Like a bouquet of flowers carefully picked up from the multi-hued garden of Hindustani khayal gharanas, Rita Ganguly’s Kaladharmi thoughtfully conceived and efficiently presented its gharana festival ‘Aarohi - 17’ at the India Habitat Centre . Dedicated to Vidushi Girija Devi, the festival featured the torch-bearers of various gharanas in a very special way. First a short film on the specific gharana was screened and then the representative of that particular gharana was invited to light the lamp of his or her gharana before presenting the performance.
The festival started with a short film on Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, teaching his disciple Anand Gandharva Bhate, who lighted the lamp of Kirana Gharana and opened the festival with raga Yaman Kalyan. Blessed with a soulful voice, Anand gave a leisurely treatment to the raga showcasing his in depth training under Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. The gradual barhat-vistar of the raga rendering the famous bada khayal, ‘Avaguna na kijiye..” and the brisk taans in chhota khayal “Eri Aali Piya bin…” showed his full command over his art. He took full one hour in unfolding the raga in all its grandeur with an unhurried calm and composure.
The sonorous sitar recital by Gaurav Mazumdar preceded with a short film on his illustrious Guru Pt. Ravi Shankar, concluded the inaugural evening. Gaurav chose raga Hemant, the favourite raga of Maihar Gharana, and treated it with an elaborate alaap-jod followed by a slow and a medium tempo composition in Teentala. He was ably accompanied on tabla by Ud. Akram Khan of Ajrada Gharana. The Lucknow gharana was represented by Anirvan Das and Diptam Sinha, who have to go a long way.
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Pt. Bholanath Mishra represented Benaras Gharana opening the next evening with the Sandhi-Prakash (dusk time) raga Puriya-Dhanashri. He sang a Jhaptal and Teentala composition before winding up with a bandish composed by Bade Ramdas ji. Meeta Pandit, the torchbearer of Gwalior Gharana, presented an Ashtapadi, a very special feature of her gharana, in raga Bhupali. The famous Ashtapadi of Jayadeva was given the treatment of a full-fledged bada khayal set to vilambit jhumra. She continued with a Teentala composition in Punjabi before concluding with a tarana.
Robust flavour
Ud. Shaukat Hussain, the worthy son and disciple of the legendary Ud. Sharafat Hussain Khan, had the full-throated robust flavour of the Agra Atrauli Gharana. His detailed nom-tom aalap of Dhrupad ang, so distinctive of his gharana and the khayal in Jaijaiwanti with the penchant of playing with the rhythm had the perfume of the past. Shaukat Sahib, in fact, brought back the nostalgic memory and the forgotten flavour of his famed gharana.
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Raghunandan Panshikar, the senior disciple of Vidushi Kishori Amonkar, represented the authentic Jaipur Gayaki of his departed Guru while rendering Shuddha Nat. The Bada Khayal “aankh na mori laagi….” set to Vilambit Teentala and the Drut Ek-tala Bandish had the understated consummate musicianship gifted by her Guru. The crystal clear delivery of the complex challenging taans, so typical of this gharana, not only vouched for his arduous riyaaz but also inspired the spirited harmonium by Vinay Mishra and the musical tabla of Bharat Kamath.
Bhuvanesh Komkali, the grandson of Pt. Gandharva lighted the torch of Devas gharana, after the screening of a short film on Kumar ji. He rendered a reposeful Malkauns in the signature gayaki of this unique gharana marked with total tunefulness. He neatly enunciated a vilambit Ektala and a drut Teentala composition of Pt. Kumar Gandharva, delineating not only the musicality of Malkauns but also executing the complex taans with good lung power and melodic appeal.
Aarohi-17 concluded with the sarod recital by Aman Ali Bangash, representing the Senia Bangash Gharana. The short film on this gharana opened with Ustad Hafiz Ali Khan playing raga Desh with the fascinating old world charm which took a contemporary flavour with Ud. Amjad Ali Khan continuing the same raga; creating perfect ambience for the present torchbearer of this gharana to take over. But young Aman Ali Bangash lit the torch of his gharana along with Pt. Ramkumar Mishra who was there to accompany him on tabla representing the Benarasi baaj of Benaras gharana. There could have been no better choice for his raga than the bewitching Bihag, but instead of a detailed aalap-jod-jhala in the spacious raga, he just etched its outline with a few hurried strokes in the introductory aalap and straight away went on to play a medium tempo composition in Rupak tala.
Kaladharmi, keeping up the tradition of honouring some significant personality for their contribution to the field of arts, honoured Shekhar Sen this year, with their ‘Life Time Achievement Award’. Shekhar Sen, requested by Rita ji, also obliged with a very short composition of his musician mother late Vidushi Anita Sen, encapsulating the key-notes with names of the 10 basic musical modes of Hindustani classical music and awed the audience with his command in traversing all the shuddha and vikrit swaras used in the 10 thaats and their ashraya ragas, in one go.