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ShareThe three-day Megh Malhar festival begins on Monday at the Nehru Centre. Archita Wagle has details
The dry and dusty summer is being pushed away by cool winds and welcome showers which bring new life to the parched earth. The Nehru Centre in Mumbai is celebrating this fresh beginning with a concert of ragas dedicated to the rainy season with the Megh Malhar festival, starting on June 23. The two-day event will feature performers such as Zeeshan Khan, Pandit Narendranath Dhar, Kaushiki Chakrabarty-Desikan and Urmila Srivastava. Now in its 18th year, the festival is a "mix of young musicians and experienced elders," says LH Kazi, head of the Culture Wing of the Nehru Centre. The unique aspect of Megh Malhar is the fact that in 18 years, no performer has been repeated -- quite a feat.
This year will see a shift away from the pure classical mood. The festival will showcase the traditional kajri for the first time. The kajri is a semi-classical form of Hindustani music sung during the rainy season and is often used to describe the longing of a maiden for her lover as the black monsoon clouds hang in the summer sky. Urmila Srivastava, a known kajri singer from Mirzapur (the home of the traditional kajri) is happy that an effort has been made to include 'songs of the earth'. Srivastava will sing typical folk songs like the Mirzapuri kajri, saawan ke geet (that emphasis seasonal beauty), jhoola geet (sung while playing on the swings), and the Banarasi kajri, with a thumri base. She is confident of a positive audience response -- she believes that folk songs have popular support, seen in their success in Bollywood films.
The festival has seen stalwart performances by noted artists like Bhimsen Joshi and Pandit Shivkumar Sharma. Kazi remembers innovative concerts like Vasundhara Komkali's (the late Kumar Gandharva's wife) rendition of Gandhi Malhar --a composition created by Kumar Gandharva after he performed the Malhar raga for Mahatma Gandhi. Kazi also recounts the performance of Chatur Malhar on the sitar, combining four different Malhar ragas.
Pandit Narendranath Dhar, a leading sarod player of the Gwalior gharana, is the only instrumental performer in the festival. Dhar will explore Gaud Malhar and Mian Malhar -- a creation of Mian Tansen, one of the nine jewels of Emperor Akbar's court. Dhar will elaborate on Mian Malhar in the vilambit and dhrut rachna and slowly develop its ornamentation (elements) -- the vistaar, taan toda, bihaai and jhala. The Gaud Malhar will be a chota bandish for 15 minutes in the dhrut composition, which will include a taan toda and jhala. Dhar has sung for a number of these festivals and loves "the opportunity that the monsoon presents to perform the various types and melodies of Malhar ragas".
With just 90 minutes allotted to each artiste, a common complaint is the lack of time. Pandit Dinanath Mishra, a well established vocal artist, says that "My choice of songs was limited by the time I have been given." He explains that
ragas from the Megh Malhar family are gambhir and need a lot of time to build up the rhythm. Mishra will perform Megh Malhar followed by Surdasi Malhar and finish with a dadra.
Megh Malhar, Nehru Centre, June 23-25
