Pandit Ulhas Kashalkar's son, Sameehan Kashalkar's maiden concert was organised in Bangalore by Sapthak. It had, for reasons obvious, kindled high expectations and generated a great deal of curiosity. Sameehan Kashalkar established his credentials before the connoisseurs of Bangalore as a promising vocalist. Born in a family of Hindustani classical vocalists, music must have been a spontaneous choice for Sameehan. It was evident in the commendable earnestness with which Sameehan presented his art.
Sameehan Kashalkar commenced his vocal recital with the raga ?Miyan ki Malhar?, which can be described as a musical prayer for the life giving rains of the monsoon season. Sameehan began with the vilambit ektal composition ?Ata dhoond rahore avere badariya?, a bandish which speaks of the dark clouds gathering to a delicious wind. His explorations of the raga through the cyclic ?avartans? of alap, bol-alap and bol taans followed by a lilting drut teen tal composition ?Ab ghan barse? touched all the salient aspects of this raga and gave a kaleidoscopic vision of this raga in all its splendour. Nevertheless, throughout his vocal recital it seemed that Sameehan's performance would have been excellent if he had paid more attention to the coherent enunciation of the bandishes.
This was followed by raga Kedar. Named after Lord Shiva, Kedar occupies a pride of place among the evening ragas. It is of ancient vintage and finds representation in every conceivable genre ? dhrupad, dhamar, khayal and thumri. Among the myriad complexities of this raga, foremost is its abstract nature which makes it notoriously resistant to capture on paper. It is not a ?scalar' raga in the sense, it is not easily amenable to reconstruction with elemental aroha - avaroha phrases. The raga employs all the shuddha swaras including teevra madhyam. The proportion of teevra madhyam is far less than that of shuddha madhyam. Komal nishad is optional and when introduced, it appears as a vivadi note.
Sameehan presented the vilambit composition ?Jogi ravala? set to a difficult tilwada taal, a rhythmic cycle of 16 beats which was followed by the popular drut ektal composition ?Chatur sughar balma?. In his delineation, the subtle interplay between the two madhyam notes of this raga came through effectively. Another captivating feature was the delicious swoop from shadja to madhyam making whistle stops along the way on the dhaivat and pancham. His racy taans in the tarana composition acquired a special sense of vibrancy owing to the exemplary tabla accompaniment by Gurumurthy Vaidya while Ravindra Katoti on the harmonium imaginatively highlighted the aesthetically pleasing aspects of Sameehan's gayaki.
Sameehan concluded his recital with a thumri in Bhairavi ?Bansuriya kaise bajaye shyam?. His lyrical improvisations in the Deepachandi taal was truly a fascinating interface between the vocalist and the tabla artiste.
