To celebrate the 144th birth anniversary of Pandit Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, the great savant, missionary of music who removed the stigma and prejudice against music and musicians by establishing the first ever Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Lahore, way back in 1904, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya and Saraswati Samaj jointly organised the “Vishnu Digambar Jayanti Sangeet Samaroh-2016”.
The annual festival, which acknowledged Paluskar’s efforts in preserving and propagating our rich heritage of classical music, saw a lively vocal recital of Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar. His Miyan Malhar was perhaps the most impressive rendering of this monsoon raga one heard this rainy season. The typical Tilwara Theka by Pandit Suresh Talwalkar sounded like the thundering clouds of the Bada Khayal “umad ghumad ghan garje….” rendered with amazing vigour, adorned with the Gamak Taans by the seasoned vocalist. The traditional bandish in raga Desh made a comely contrast with its romantic appeal enhanced by the sensitive touches of the melodious harmonium Sangat by Vinay Mishra. Desh could have been a befitting finale to the festival but on request, he concluded with ‘Pancham Malkauns’ which had a ‘Vakra’ nature of chalan.
The other fabulous Malhar was the Gaud Malhar, meticulously rendered by Pandit Venkatesh Kumar. The traditional composition of Sadarang “kahe ho….” set to Vilambit Tilwara Tala and the lively Teen-Tala bandish “surang chunariya deho mangay…” were presented with aplomb accompanied on tabla by Keshav Joshi and Dr. Arvind Thatte on harmonium. He also presented a couple of compositions in raga Bageshri and Sohani before concluding with a Bharavi bhajan.
The senior vocalist of the inaugural evening was Pandit Ajay Pohankar, who offered an hour long reposeful rendering of raga Bihag before concluding his vocal recital with the melodious thumri he is known for. One also had the rare opportunity to listen to a marvellous morning raga, when Vidushi Aarti Anklekar Tikekar regaled music lovers with her impressive rendering of raga Jaunpuri during the morning session. Aarti also sang a rare variety of Malhar named ‘Anand Malhar’, an unusual combination of raga Yaman and Gaud-Malhar, composed by Vidushi Kishori Amonkar, before concluding with the Bhairavi bandish and Tarana. This morning session also offered the most melodious Carnatic flute recital by Shashank.
Apart from the mesmerising musical homage by senior artistes, Jayanti Samaroh is also known and awaited for showcasing young talent. There were two such promising youngsters this year — the fascinating sitar player Dhruv Bedi and the Japanese santoor player Takahiro Arai, who displayed tremendous potentials.
Initiated into the Hindustani classical music by his father Jagdip Singh Bedi, a well-known Surbahar and sitar exponent; Dhruv is being further groomed under Pandt Budhaditya Mukherjee in the Gayaki Ang of the Imdadkhani Gharana. He played a detailed Alap-Jod-Jhala in raga Shuddha Kalyan followed with a slow and a fast composition set to Teentala. He concluded his scintillating sitar recital with a tappa in raga Kafi, set to the Addha Theka with intricate taan patterns typical to the Tappa style. Somen Nandi on tabla reciprocated with the same flourish.
Takahiro Arai, the Japanese disciple of Pandit Shiv Kumar Sharma, was already trained in Western drums and jazz music when he joined his Guru to take up santoor at the age of 16. He chose Yaman, the most expansive evening raga, and did full justice to this melodious melody with his reposeful Alap-Jod-Jhala and the lovely compositions set to Jhaptala and Teentala. Takahiro is an imaginative artiste but unfortunately his sensitive approach to the raga was bulldozed by the aggressive tabla accompaniment of Shivshankar Rey. The other young duo were Lakshya and Aayush Mohan Gupta, who played a sitar-sarod jugalbandi with the enhancing tabla by Akram Khan.
Each and every session of the Jayanti Samaroh opened with the melodious rendition of the devotional songs of saint poets and the traditional bhajans immortalised by Pandit D.V. Paluskar, by the well trained and most tuneful Gandharva Choir. This was a sure shot antidote against the usual latecomers.
