Where nights sing to the light
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The leading lights of classical music recently brought the sleepy town of Maihar in Madhya Pradesh alive with the Allauddin Khan Samaroh. KAVITA SHUKLA tunes in.
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Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt... Magical fingers at work .
MAIHAR, A small township famous for its natural beauty and the temple of Ma Sarada and her world famous disciple Baba Allauddin Khan of the Maihar-Seniya gharana, came alive with the Allauddin Khan Samaroh recently.
The festival opened with the melodic tunes of the Maihar band filling the heart with love and remembering those who were devoured by the tsunami waves. It is the third generation of the legendary Maihar band, which was founded by Ustad Allauddin Khan. His grandson Ustad Aashish Khan is its present guide. The second item was a Kathak recital by Nalini and Kamalini, conducted by Pandit Jitendra Maharaj with his forceful padhant.
They presented Shiva stuti and a bhajan. The huge audience enjoyed Jitendra Maharaj's padhant,thrilled by the vigour of the senior artiste performing with such authority.
In the third item young Abhijeet Pohankar from Mumbai displayed his talents by playing raga Kaushi-Kanhara in Roopak tala on the keyboard.
He is one of the few to attempt playing Indian ragas on the keyboard under the guidance of the famous santoor player Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.
Next came Parthasarthi on the sarod. He displayed his taleem of the Maihar gharana through raga Hem Bihag, a creation of Baba Allauddin Khan. He emphasised the notes creating the musical sentences of Ma, Ni, Dha, Pa, Ma, Pa, Ma in a rhetoric establishing the pakar - characteristic notes of the raga. Parthasarthi's sarod recital possessed many characteristics of the Maihar gharana, and the audience might have enjoyed it more if he had opted for a musical duel with his tabla player Anshubh.
First night's concluding presentation was by sitar exponent Prateek Choudhary, who played raga Basant interwoven in Matta tala in nine beats, where he displayed his immense taiyari through emotional alap and his ati-drut taankari and jhala.
He joined his guru and father Pandit Debu Choudhary in raga Ahir-Bhairav, in which the elder musician expressed the musical essence of the morning raga in a mesmerising way.
The short alap was highly impressive, painting the smooth contours of Ahir-Bhairav along with the rising sun in the East of pandal.
Night two
The second night of the conference started with the traditional Maihar band, which recited the tune "Vaishnav Jan To Tene Kahiye". The band comprises instruments like nal-tarang, sitar-benzo and chandra-sarang invented by Baba Allauddin Khan.
After the band the huge gathering of about 5000 people eagerly waited for the Manipuri recital by Priti Patel and her group from Kolkata in the unique style of their guru Vipin Singh school.
Priti Patel has advanced her dance form by adding martial arts and other poetic verses providing more classicalism and substance to the Manipuri dance.
She started with Surya upsana and travelling through Jaidev's ashtapadi, Dashavatar, etc., she concluded with Ras leela.
Next was the jugalbandi of Rajesh Srinivasan's mridangam with Anuradha Pal's tabla. They selected the Adi tala of Carnatic music, performing first individually and then together.
The three-day festival had the mostbefitting end in the magical fingers of Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt.
One remembers the times Vishwa Mohan was struggling to develop his customised guitar into the Mohan veena, making it suitable for Indian classical music.
Vishwa Mohan played the raga Nat Bhairav using the Komal Dhaivat and Shuddha Rishabh, a version developed by Pandit Ravi Shankar. His alap, jod and jhala were the hallmark of a great instrumentalist.
In the taankari, his speed, force and clarity can only be compared with the sitar maestro Buddhaditya Mukharjee. Vishwa Mohan sang raga Basant while playing it on the Mohan veena.
He ended with Bhairavi, demonstrating his skill in beenkar, khayal, thumri and instrumental style of rendering a raga.
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