The penultimate evening at the 58th Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav belonged to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s disciple, Anand Bhate.
The penultimate evening at the 58th Sawai Gandharva Sangeet Mahotsav belonged to Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s disciple, Anand Bhate.
The evening was made even more charming by the presence of Bharat Ratna, Pandit Bhimsen Joshi himself, who came to listen to his disciple and to enjoy the brilliance of santoor maestro, Pandit Shivkumar Sharma.
Bhimsenji arrived at 7pm, when Pandit Shivkumar Sharma was about to take over after Anand Bhate. Overwhelmed by the presence of Bhimsenji, Pandit Sharma said, “Panditji is not just a ‘Bharat Ratna’, he is a ‘Vishwa Ratna’. The Sawai Gandharva Mahotsav is a ‘Teerath Sthan’ (holy place).” Bhimsenji listened with rapt attention to Pandit Shivkumar Sharma’s rendition for 20 minutes.
Earlier, Bhate had a special guest in the form of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president, Raj Thackeray, who attended the concert for 30 minutes.
Bhate, a child prodigy was anointed with the title of Anand Gandharva at the age of 10, when he began singing songs for Marathi musical plays in the manner and style of the legendary Balgandharva.
An IT engineer, Bhate who works with Zensar Technologies, began the evening with the Raag Maru Bihar. The audience were spellbound by the wonderful rendition of ‘Tarpat Raina Chale…’ and ‘Naina Rasile’.
He soon raised the bar with his rendition of the Kannada bhajan, ‘Saubhagyada Laxmi…’ Though the audience wanted him to continue, Bhate could only repeat the last few lines of a bhajan. Bhate, who gave his first public performance in 1981 at age of 10, made his Sawai debut in 2002 and has sung at the 2005 and 2007 editions also. He has presently been contracted to sing songs in director Nitin Desai’s film on Balgandharva.
Earlier in the evening, shehnai player, Sharad Khaladkar played the raag Vrundavini. He was followed by vocalist Chandrakant Limaye, an expert in thumri, dadra, tappa and natyasangeet, who rendered the popular songs, ‘Piya Mose Kahe Na Bole…’ and ‘Balma Ghar Jaiyyo…’ before giving the audience a taste of his own raag Chandramohini.
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