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Of good and better
MEERA BANERJEE
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Veteran Nidan Bandhu Bandopadhyay was his inspired self at the Birla Academy but Soma Ghosh’s recital was listless.
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Mellifluous Soma Ghosh .
“Rasaraj” Nidan Bandhu Bandopadhyay belonged to the era that believed in “simple living, high thinking”. His early success as a khayal and tappa exponent did not deter him from devoting his life to the cause of dhrupad’s revival. A prolific composer and a revered guru, the octogenarian maestro who had amassed his musical wealth, ranging from devotional dhrupad, romantic khayal to thrilling tappa, under the guidance of such legends like Vishveshwar Bhattacharya (Bengal), Mehdi Hussain Khan and Kashinath Chatterjee (Rampur), K.G. Dekhne and Ramesh Thakur (Gwalior), Vinod Mullick (Betia), Satyen Sen (Patiala), Manilal Das and Amarnath Bhattacharya (Benaras), rarely performs now.
Inspired by his philosophy of life, ‘Koushikee’, supported by ‘Jalsaghar’ presented him at Birla Academy recently in a disarmingly simple event that was rich in musical content.
He began with an alap in Shri. The measured control over the power-packed voice-throw and uncomplicated intent were his striking points. Kashmira Majumdar and Roopa Chowdhury provided well-coordinated support to their father-guru. The typical note combinations dominated the elaboration right from the first phrase and unveiled the mysterious character of the raga with all its allure.
The simple layakari and baant enhanced the lyrics of the chau-tala bandish. The following one, a beautiful composition by Tansen describing Hara and Hari, was set to paanch-tala ki sawari – a rare variant of teentala ably handled by Apurva Ghosh.
Solo recitals
Earlier in the evening a clutch of Bandopadhyay’s disciples, led by Roopa Chowdhury (also groomed by Pandit Kumar Prasad Mukherji) and Sujit Bose, displayed their latent talent as solo performers of khayal, thumri and dhrupad.
The ‘four-city’ tribute to the late shehnai-nawaz was presented at Delhi, Varanasi and Mumbai earlier and concluded in Kolkata. The tribute was presented under the aegis of ‘Madhu Murchhana’ of Soma Ghosh, foster daughter of Ustad Bismillah Khan. In the absence of the Chief Minister, his wife Meera Bhattacharjee inaugurated the event at Birla Sabhagar.
A brief recital by an ensemble of a few endangered instruments, supported by tabla, turned out to be its grand finale. Gopal Burman’s shrikhol explored complex classical rhythmic variations before turning to lighter patterns played with idioms like Bangla kirtan or folk. Bangla dhol presented varied folk rhythms with élan.
The dhun on Shubhayu Majumdar’s esraj was delightful and everyone joined in with its lilting ‘gram-chhara oi ranga-matir path’.
The superbly packaged evening began with ‘Yaad-e-Bismillah’, a film based on the life of the Master, followed by a recital by Soma Ghosh.
Despite her mellifluous voice, her khayal in raga Bihag had very little to offer. So she punched it with film songs. Her Khamaj thumri was mixed with ghazal. Her Kafi dadra explored Shyama Sangeet and Tagorean oeuvre.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
