`Raganga', `bhabanga' and `natyanga'
SHYAMHARI CHAKRA
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Raaga Ranga's three-day programme showcased promising talent.
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MELODIC AFFAIR The music fete was a veritable fare.
With dozens of dance festivals slotted across the annual cultural calendar of Bhubaneswar, connoisseurs of classical music had reasons to be disappointed. For them, the annual Rajarani Music Festival being mounted by the State tourism department was the lone event of its kind that was worth waiting for. The void has, however, been filled in to some extent with the launching of the national classical music festival earlier this month by the newly formed cultural forum Raaga-Ranga floated by noted painter Chandramani Biswal and his family members who are also artists of calibre. Incidentally, Biswal happens to be the secretary of the Orissa Lalit Kala Akademi. The three-day event hosted at the Jayadev Bhawan showcased some of the versatile and promising talents of the state who have already made a mark at the national level.
And it also provided a platform for a few aspiring artistes.
The festival kicked off with noted Hindustani vocalist Chittaranjan Pani's impressive rendition of raga Megh Malhar followed by Malcos. Known for his technical perfection, Pani concluded with a Brahmananda bhajan set to raga Mishra Bhairavi. Orissa's lone lady violinist K.Bhubaneswari, who teaches at the premiere college of performing arts-Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya, also impressed with her presentation of raga Gorakh Kalyan. However, it was Pandit Baruri Bandhu Sethi, the visually impaired veteran sitarist, who mesmerised the audience with a pulsating performance. Ably accompanied by the visually impaired tabla player Dasarathi Samal, Sethi's rendition of the raga Darbari, an amazing Amir Khusro composition, was a treat for the ears. Music flowed from his harmonious harpings quietly like the gentle breeze. There was no game of gimmicks of speed or technical wizardry as seen with many a performer these days. He concluded with a brief dhun set to raga Pahadi.
If the inaugural evening of the event belonged to the seniors and the veterans, the second evening was for the gifted artistes of the new generation who have emerging as the faces of future.
Young violinist Dibyadarsan Biswal, a former Benaras Hindu University topper, neatly played raga Maheswari while flutist Abhiram Nanda, a disciple of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia who has already dawned as a star performer, hooked the audience to their chairs with his masterly presentation of raga Jog followed by a dhun in raga Piloo. And it was young and immensely talented tabla player Sandip Rout, a gold medallist, who proved his potentials as an accompanist to Dibyadarsan and Abhiram. The other star performer of the evening was Odissi vocalist Bijay Kumar Jena, arguably the best among the new generation singers in this segment. Jena, best known for his tonal clarity and mellifluous voice, had an immensely impressive presentation of the three distinct aspects of Odissi music-raganga, bhabanga and natyanga. Well-Versatile accompanists Sachidananda Das on Mardal and Ramesh Chandra Das on violin provided their best support to Jena that elevated the recital to greater heights.
Young and accomplished solo sitarist Swapneswar Chakraborty was the principal attraction of the concluding evening. Chakraborty, who was also accompanied by Sandip on tabla, put up a brilliant rendition of raga Bihag that was followed by a dhun in raga Khamaj. The other performers of the evening were amateur Hindustani vocalists Madhulita Parida and Arya Mishra who had a jugalbandi of raga Kalyan and Odissi vocalist Gandharv Jena who presented raga Brundaban Sarang in Hindustani style.
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