Many luminaries in the galaxy of Hindustani classical music come from North Karnataka. Pandit Vinayak Torvi, an eminent Hindustani classical vocalist, guru and founder of the Bangalore-based Gururao Deshpande Sangeet Sabha pays his tribute to the rich musical legacy of Dharwad through the unique Dharwad Utsav, a Hindustani classical music festival organised annually in order to showcase accomplished artistes from all over the country along with artistes from Dharwad region. This year's festival, held recently, featured Sawani Shende of Pune and Kumar Das of Dharwad, two promising vocalists who have already carved a niche in the concert circuits of Hindustani classical music.
Sawani Shende stole the hearts of the Bangalore connoisseurs with her impressive repertoire of khayal compositions, ragas and thumris. Sawani, a disciple of her grandmother Kusum Shende and the renowned vocalist Veena Sahasrabuddhe, is also a popular playback singer in the contemporary Marathi film industry.
Sawani proved her prowess as a scholar and a composer in the exemplary vaggeyakara tradition which is almost extinct today. Sawani rendered her own compositions from her laudatory venture, “Hriday Swar” a book of self-composed bandishes along with a set of two CDs. She commenced her recital with the evening melody Purya Dhanashri.
It was fascinating to watch Sawani explore this popular melody not through any of the conventional khayal bandishes in this raga but through her own vilambit ektaal composition, “Kesar rang shyam chayi, lage sanj naveli dulhan bani” with remarkable aplomb and grace. Sawani's evocative delineation of some of the uncommon phraseologies of this raga elicited an equally rich imaginative response from the harmonium maestro Vyasmurthy Katti who imparted an ethereal aesthetic dimension to this beautiful raga. Gurumurthy Vaidya's tabla accompaniment enhanced the rhythmic vigour and vibrancy of the tarana composition.
Thereafter, Sawani chose the lesser-known pentatonic raga Dhani of the Kafi group. She demonstrated her competence in the rendition of the teental bandish rich in Sringar rasa: “Tu mora saiyya nipat anari bhayo aisa” popularised by her guru Veena Sahasrabuddhe. This was followed by a fast paced drut teental composition by Kusum Shende in Rag Dhani, “Chatur Balma Saiyya Mora”. Sawani's gayaki was a delectable amalgam and synthesis of the Kirana and Gwalior styles. The haunting lyrical appeal of Sawani's music was strikingly discernible in her exquisite rendition of the Kajri, a light musical form based on the folk songs of Uttar Pradesh. Sawani invested the Kajri in Dadra “Path rakho na rakho saiyya tihari marzi” with an immensely moving emotive content and a plaintiveness par excellence — reminding the audience of vintage thumris of the bygone era of Akhtari Bai and Shobha Gurtu. The other artiste of the evening was Kumar Das, senior disciple of Pandit Puttaraja Gavai of Gadag. Kumar Das commenced his late evening recital with the ancient traditional composition “Sakhi mori rumjhum badal garaje bares” in the night melody, Raga Durga. His sonorous voice traversed all the three octaves with ease and elan and the taankari and layakari were noteworthy. The drut khayal bandish in teental “Baje mori payaliya” resonated with rhythmic energy and rigour. The piece de resistance of his recital was his pleasing delineation of the bandish “Deet langarva” in raga Hamir, embellished with energetic taans. Vishwanath Nakod on the tabla and Ashwin Walwalkar on the harmonium provided excellent support.
