Young and versatile
SHYAMHARI CHAKRA
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Shashwati's strength lies in her ability to hold on the subtle complexity of `tappa' and `khayal'.
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PROMISING Shashwati Mandal Paul.
At the inaugural evening of the Sawai Gandharva music festival in Pune, the huge audience demanded a vocalist not to stop the concert. And at the just concluded Rajarani national music festival in Bhubaneswar, she was acknowledged `find of the festival' by one and all.
She is Bhopal-based Shashwati Mandal Paul, young but versatile vocalist whose voice seems set to conquer the hearts of the connoisseurs of classical music. Music flows through the veins of this gifted Hindustani vocalist in her early 30s who is also bestowed with the `Surmani' title by Sur Sagar Samsad, Mumbai. Shashwati is the maternal grand daughter late Pandit Balabhau Umdekar, the court musician of the erstwhile Gwalior state and an erudite exponent of the Gwalior `gharana.'
"My mother Kamal Mandal was my first guru. She sacrificed her career in classical music to groom me. She was gifted with a wonderful voice but domestic responsibilities prevented her from taking up music as a career. It was her dream to groom me," said Shashwati, an A-graded artiste of AIR and Doordarshan.
"Despite all this, it was an uphill task for me to have music as a career. Hailing from a middle class family, having no god-father to promote you, living in a place like Bhopal with a family, children and a job (she is a staff artiste with AIR Bhopal) — all these are tough challenges to pursue dreams in classical music. But what keeps me going is the love and appreciation I get from the audience,"stated Shashwati whose major performances include Tansen Sangeet Samaroh, Gwalior, India International Centre New Delhi, Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal and AIR's national programme of music.
Shashwati's strength lies in her amazing ability to hold on the subtle complexity of `tappa' and `khayal'. "My guru Pandit Balasaheb Poonchwale taught me these intricacies at Gwalior. At present I am being guided by Gundecha brothers."Bhopal is Shashwati's beloved city now. "Although we don't have adequate publicity and sponsorship as in major metros, we are proud of Bhopal's large number of connoisseurs for classical music. We have concerts throughout the year there. What else can a classical singer aspire for," she confides with a positive note.
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