Within a short span of just five years, the Bhilwara Sur Sangam, of the LNJ Bhilwara Group, has become one of the eminent music festivals of the Capital. The sixth edition of this annual festival, offered dhrupad by Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar and sitar and surbahar by Pandit Budhaditya Mukherjee on its inaugural evening and concluded with the vocal recital by the one and only Gana-Saraswati Vidushi Kishori Amonkar.
The octogenarian Padma Vibhushan awardee, once again mesmerised the audience with her soul stirring vocal recital that belied her age. Accompanied on harmonium by Suyog Kundalkar, on tabla by Bharat Kamath, on violin by Milind Raikar and with vocal support by some of her best disciples in Nandini, Tejaswini and Raghunandan Panshikar; Kishoriji was there on the stage dot on time and regaled her admirers for the whole of the concluding evening. As usual she never announced her ragas and opened with the Sandhi-Prakash, the dusk time raga Puriya Dhanashree. She kept her listeners guessing the raga by just meandering around the pivotal notes of Puriya evoking the Nishad, Gandhar and Teevra Madhyam. It was only after she lovingly caressed Pancham unveiling the note, that Puriya-Dhanashree was visible.
Same was the case with her second raga which after a long time of hide and seek, could be recognised as Kaunsi Kanhara. The pressure of guessing the raga becomes a hindrance in the Rasa-Aswadan or relish of the raga for many, but this is also the very secret of her refreshingly aesthetic music as she deals with her ragas in her own way which is most unconventional. She had once explained to this writer: “The space between two swaras of a raga comprises a whole universe of emotions and feelings. A raga has limitless potential to express these myriad feelings. I explore it in my own way. But for this, you have to cultivate a close relationship with the swaras of a raga.” No wonder her lifelong sadhana has enabled her to quicken a raga with the essence of her own being.
Sitar recital
The inclusion of surbahar, that has reached the edge of becoming an instrument of the endangered species; and its superb performance by Budhaditya Mukherjee was perhaps the highpoint of this year’s sumptuous treat. The renowned representative of the Etawah Imdadkhani gharana, Budhaditya Mukherjee was, in fact, equally enthralling on sitar as well. Conventionally the stalwarts of his illustrious gharana used to play the Aalap-Jod on surbahar and then proceeded with the Gata-kari or the rhythmic compositions on sitar, but he offered novelty in his performance by skipping the alap-jod in the beginning. He chose one of the most melodious evening ragas, Yaman Kalyan and opened his brilliant performance with a sitar recital in khayal ang with just an introductory ‘auchar’ of the raga followed by a slow composition set to Teentala in gaayaki ang, the vocalised idiom, his gharana is known for.
Yaman-Kalyan was redolent with reposeful and methodical aalap-barhat with subtle insertion of Shuddha Madhyam, that remained consistent all along. If the elongated meends adorned the slow composition, the crystal clear taans with amazing taiyari came effortlessly in the faster composition that sounded like raga Hameer but announced as Hameer-Kalyan, another variety of Kalyan, by the performer. The jhala sequence stood out not only for the speed but also for maintaining the melodiousness and clarity of each of the three ‘Ra’s in that speed, as opposed to the chaotic scene one suffers during jhala played nowadays.
The sonorous sitar recital was followed with a detailed aalap-jod in Malkauns, the solemn raga of the night on the esoteric surbahar with a deep bass based sound. The very first stroke on the dhaivat of the lower octave and the elongated meend encompassing the whole area till Gandhar; captured the sensibility of the discerning audience. The Mandra Vistar reached the lower recesses of Ati-Mandra on the ‘shadja’ string behind the baaj ka taar for the deep sounding laraj-kharaj ka kaam. After the detailed and systematic alap where the long meends of five-six swaras at a stretch, erected the glorious architecture of the raga; the rich and striking gamak taans interspersed during the jod sequence were played with elan and sombre inwardness. It was a rare experience to listen to Malkauns on surbahar and watching it come alive with its magnificent glory in front of one’s eyes. Budhaditya concluded his memorable performance with raga Kafi on sitar.
Ustad Wasifuddin Dagar inaugurated the two-day festival with a Dhamar in raga Shree preceded with a detailed aalapchari in the Dhrupad style. He also presented the Raskhan Pada “Manus haun to wahi…” in raga Kamboji before concluding with a dhrupad in raga Durga. Pandit Mohan Shyam Sharma provided him accompaniment on pakhawaj.
