SCZCC music fest concludes with musical play

NAGPUR: The curtains came down on the Vasantrao Deshpande Smriti Sangeet Samaroh on Monday. The three-day-long festival, organized by SCZCC, concluded with musical play 'Sangeet Mrigranjani' presented by Shirish Theatre group and Lalitkala Nidhi, Mumbai.
Set during the times of Akbar's rule, this is a new play, having debuted only in March this year.It tells the story of singer Baiju and his protege Gopal. Replete with songs set to classical ragas, the play deals with issues of ideological conflicts between the new and the older generation.
Once extremely popular, the genre of musical plays is gradually on the wane now. But good acting and singing by the cast of Mrigranjani made for engrossing viewing. The young actors played their part with finesse. Dhananjay Joshi as Baiju enthralled the audience with fine singing. Matching talents with him was Sanjeev Mehndale as Gopal. Written by Ashok Patole, the play has been directed by Ravindra Khare. The music direction is by Pt Suhas Vyas.
Equally intriguing were the musicians who played live, sitting in front of the stage. Sitting upright on a chair and playing an organ was Uday Kulkarni from Pune. Describing the rare instrument, he said, "This piece is 100 years old. They were mostly produced in Germany, Britain or US. But the production has been stopped for the last 70 years."
Satisfied with the response that the festival received, director SCZCC Ravindar Singal said, "The festival was a good mix of all kinds of classical performing arts. In terms of audience response too this year has been better than the previous one. We have dedicated audience like Krishna Joshi from Shegaon, who makes it a point to be present on all three days of this festival."