As it does every year, the Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture, Golpark, celebrated the spirit of the monsoons with Indian classical music at the Vivekananda Hall. The talented singers, Brajeshwar Mukherjee and Anol Chatterjee, captured the ambience of the season with their vocal recital in Raga Megh. Both the artists have sonorous voices and the raga flowed charmingly. They sang vilambit and madhyalay kheyals ornamented with long taans and vistaars in three octaves. The generosity of their voice, their improvisations, and the coordination between the two artists were striking. Tanmoy Bose on the tabla and Gourab Chatterjee on the harmonium provided perfect accompaniment to Brajeshwar Mukherjee and Anol Chatterjee, who concluded their presentation with a thumri on monsoon in Raga Manjh Khamaj.
The Malhar Festival showcased another duet performance by Ronu Majumdar on the flute and Debojyoti Bose on the sarod. They chose Raga Miya ki Malhar for their presentation, trying to bring out its essence in an alaap and a jor followed by gats. The taans and the flow of the gats were compact and sounded rhythmic to the ears, especially to the accompaniment of Ojas Adhya on the tabla. Although the flute seemed to dominate, the artists brought the festival to a glorious end.
Rupak Kulkarni [Shilpi Sambhamurthy]
The Jhulanjatra Music Festival, organised at the house of Ramkanai Adhikari, maintained its tradition of celebrating Jhulan utsav through Indian classical musical performances stretching across five evenings. The inaugural performance of the festival was by Babita Malakar who rendered a dhrupad in Raga Yaman, followed by a dhamar in Raga Desh with Swarup Ghoshal on the pakhawaj. The first evening also saw a santoor recital by Dishari Chakraborty with Biplab Bhattacharya on the tabla. Chakraborty played an alaap, a jor and a jhala in Raga Durgeshwari, followed by gats in Raga Rasiya. The flautist, Rupak Kulkarni (picture, right), commenced with Miyan ki Malhar on the next day and set the mood with his elaborate playing style. From the alaap to the gat, it was thoroughly a melodious journey. Kulkarni also presented gats in Raga Durga and Abhijit Banerjee on the tabla helped uplift his performance. The careful rendition of a kirtan by the flautist was the perfect conclusion of the day.
The third day had an enchanting vocal recital by Ranjani Ramachandran in Raga Bageshree. Ramachandran presented a compact performance of vilambit, madhyalaya and drut kheyal followed by Raga Miyan ki Malhar. Her rendition of Raga Gour Malhar was arresting; she also sang bhajans along with Ashish Paul and Pradip Palit on the tabla and the harmonium, respectively. Soumalya Chakraborty’s sitar recital was soulful. He started with an alaap and a jor in Raga Rageshree and continued the gatkari portion in Raga Desh with Sujit Saha providing playful accompaniment on the tabla. Shiraz Ali Khan began his sarod recital with an alaap and a jor in the signature ragas, Maihaar and Pahari Jhinjhoti, and continued with gats in Raga Chandranandan set to teentaal. Arup Chattopadhyay supported him ably on the tabla. Khan also played Raga Bhairavi in the end.
The final evening saw a tabla solo by Biplab Bhattacharya and a vocal rendition by Anol Chatterjee. Bhattacharya presented various aspects of teentaal with Sohini Sarkar supporting him on percussion and Sourav Chakraborty on the harmonium. Chatterjee was magical in the ragas, Malkaus and Hamsadhwani. With able accompaniment by Ashok Mukherjee on the tabla and Jyoti Goho on the harmonium, Chatterjee concluded this five-day musical journey with Raga Bhairavi.
