Day 1 (Almost) Live from Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav 2008

Namaskar!

 

The 56th Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav began yesterday in an atmosphere of mixed emotions - after effects of the Mumbai horror and our beloved Pt. Bhimsen Joshi being awarded Bharat Ratna!

 

I was hoping to liveblog from Sawai, but the security measures are not allowing any communication devices in the pandal. Even though I could see many mobile phones being smuggled in, there was security checking and a huge presence of police force - apparently including many plain clothes officers. This did not deter the Sawai enthusiasts who showed up in huge numbers as usual with the pandal and surroundings getting packed to capacity.

 

Anyway, the proceedings began with the audience starting to clap exactly at 4:00PM. Immediately Arya Sangeet Mandali officials took control of the mike, declared the mahotsav open and handed over the control to veteran announcer Anand Deshmukh as the inaugural performer, Tukaram Daithankar and party walked on to the stage.

 

Tukaram Daithankar (Shahanai)

Tabla: Mangesh Karmarkar, Surpetis, Tanpuras, Shahanai and Sundri sangat - various members of the Daithankar family.

Tukaram Daithankar started his performance with Raga Bhimapalas - vilambit ektaal followed by a composition in drut teentaal. After that he played a Mishra Khamaj dhun and on a "one more" request from the audience, played one more dhun (Mishra Khamaj again as far as I can tell). Overall it was a simple performance with apt tabla sangat by Mangesh Karmarkar.

 

Krishnendra Wadikar (Vocal)

Tabla: Bharat Kamat, Harmonium: Suyog Kundalkar, Taal (bells): Mauli Takalkar

 

In addition to the pre-recorded introductions, Shrinivas Joshi (Pt. Bhimsen Joshi's son) introduced Krishnendra as a disciple of Late Shripati Padigar who was a senior disciple of Pt. Bhimsen Joshi. 

 

This was Krishnendra's first performance at Sawai. He started with Raga Patadeep (khyal in vilambit ektaal - dhan dhan dhan followed by drut teentaal badish - piya nahi aave). Krishnendra's presentation was true to the kirana style, unhurried, surilaa and full throated. His taans were primarily in aakaar.

After Patadeep, Krishnendra sang a Marathi abhang  (smarata nitya hari) and a kannada bhajan (Govinda Nityananda) on a "one more" public request . While I don't understand Kannada, I really liked the tune and laya of the Kannada bhajan.

 

Overall this was an excellent performance in a simple traditional style without falling in the trap of stunts or gimmicks. Krishnendra is certainly an upcoming vocalist to watch for.

 

Bharat Kamat on tabla and Suyog Kundalkar on harmonium provided supportive and appropriate sangat.

 

As an aside - the sound system problems started surfacing during this performance. The audibility was not very good and inconsistent, there was huge hum for bayan, in fact Bharat Kamat had to just about touch the bayan in order to keep this at a minimum. Unfortunately things in this department only got worse throughout the evening.

 

Suhas Vyas (Vocal)

Tabla: Bharat Kamat, Harmonium: Suyog Kundalkar, Taal (bells): Mauli Takalkar, Voice Support - Suhasji's son (sorry for missing the name)

 

Suhasji started his concert with raga Purvee (kyal in vilambit tilwada - piharava ke paas, bandish in teentaal - banat banau bana nahi aaye and tarana in drut ektaal). The timing was right for purvee. Suhasji's voice took some time to warm up. I felt that while too much time was spent in the lower half of the madhya-saptak, the taar shadja (and antaraa) came quite suddenly (and very briefly) without much importance to dhaivat and more importantly nishad. Even the teen-taal bandish was marred by similar issues. The tarana fared better. Suhasji was requested to drop Bhup in the interest of time. He proceeded straight to sing a (nirguni?) bhajan - ek sura charachar chhayo ji. It is a beautiful composition and Suhasji did a full justice to it.

 

Except for the bhajan, the performance sounded a bit stretched and repetitive .

 

Suhasji's son's vocal support was a disaster. He was unable to stick to either sur or taal.

 

Bharat Kamat and Suyog Kundalkar provided supportive and appropriate sangat.

 

Mike woes continued…

 

After this performance and before the start of Pt. Shivakumar Sharma's performance, there was a publication ceremony of two books. I decided to make better use of this time by utilizing it for a bio-break. I also had to buy peanuts and water since the security measures did not allow me to bring the chapati-subjee lovingly packed by my better half in the pandal (I ate it after reaching home at midnight!).

 

Pt. Shivakumar Sharma (Santoor)

Tabla: Yogesh Samsi, Tanpura: Dr. Dhananjay Daithankar

Panditji started his concert with Raga Durga (alap, jod, jhala - madhyalaya gat in jay taal of 13 matras and another gat in drut teen taal). What a beautiful performance! Stylish, balanced, mature - having something for everybody! I am a great fan of Panditji and immensely enjoyed the performance along with the rest of the audience. Panditji concluded his concert with a beautiful pahadi dhun (a new one, he announced). With no surprise, this was the high point of day 1.

 

Yogesh Samsi provided excellent tabla sangat. His tabla playing was crisp and clear but without ever being either loud or disruptive. In fact I was very happy to see quite a bit of "regular theka".

 

Sound system problems got worse. We all lost a heart-beat (in fact Yogesh Samsi jumped at least 6 inches) when we heard an explosion like sound - only to discover that its origin was the sound system.

 

Pt. Ajay Chakravarty (Vocal)

Tabla: Yogesh Samsi, Harmonium: Ajay Joglekar, Vocal support: One of Panditji's disciple (sorry for not getting the name)

Panditji started his concert with Khamaj. He mentioned that while Khamaj is usually sung in thumri or dhrupad style, he was going to sing it in khyal style. Panditji attributed the vilambit khyal in ektaal - aaj aayo pahuna - to his guru, Pt. Gyanprakash Ghosh. A beautiful composition indeed. Panditji's voice was in great form. His tayyari and range are absolutely astonishing - with an ability to reach kharaj and the tar-tar shadja in the same taan. He started really well. In fact the first 15 minutes of his performance were perfect (except for continued mike issues)  and I was looking forward to yet another great performance of the evening. Unfortunately this quickly degenerated into a mixture of on-stage-tuition to his disciple (who by the way sounded quite tayyar) and gimmicks with tabla. Sad. Panditji sang four more compositions - madhya laya jhaptaal - kahe karat mose (his own - and very beautiful), madhya laya teen taal - manamohan shyam rasiya (by Ud. Bade Gulam Ali Khan), yet another in madhya laya teen taal - aaj bhigi kalai muraka gayee and still one more in drut teen taal - koyaliya kook sunaye. While I have heard 4-5 compositions sung in one single performance of a raga (done many times by Late Pt. Kumar Gandharva), it is critical for the performer to ensure that each composition brings its own flavor to the performance. Unfortunately the last three compositions Panditji sang sounded the same and did not add any value but took some time.

 

After Khamaj - it was already 10:45PM by then,  45 minutes over the deadline - amidst some protests by Anand Deshmukh about calls from police - the audience requested "one more" from Panditji. Panditjee declared that he will sing a 4 minute bhairavi bhajan, took one harmonium in his hand and sang a forceful rendition of tum aajaana bhagawan followed by a few Sanskrit shlokas.

 

Yogesh Samsi's tabla playing continued to be crisp and clear. Ajay Joglekar provided good harmonium sangat.

 

Sound system problems reached the peak! There were many explosion-like sounds with all the organizing officials - Shrikant Deshpande, Shrinivas Joshi etc. huddling near the sound system console.

 

That's all for day 1 folks, see you tomorrow!

- Bansuriwala