetime achievement. Their sons, Ritesh and Rajneesh started off the proceedings with alap in raag Joag, which is a guarantee to thrill. On four different occasions (while at Pune) I have heard the brothers and always found their singing good enough to make me beyond goose pimples and enter the wordless territory fit for Zen thinking and flying in a nameless sky. This time around the sons did the same, despite their repeated complaints the sound level remained too low -finally someone at the control console woke up and after half an hour normal sound was restored. The singing was simply astonishing with no drama, nor an intent to please the gallery. Strangely, after the vilambit, they moved back to allow the senior Mishra brother to take over, who also put in their cent per cent. One could not help but compare the ‘fils’ with the ‘peres’, and the dads indeed possess immensely relaxed style, engage into more challenging juxtapositions of the sur and laya, in brief, they perform like veterans. But the boys are slated to go very far -both impressed the audience very much.
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