Amaan, Ayaan leave more to be desired

After the first day was brought to a close by the enchanting voice of Pt Jasraj, the second day of the Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav fulfilled its promise to raise the bar higher than where the living legend had left it.

However, the day was off to a subdued start, owing to the sad demise of sitar legend Pt Ravi Shankar and it began by observing a solemn silence in the memory of the great musician before the music took over.

The event opened with the performances of vocalists Rattan Mohan Sharma of Mewati Gharana, a disciple of Pt Jasraj. He set the mood for the day with a rare melody— Raag Shuddha Baradi. He was ably accompanied by Mukund Petkar on harmonium, Pt Kalinath Mishra of Benaras Gharana on tabla and Shridhar Parthasarthy on pakhawaj.

Sharma then went on to enthrall the audience with his renditions in Raag Megh before concluding with Abeer Gulal, a popular Marathi bhajan.

The second performance lined up for the day was sarod sahvaadan by renowned brother duo Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan Bangash of the Senia Bangash Gharana. Despite a prolonged sound check and with the sound system playing spoilsport throughout the Alap-jod-jhala, the duo maintained their composure. They opened with Raaga Shree, an appropriately timed sunset melody. They presented two gats set to Jhaptaal and Teentaal respectively.

However, the brothers seemed to be in a hurry to move on to a higher tempo, wasting an opportunity to ponder over the introspective nature of Shree. The duo then took an unnecessary jump from Raaga Samay to Raaga Rageshree, a night melody.

They presented a gat in taal ada-chautaal, playing to the gallery with some regular histrionics, fairly entrenched in today’s instrumental music. The audiences seemed to enjoy this detuned frenzy just as it left the performers visibly tired.

One also failed to understand what value addition was made to the presentation by having two accompanists on tabla, namely Satyajeet Talwalkar and Anuvrat Chatterjee.

The brothers, who said their participation at the festival was akin to visiting a place of pilgrimage, might want to start taking it seriously to live up to the standards set by their prolific father Ustad Amjad Ali Khan.

As the stage was being set for the Bharatnatyam performance by the multi-talented Shobana Chandrashekhar, the audience made themselves comfortable at the stalls, which, over the years, have become a tradition in themselves.

Shobana, a highly accomplished dancer, began her performance with a traditional Mallari. She then immediately went on to the Varnam, an item which occupies central position in terms of timing and duration in a full-fledged Bharatnatyam performance.

Enacting the story of a woman besotted by Lord Shiva, Shobana did full justice to both nritya and abhinaya aspects of the performance. After a kriti performed by her student and accompanist Shrividya Ramachandra, Shobana concluded her performance with Jaydev’s ashtapadi, enacting the 10 avatars of Vishnu with great élan and grace. This evergreen item saw Shobana at her best with her angik abhinaya, leaving the audience in awe and divine joy. She was accompanied by Preeti Mahesh on vocals, Vyanktesh Subramaniam on violin, Ramkrishna on mridangam and Mahesh on flute.

The compering in between the dance items, by Sawai’s compère for years, Anand Deshmukh, fell short of what was desired. He seemed to rejoice in his ignorance about the dance form and bordered on making a mockery of Southern languages, music and culture.

It was then the turn of yet another brother duo — Ritesh and Rajneesh Mishra, sons of Pt Rajan Mishra and disciples of Pt Rajan and Pt Sajan Mishra. Rajanji fondly recollected their first performance at the Sawai Festival at Renuka Swaroop School, way back in 1975. The second generation chose Raag Jog to begin their debut at the festival. With clear, deep, well-trained and malleable voices, the duo elaborated the raag at peace in all three octaves with ease and mastery. They won the hearts of the audience with their crisp cascading taans, clear diction and excellent coordination, truly living up to the talent inherited from the legends who shared the stage with them.

After the young canons, it was the turn of the senior Mishra brothers – Pt Rajan and Pt Sajan — to grace the stage. They chose a soothing night melody in Raag Bageshree to open their performance. A slow and unhurried exploration of the raag with an almost meditative mind, transported the audience to a different plane. In terms of the arrangements, the welcome change of the year is the placing of mats across the ground rendering the place clean and dust free. However, the aesthetic pandal and wide aisles to walk on and the chandeliers add a charm to the activities. The only area of concern remains the near absence of a security check of the members of the audience.