Sawai mesmerises Puneites yet again

PUNE: Grand chandeliers, LED screens, contemporary backdrop and a much better organised seating arrangement… all this and more added to the eagerly-awaited inaugural day of the Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav which entered its diamond jubilee year on Tuesday.
With an impressive line-up of artistes, expectations were already high. And unlike every year, music lovers began trickling in long before the scheduled start of the day's proceedings and the pandal was more than half-full quite some time before the event got underway.
Shyama Akerkar, a die-hard 'Sawai' fan, said she found the atmosphere really different this time as the access to seats was smooth. "With enhanced viewing and listening experience thanks to the high-tech LED screens and an improved sound system, the enjoyment was more fulfilling,'' she said. The idea of laying mats across the playground was welcomed as it ensured that the dust was kept at bay, she added.
Brothers Sanjeev and Ashwini Shankar demonstrated rare promise as they opened the proceedings with their shehnai performance in raga Multani. The duo performed in the Benaras style ably established by family stalwarts Anant Lal and Daya Shankar. They did complete justice to the romantic nuances of Multani. Pune's own budding shehnai artiste Namrata Gaikwad offered supportive accompaniment.
Tabla maestro Aravind Kumar Azad and Anand Shankar matched the promise of Sanjeev and Ashwini and helped them reach an impressive crescendo of notes that left the crowd spellbound. Sanjeev and Ashwini followed up with a thumri composition set to raga Kafi, bringing out succinctly the persuasion of the thumri form claiming a thumping applause from the audience.
Swar Nakshatra, a special calendar containing photographs capturing moods of Indian music stalwarts and a brief on the compositions immortalised by them during the Sawai fest, was released by Arya Sangeet Prasarak Mandal chief and Late Pt Bhimsen Joshi's son Shrinivas Joshi.
Grand-daughter of vocal music doyens Hirabai Badodekar and Saraswatibai Rane, Meena Phatarpekar, began with raga Khambavati, accompanied by Madhav Modak on tabla and Avinash Dighe on harmonium. Phatarpekar concluded her part with a devotional composition based on raga Patadeep.
Kirana gharana exponent Padma Deshpande opened her performance with the melodious raga Yaman. Deshpande who is the grand daughter-in-law of Sawai Gandharva, brought out the entire potential of this early night raga which is always a big draw with listeners. She got strong support from Arvind Thatte on harmonium and Madhav Modak on tabla. Deshpande followed up with a composition in raga Kafi and later presented Sant Namdeo's abhang composition 'Amrutahuni goad, naam tujhe devaa…', immortalised by late singer Manik Verma.
The high point of the evening came when well-known santoor exponent Rahul Sharma took the stage. The young artiste who has placed the stringed musical instrument on the global map is a familiar face at Sawai Gandharva now. This son of santoor maestro Shiv Kumar Sharma took his time to present and elaborate raga Kalawati through aalaap, joad and jhala, stressing upon the finery of this raga not often performed at this festival. He was joined on tabla by young Satyajit Talwalkar, who is ably carrying forth the mantle of his illustrious father, tabla doyen Suresh Talwalkar.
Vocalist Ajay Pohankar was conferred the late Vatsalabai Bhimsen Joshi award for the year by vocalist par excellence Pandit Jasraj, who later began his performance with raga Shuddh Nat, accompanied by Mukund Petkar on the harmonium, Ramkumar Mishra on tabla and Shridhar Parthasarathy on pakhavaj.
In Wednesday's session, music lovers will get to witness the performances of Ratan Mohan Sharma (vocal), Ayaan and Amaan Ali Bangash (sarod), Shobhana Chandrakumar (bharatnatyam) and Raajan-Saajan Mishra with Ritesh Mishra (vocal).