Day 1: Pakhawaj trio rules the roost in Deshpande fest

Nagpur: The four-day Vasantrao Deshpande Smriti Sangeet Samaroh opened on Sunday with top notch percussion performances and a vocal presentation. Organized by SCZCC, the festival is held every year to commemorate the death anniversary of Hindustani classical maestro Vasantrao Deshpande. This is the birth centenary year of the vocalist who hailed from Vidarbha.

The first day featured a pakhawaj performance by Pt Ravi Shankar Upadhyay, his son Rishi Shankar and daughter Mahima. All three, famously known as the pakhawaj trio, took the stage wearing an identical mustard-coloured kurta. The Upadhyays are carrying forward a 400-year-old tradition of percussion and pakhawaj. Rishi Shankar is the 15th generation of what is also known as Pt Vasudev Pakhawaj Parampara of Gaya in Bihar.

Promising the audience a full array of various forms like tihai, paran, laykari and rela, the trio delivered a mesmerizing performance that left the viewers gasping for the sheer force and skill of it.

Explaining the significance of pakhawaj, which is known to be the favourite instrument of Lord Ganesh, Pt Ravi Shankar said, “It is also called manual vaad and was devised by Lord Shiva.”

The first presentation was a Ganesh stuti. Giving the bols of the composition, Pt Ravi Shankar along with Rishi and Mahima played it out for the audience who could discern the words. The next was a Shiv stuti in Chautal. They began with a uthaan which can also be termed as the aalap of percussion.

The flourish with which the trio played spoke of the long tradition that they are carrying forward and also brought out the talent of Mahima, who is among the very few women pakhawaj artistes and is also part of the Sakhi group of women musicians formed by Kaushiki Chakraborty.

Pt Ravi Shankar also presented a real and some small interludes before regaling the audience with the sound of a train moving on the tracks.

The vocal presentation on day one was by Anand Bhate, a disciple of Kirana gharana, who is also popularly known as Anand Gandharv. He began with a khayal in raag Maru Bihag and later presented a couple of natyageet.

Earlier, the evening began with the felicitation of filmmaker Rajdutt who had a close association with Vasantrao Deshpande. Keeping up with the tradition of honouring the guru, SCZCC felicitated two teachers from the city, musician Jayant Indurkar and Bharatanatyam teacher Ratnam Janardan. Director of SCZCC Deepak Khirwadkar made a twenty-minute presentation of a special eight matra tal which had been taught to him by Vasantrao Deshpande.

Quotes

I come from a family of musicians as Raja Bade was my uncle. Though I am settled in US but I have an affinity for Hindustani classical music. I am here to watch and enjoy these performances

Harshal Bade | Engineer

Nagpurians look forward to this music festival as it features some very prominent artistes. This year also the performances are by both local and national level artistes and I am looking forward to it

Ratnam Janardan | Bharatanatyam guru

I was impressed by SCZCC director Deepak Khirwadkar’s presentation. It was the ultimate tribute that a disciple can pay to his guru

Dinkar Kukade | Music organizer

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