Conveying the essence of Jaipur-Atrauli gharana

Raghunandan Panshikar lent creative touches to the features of his gharana

August 08, 2019 03:32 pm | Updated 03:32 pm IST

Raghunandan Panshikar performing at Vani Mahal in Chennai

Raghunandan Panshikar performing at Vani Mahal in Chennai

Ustad Alladiya Khan, who founded the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana, wrote many a bandish on the Hindu gods. One of his foremost disciples Mogubai Kurdikar and her renowned vocalist-daughter Kishori Amonkar took this musical tradition to greater heights of popularity. Raghunandan Panshikar, one of the leading disciples of Kishori Amonkar, was in Chennai recently to perform at the Sivananda Festival of Music 2019 at Vani Mahal.

A gayaki, even one coming from a rich tradition, must evolve into something unique, while being enriched by contemporary influences. Raghunandan Panshikar transported the audience to another plane in a heartwarming display of all these influences during his hour-long vocal recital.

Apart from the two-decade association with his Guru, he had the rare opportunity of being guided by her legendary mother. While his music reflects the quintessential style of the Jaipur-Atrauli gharana: a full-throated akaar, dazzling taans and layakari, and a refined use of meend and gamak, Panshikar also brings in his own imagination and creative touches.

He began the concert with a brief alap, before launching the bandhish in Raag Yaman. He held the audience attention as he dealt with the deep resonance of the aakar in the lower octave in a cascading play of the nuances of the ‘nishad’ and ‘dhaivat.’ The bandish evolved with an attractive range and resonance, the notes smoothly traversing the middle octave and landing on the sam with precision. An impressive aakar on the upper shadaj was followed by upper octave passages, touching the Pancham with dexterous ease.

This close-to-50-minute bandish exploration was followed by a abhang, ‘Bolava Vitthal’ that gave the presentation a grand spiritual conclusion that went well with the huge black-and-white backdrop of the beautiful landscape of Rishikesh and Swami Sivananda Saraswati and Swami Shantanand Saraswati.

Rohit Vivek Marathe (harmonium) and Prakash Kandaswamy (tabla) aided the performance admirably with their aesthetics.

The evening began with Charumathi Raghuraman’s Carnatic solo violin recital to the expert accompaniment of Anantha.R. Krishnan (mridangam). Beginning in subdued style with ‘Siddhi Vinayakam’ (Mohanakalyani), a Muthiah Bhagavatar composition, the violinist went on to present Syama Sastri's ‘Marivere gati’ (Ananda Bhairavi). She warmed up with the kriti ‘Anandamrutakarshini’ (Amritavarshini). After a nunaced sketch of Kapi raga, ‘Intha Sowkyamaninne’ was presented, wherein she wove a deft suit of swarakalpana. The recital ended with a tillana.

The last part of the festival was ‘Kadambari,’ a garland of dance genres, presented by the students of Temple of Fine Arts International. Beginning with Odissi ‘Mangaldhwani,’ a pure nritta piece, the dancers depicted the devotion of Hanuman in the song ‘Sri Ramachandra kripalu’ in Bharatanatyam style. The show ended with a semi-classical group performance to the song ‘Bho Shambho’.

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