Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA)’s recently held monthly Purnima concert featured Manjusha Patil. The focus of the programme was on compositions on Shri Krishna. According to Manjusha, “Shri Krishna has been the subject of so many compositions, in Dhrupads, khayals, thumris, holis, bhajans, folk songs — there is so much material on him. Still it was a challenge to confine myself to only certain compositions.” Inspite of this, her recital was spectacular. She started with raga Shri, strictly according to the time theory of Hindustani music; her initial aalap dragged somewhat as it took her time to settle down, the vilambit khayal was in Jhap taal.
The second raga Manjusha chose was raga Des; the composition was by Kunwar Shyam, a Goswami from Vrindavan about whom very little is known. The uplifting words “Kunwar Kaanh Baraje Aaj Mohe” took the audience to another level. She chose to musically embellish the word “Kaanh” (Kanhaiya, or Krishna) beautifully in different ways.
Cow girl’s despair
The “antara” lyrics speak of the despair of the “gopi” (cow girl) who cannot fill her container with water. Shyam’s compositions are unique in that the lyrics are extremely poetic and full of alliterative descriptions.
Singing a composition where the emphasis is purely on the words imposes a huge limitation on a singer trained in the classical method and that too one like Manjusha’s whose voice is so very adept, but she limited herself wonderfully, and created a very devotional ambience. She concluded the Des with a tarana.
The mood changed with the holi “Kanha Rangwa Na Daalo” in raga Basant, poignant in its plaintive plea to Lord Krishna by the unnamed “gopi”.
Continuing with the compositions of Shyam, Manjusha next presented his khayal in raga Gaur Malhar, laughingly saying if it brought the rain to Delhi, being a Malhar, she would be happy, as it was so hot! The beautifully descriptive composition, typical of Shyam’s poetic creativity, was “Ghumand Ghumand Garaj Garaj Barasan Aave Re Baadalawa, Bolan Laagi Adar Mor Papeeha, Piya Sauten Sang Jage”. The word “aave” on the “teep Sa” was beautifully prolonged, spanning four beats, in an unusual twist. Her embellishments in this showed a little of the famous Agra “bol baant” (using layakari in the words) both her Gurus are famous for — Kane Buaji was a “ganda band” shishya of Ustad Vilayat Hussain Khan, and Pt Ulhas Kashalkar’s Guru Pt Gajanan Joshi was Agra taught too.
Manjusha then sang the story of the birth of Shri Krishna, composed by an unusual composer, Raja Sir Daljit Singh of Kapurthala. Amazingly a Krishna “bhakt” (devotee), who wrote in “braj bhasha”, this composition was printed in the “Krishna Ank”, in the 1931. Another unusual work was the teachings of the Bhagwad Gita in his native Gurmukhi. The composition “Aavo Aali Dekho Aaj, Dware Nand Rai Jooke, Chatur Badan Veda Dhwani Hai Alaavato”, was set to Manjusha’s own tune, a mixture of ragas Des Tilak Kamod and Aiman, in a lilting “keherwa” taal.
On request, Manjusha next sang a Maharashtrian folk song, “Gauran”, again focused on Shri Krishna, talking of his “rasleela”. This racy piece demonstrated her undeniable vocal prowess; indeed her voice has an amazing flexibility. It is as if there is a spinning wheel in her throat, throwing out notes really fast. She concluded her recital with a bhajan by Meera Bai in raga Bhairavi.
She regaled an audience of connoisseurs the next day at a baithak concert by VSK; here she did not hold back vocally, but stunned her audience with diverse, extremely intricate taans, executed with an admirable grain (daana). It is much easier to execute very fast “ghaseet” (gliding ) taans, not giving due weightage on each note; Manjusha’s taans were notably different, in this respect. Again her “bol baant” was fantastic; her bell like crystal clear voice in the higher notes astounding. She also pleasantly surprised her audience by her very competent handling of thumri; clearly this too is a genre she is very much at ease in.
She was superbly accompanied on tabla by Prashant Pandav and on the harmonium by Shriram Hasabnis; both Pune-based artists. Without doubt, both enhanced the concerts enormously.
