The beautiful floral décor of stage and the pleasant weather at the open air venue, the spacious lawns of Shriram Bharatiya Kala Kendra, created perfect setting for the 71st Shriram Shankarlal Music Festival. Judicious selection of the artists saw stalwarts like Pt. Jasraj and Pt Ulhas Kashalkar to Pt. Uday Bhawalkar, Pt. Ronu Majumdar, Pt. Shaunak Abhisheki, and artistes like Debashish Bhattacharya, Arati Ankalikar Tikekar, Irshad Khan and Kalapini Komkali, who were participating in this festival for the first time. There was also a morning session this year, with the Carnatic Veena by Jayanthi Kumaresh and Hindustani vocal by Manjiri Asanare.
Pt. Jasraj concluded the three day festival, reaching it to sublime heights on the soothing ‘Taar Pancham’, the crescendo of his melodious mantra “Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya….”, leaving the mesmerised audience on a spiritual high at the end of his one and a half hour long concert. There was no trace of exhaustion on the exhilarating 88 years young legend till the end.
Slow-paced raga
Opening his concert with a contemplative rendering of raga Darbari, first of all he requested the audience ‘Kindly bear with me. It is a raga of slow tempo that proceeds very slowly. Please remain with me all along and don’t move ahead of me…”, before the auchar (introductory aalap) of the austere raga and the bada khayal, “Birahi jako mann…” set to vilambit (slow) Ektala, accompanied by Kedar Pandit on tabla, Mukund Petkar on harmonium and with vocal support by his gifted disciples Ankita Joshi and Rattan Mohan Sharma.
Pandit Jasraj in performance
Caressing each and every note with deep reverence, he explored the inner secrets of the raga through the Mandra (lower) range, in a restrained manner and then gradually proceeded towards the aalap badhat in madhya and taar saptak, before taking up the chhota khayal, “Maan ja more Piya…” set to drut Ek-tala; where his crystal clear taans shot up to taar pancham and beyond.
This was followed by “Shyam Kunwar more ghar aaye..” like a Lakshan-Geet and the popular composition “Eri Maa, Sakal Ban Gagan Pawan chalat purvai…” with the fragrant flavour of the spring season, where Ankita and Ratan Mohan would pick up the Mukhda and he would shower a variety of taans, often giving them opportunity to follow suit. The octogenarian vocalist was in a vibrant mood and high spirits. He could have further obliged with more numbers, but for the ‘farmaish’ (request) of “Om Namo Bhagvate….” he came to this concluding Bhimpalasi piece and revelled in the rhythmic variations of the Sanskrit shlokas and his formidable musicianship, traversing from Ati Mandra to Ati Taar Shadja.
Pt. Ulhas Kashalkar had brought the earlier evening to its climax with a wholesome treat. Accompanied as usual by Pt. Suresh Talwalkar on tabla, ha had Vinay Mishra on harmonium and Dr. Ojesh Pratap Singh for vocal support. Opening with the vilambit Tilwada composition, “Nabi ke darbar sab mil gao Basant..”, and the popular chhota khayal, “Phagwa Brij dekhan ko chali ri…”, first he regaled the audience with the seasonal raga Basant. Next came Nayaki Kanada, where he presented khayals in vilambit Jhumra and Teentala. The lilting composition in Sindura had the colourful flavour of Hori, before he concluded with a composition and Tarana in Bhairavi.
Pt. Uday Bhawalkar presented a Dhamar “Kesar ghol ke Rang bano hai…” in raga Yaman preceded with the detailed aalapchari of Dhrupad style where Pratap Awad joined him on pakhawaj during the jod sequence. He could have easily squeezed out just five minutes from the given slot of his time for a Sooltal bandish, which he had actually planned to conclude with, instead of leaving the audience wanting for it.
Irshad Khan, son and disciple of Ud. Imrat Khan, played aalap jod jhala in raga Bageshri on surbahar and followed it with compositions in raga Bihag on sitar. According to the conventional time theory, Bageshri should have followed Bihag. Traditionally, in fact, the aalap jod of the chosen raga was played on surbahar that created appropriate atmosphere for the compositions to follow on sitar. The Surbahar this evening was unfortunately not properly tuned. Irshad kept tuning it time and again and even tried to explain the reason that due to the change of climate from the green room to the open air stage, the surbahar was giving trouble. One eventually got respite when he took the tuneful sitar and played compositions in Ektala and Teentala even sang a composition of Ud. Bande Hasan Khan, before playing it. Akram Khan provided admirable support on tabla.
Kalapini Komkali, the gifted daughter and disciple of Pt. Kumar Gandharva and Vidushi Vasundhara Komkali chose Multani for her main raga and treated it in the most authoritative manner with a Sadarang composition set to vilambit Ek-tala and a couple of compositions in Teentala. Hamir next, was a lovely contrast for the second raga with the traditional bandish “kaise ghar jaun Langarawa…” concluding with the Rasiya song “Mriganayani..”, which had the unmistakable signature of Pt. Kumar Gandharva. Vinay Mishra on harmonium and Ramendra Singh Solanki on tabla provided her commendable support.
Flautist Ronu Majumdar, accompanied on tabla by Durjay Bhaumik, played a detailed aalap jod in raga Abhogi Kanhada followed by compositions in Jhaptala and Teentala. Manjiri Asnare presented Bahaduri Todi and varieties of Bilawal in the morning session followed by the Veena recital by Jayanthi Kumaresh. The inaugural evening had vocal recitals by Shaunak Abhisheki and Arati Ankalikar and Chaturangi slide Guitar by Debashish Bhattacharya.
