Moods of the monsoon
MANJARI SINHA
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Festival Malhaar celebrated the spirit of the rainy season with a variety of performances.
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Vocalist Madhup Mudgal
The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) presented Malhaar, a three-day festival to celebrate the spirit of the monsoon at Kamani auditorium recently.
Inaugurated by Gursharan Kaur, Malhaar opened with ‘Varsha-Mangal’, a choreographic work in Kathak by Sharmishtha Mukherjee, depicting the moods and imagery of the monsoon. The rich flavour of Malhaar though, could be savoured the next day, when vocalists Madhup Mudgal and Gurinder Harnam Singh rendered a judicious variety from the basket of Malhar ragas.
The evening took a flying start with the stirring recital by Madhup, who chose to sing raga Miyan-Malhar, an immortal creation of Miyan Tansen and the most majestic of the umpteen varieties of Malhar.
The hypnotising tunefulness of his pair of tanpuras and the sonorous alap in the mandra saptak (the lower octave), before even touching the pivotal Komal Gandhar predicted that would be an emotionally charged and aesthetically appealing concert.
The famous bara khayal “Karim naam tero…” set to slow Ek tala was meticulously handled in all the stages of alap-badhat with reposeful meanderings, keeping away from the common clichés of this oft-heard raga.
Powerful voice
His rich and powerful voice released scores of intensely pleasing taans and bol taans too. Inspired by Kalidasa’s Meghdoot, the chhota khayal “Jayo re badarawa…” was also enriched with a sense of wonder in its highly improvised variations.
Miyan-Malhar was followed by Ramdasi-Malhar and Megh-Malhar before he went on to sing a bandish ki thumri in raga Desh with the emotional content of viyog-shringar depicting a pining nayika.
It culminated with the lilting composition “Rajaji ghar aaye…” set to drut Ek tala, concluding on a happy note. Arvind Thatte on the harmonium and Deepak Garud on the tabla gave him incredible accompaniment. Madhup’s extended association with Pandit Kumar Gandharva may certainly have shaped his musical personality, but this memorable concert proved beyond measure that he has evolved with a distinct identity of his own.
Gurinder Harnam Singh’s Gaud Malhar with the famous compositions “Maan na kariye…” and “Barakhaa bairi bhayo…” set to slow and madhya laya (medium tempo) Teen tala respectively, had all the nuances of her guru Kishori Amonkar.
She even gave a detailed treatment to the bara khayal, but Gurinder presented the entire concert just listening to her own tanpura, without bothering about the other tanpura, harmonium and sarangi which unfortunately were tuned differently, creating a chaotic effect. Normally artistes tune and balance before starting the concert because instruments tuned in the green room tend to vary when brought out onto the stage.
She had Mehmood Dhaulpuri and Ghulam Sabir Khan to support her on the harmonium and sarangi, but things could not improve. Gurinder concluded her vocal recital with a popular composition of Sur-Malhaar, “Baadarva barasan ko aaye...”
The Malhaar festival concluded the next evening with a delectable flute recital by G.S. Rajan who played the Carnatic raga Amritvarshini with great élan.
The ‘amrit-varsha’ of his mesmerising music literally translated the name of the raga. Earlier T.R. Dhandapany presented a unique percussion ensemble titled Megh-Malhaar that featured melody and dance (Bharatanatyam and
Kathak) also, along with the variety of drums taking their turn, that comprised mridangam, ghatam, kanjira, morshunkh, talam and tabla, along with violin and vocals.
The Tisra, Chatusra and Khanda variations of rhythmic patterns on percussions, joined by Poorva Dhanashri (Bharatanatyam) and Sanjiv (Kathak), gradually reached a crescendo stimulating thunderous applause.
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