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July 10, 2005
navi mumbai swar utsav, vashi, new bombay
a classical music fest with big names, a kind; thats rarely seen in these parts of bombay suburbia..i wish i could have lasted till sunday evening but a bad vada-pav consumed during the morning concert break made me a slave to my stomachs rumblings and i had to miss the evening session on sunday! sigh!
i am grateful though for the two sessions, satish vyas, ajoy chakrabarthy, budhaditya mukerjee (in a package along with his son vijayaditya mukerjee) and veena sahasrabuddhe were absolutely entralling and mesmerizing. the crowd was sparse surprisingly and this perhaps let the artists be a bit more relaxed and the performances felt really intimate.
the raga selection by the artists was influenced by the rainy season and the time of performance as well. pandit satish vyas played a piece in gorakh kalyan in different taals and had to end quickly; to make way for pandit ajoy chakrabrathy! there was a bit of confusion cause he wasn't sure how much time he had left but he wrapped up anyway.
ajay chakrobarathy took a while to tune but boy was he on a high!...its not many times you see an artiste get into their element and it really showed..he gave it all..malhars..megh malhar to be specific (yes my favorite..)..you could smell the rain, the thunder, the cloud burst in his exploration of this raag; it was bliss is all i can say...and he went way way past midnight. schedule and the organizers be dammed! the crowd was very very vocal and receptive and the pandit used this energy to take him further. finally he admitted after singing a piece in bhairavi and a tukda, that he was was due for a early morning flight to kolkatta and he had to finish!
sunday morning, thirty minutes right before the morning session; vashi had its daily power cut and sure enough; the auditorium was also included in the list. aye..who cares for what happens..events, festivals..too bad organizer..you have no extra priviledge..oh yeah..we don't care..we won't inform you in advance...and we wont tell you when it will return as well... to use a generator or not, or wait for the power..we did start 30 minutes late on some official's promise; and after a couple of blips with the poor pandits plunged in darkness; the power did come on.
vijayaditya mukherjee, pandit budhaditya's son was a surprise addition and together with this father and Yogesh Samsi on tabla; played lights out (pun intented)..really high speed, switching high to low and encompassing all the possible combinations of the swaras in raag lalit, tell ya! ..it was heaven watching and hearing them.
veenatai as she is affectionately called also gave a standout performance with long elaborations in raag komal rishabh and then followed by one in miyan malhar and a bhajan. she sang the miyan malhar piece in drut taal while paying tributes to pandit balwant rai. the strength and the pitch of her voice was all there in this old age..and as i closed my eyes to focus on the vibrations, to see them produce emotions and see that transcend and permeate through all my cells; i felt a sense of calm and peace..a feeling that only music could produce..
Posted by dharma at July 10, 2005 05:41 PM