Some delight, some despair
JITENDRA PRATAP
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Kolkata Classic Society's dance and music festival was a mixed bag.
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THE RIGHT PRDIGREE Abhik Mukherjee performing at the festival in New Delhi.
The highlights of the three-day eighth music and dance festival presented by Kolkata's Classic Society were the Kathak solo by Delhi's 10-year-old Rishika Roy on the inaugural evening and the Kathak jugalbandi between Rahul Pawar and Sangeeta Chatterji with which the festival concluded.
It was a delightful experience to observe the cute and tiny Rishika performing almost at a professional level with each and every movement of aesthetic appeal. Intricate movements were executed with remarkable ease and confidence. She established an instant rapport with her accompanists Vijay Kumar Mishra (tabla), Arif Khan (harmonium), Shilpa Roy Choudhury (bole-padhant) and Sushmita Roy (vocal). Rishika's execution of her footwork (tatkaar) was remarkable for her neat and crisp enunciations of the rhythmic phrasings followed by executing the same with her feet. Her sense and "ganit" (arithmetic) was indeed perfect. She certainly is a danseuse of immense promise.
Parmitaa Kaura's rendering
The evening commenced earlier with tuneful renderings of Meerabai bhajans in ragas Bhimpalasi, Durga and in Piloo by the young Parmitaa Kaura, a senior student of the GD Goenka Public School. She is gifted with a sonorous voice and good lungpower. Her renderings could have been better had she indicated some emotional involvement with the lyrical contents.
The sarod recital by Kolkata's Amitabh Majumdar in raga Bageshwari pleased only in parts. There were a good number of tunefully executed glides in the opening `alap' followed by quite a few colourful sequences in the `jod'. Although trained by the two elder sons of the eminent sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, one however noticed the lack of a methodological approach in the execution of the `alap-jod' that were totally devoid of the four principles or the Chaturang. The `gat-todas' in the ten beat jhaptal, followed with a fast tempo composition in tintal were also devoid of the required format of the `sthayee-antara'. His frequent asking the tabla accompanist Govind Chakraborty to render his own solo variations seemed quite uncalled for. Towards the end, the duo's performance did turn into a lacklustre affair with the tempo raised to its optimum but totally devoid of any aesthetics.
PARTING SHOOT Rahul Pawar and sangeeta Chatterji
Few takers
The recital by Delhi's elder vocalist Pandit Mani Prashad had few takers with only a dozen or so in the audience comprising mostly organisers and the kith and kin of the vocalist. He had vocal accompaniment by a trio of his students and was accompanied on the harmonium by son Deepak Prashad, and on the tabla by Ustad Fayaz Khan. The master and his disciples' meanderings in raga Maru Nihag failed to evoke much aesthetic response.
The penultimate evening's concert commenced with a sitar recital by Mumbai's Abhik Mukherjee - the young disciple of Kolkata's Kashinath Mukherjee who in turn was a disciple of the late legendary sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan. Abhik's at-length `alap-jod-jhala' in raga Desh did contain quite a few virile and many a subtle melodic sequences. The Masitkhani and the Razakhani `gat-todas' that followed respectively, in the slow and the fast tintals were embellished with scores of boldly released variations. There were a good number of neat and subtle melodic glides.
This young sitarist has certainly worked hard. He should however, refrain from making too many facial gestures and swaying of the torso besides frequently jerking his head and smiling. One would advise him to develop an individual style of his own instead of sticking to the format of the late Ustad's mannerisms of the mid-forties. Saswati Bagchi of Kolkata deserves credit for commencing her vocal recital in the raga Puriya of good old proven values. Her attempts at expanding the raga's format did help in creating the required serene character. A wee bit of nasal tone in her otherwise bold voice however did have a negative effect over her recital. The thumri in raga Desh was a colourful finale to her recital. Biswajit Deb (tabla) and Pradip Palit (harmonium) provided commendable support to the singer.
The last artist of the evening was Delhi's ace flutist Rakesh Prasanna whose renderings in the hybrid raga Gorakh Kalyan did contain many a hauntingly released melodic refrains. The seven beat Rupaktal composition was laced with colourful variation and so also the concluding one in fast tintal. He had commendable accompaniment on the flute by son Ritesh Prasanna and on the tabla by Debjyoti Dasgupta.
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