The annual festival of classical music held at the Gaiety Theatre in Shimla opened with a violin concert by Dr N Rajam, her daughter Dr Sangeeta Shankar and two granddaughters Ragini and Nandini. The festival was inaugurated by Himachal Chief Minister Jairam Thakur who pointed out that our authentic raga-based “aarti” compositions sung in temples were slowly being forgotten and new film tunes were being used for “aartis”; a trend that should stop.
Dr Rajam was in fine fettle, starting with a lyrical “Vaishnav Jan To” to commemorate the 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth on 2nd October. Settling down to a vilambit gat in Raga Desh, eschewing the usual instrumental format of aalap jor jhala, the three violinists leisurely explored the raga thoroughly. It was a delight to see the musical thought process of all four artists so much in sync; each effortlessly picked up from where the last left off. This was the first time the violin had been featured at the festival, and indeed the four-year long wait for the doyenne herself was worth it. On the tabla was Banaras gharana exponent Pt Mukundraj Deo.
Manjusha Patil
The second day was a vocal recital by Manjusha Patil, whose extensive training in Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur Atrauli gayaki was evident in her recital. Starting appropriately with Raga Shri, to which she gave the required emphasis on gravity and a sombre flavour, she moved on to Raga Bhupali, whose mood she was not perhaps able to establish. The third composition, very suitably picked was by late Raja Sir Daljit Singh, an eminent resident of Shimla, describing the birth of Shri Krishna in “braj bhaasha”. The “bhaav” Manjusha brought to this rendition was sublime. She ended with a wonderfully chirpy dadra in Bhairavi. Truly her recital had everything – “taalim”, “tayyari”, “bhaav”, “layakaari”, but more importantly her presentation skills are to be lauded. Expectedly, she received a spontaneous standing ovation. On the harmonium was the young prodigy Tanmay Deochake and tabla Prashant Pandav.
The third day featured a sarod recital by Maihar Senia gharana doyen Pt Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar. In a first, he was accompanied by both Fateh Singh Gangwani on the pakhawaj and Satyajit Talwalkar on the tabla, but somehow the cohesion between the artists that one hoped for was missing. Satyajit Talwakar is of course an extraordinary percussionist whose crisp “bols” really have “jaan”.
Tejendra started with raga Jaijaiwanti, a raga he is truly a master of as he is able to show its various aspects, playing it in the Des and Kanhra ang. The dhammar gat that followed was devoted exclusively to “layakaari” with his co artistes. The next raga was Zila Kafi, a raga today only attempted by erudite musicians usually those with Senia gharana training. This was followed by a very old beautiful gat in Bhairavi. The concert stretched way beyond the usual 8.30 p.m. cut off in chilly Shimla, where one has to walk home.
Making audience sway
Pt Ajay Pohankar regaled the audience with a brief khayal in Rajeshwari, then paid musical tribute to Naina Devi who was a Shimla resident till the 1950s, through thumri which he presented in “Purab ang”. A polished veteran, Pt Ajay Pohankar was able to sway his audience easily. His rendition of the famous Pahari thumri “baagon mein parey jhuley” made immortal by Ustad Barkat Ali Khan brother of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan sahib brought back poignant memories, as did the Begum Akhtar ghazal he sang. On the tabla was Pt Mithilesh Jha, and on the harmonium Dr Vinay Mishra.
The grand finale of the festival was the Carnatic-North Indian jugalbandi by flautist Vidwan Shashankh Subramanyam and sitariya Purbayan Chatterji. They were accompanied by Satyajit Talwalkar on the tabla and Parupalli Phalgun on mridangam. The concert expectedly was practically a different genre of classical music, with racy short phrases and exciting “layakaari” dominating the concert. Starting with Hansadhwani, the duo went onto Kirwani, ending in a Mishra Pahari. Extremely vibrant, the artistes had the audience sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for the next notes. It was a pleasure to see the concert unfold with no repetition of music, no attempt at musical upmanship. A few first time listeners said that the concert had the edginess of jazz and the melody of pop music and that the virtuosity of the artists awed; they shared that they had wrongly assumed classical music concerts were boring.
Four of the evenings had been preceded by short concerts by Himachali atists- one was pleasantly surprised to hear the level of their musicianship. Gagandeep Hothi, disciple of Pt Buddhaditya Mukherji was on the sitar and is currently teaching in Nainital.
Shimla based flautist Haridutt Bharadwaj is a disciple of Pt Ronu Mazumdar, Niraj Shandil disciple of Pt Lakhsman Seen and Pt Shushil Jain played a solo tabla, and Hemraj Chandel, currently teaching in Jogindernagar is the vocalist disciple of the late Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan. One was happy to see them acquit themselves well.
