Shades of romance
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The Thumri Festival that concluded recently was a feast of musical emotions, colours and moods.
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The Indian Council for Cultural Relations' second Thumri Festival, which concluded the other day, drew crowds eager to regale the vak-filled thumri nuances.
Arati Ankalikar Tikekar gave a commanding performance in the purist genre, highlighting the layakari element. Thus the latter half of her singing carried an imprint of complexity, blurring the popular concept of thumri as an unfolding of musical thought employing playful, melodious associations around romantic concepts. The rich taan patternings were judiciously conceived but nought else to demarcate it from taan inclusions in drut khayal renditions. Radhika Chopra's rendering of the languorous "Guzar rahi ratiya piya nahi aaye" was marked by a sedate and confident beginning. Her phrasings spanned moderate stretches and were well punctuated. A few trills, a slice of naughtiness and a flawless rendition made the concert deserve accolades. What lacked was a subtle undercurrent of experimentation .
Charming rendition
The gayaki tradition of the Jaipur-Atrauli school was evident in Ashwini Bhide Deshpande's mellifluous rendition. All the emotive elements of this style were on display as she rang out numbers, punctuating her lines with a catchy "ho Raamaa". The classical tones added to the thumri style with aplomb.
Pandit Channulal Mishra, who followed, came to the fore with established credentials. Long known for his rendition of the Gaya, Banaras and Purab ang thumri, he did not fail his audiences. The three distinct styles were a pleasure for listeners with a yen for keeping abreast of thumri elements. But such intense formatting detracted from the vocal link of the singing, suggestive of a demonstration of thumri styles.
The ornamental touches of the thumri rang out with crystal clarity in Sunita Jhungran's recital. In an aptly suited tonal pitch, she created an undistilled thumri flavour replete with murki, gitkiri, pukar, khatka and more. Pandit Dinanath Mishra's music was a powerful summation. His expositions were significantly chaste and showed ample workmanship and superb confidence born of years of preparation and study. The music placed the thumri at its rightful stature, as a tail ender to the khayal, and his barhans or development of thumri tenets were meant for the serious listener of purist strains.
Subhra Mazumdar
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Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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