Musical extravaganza ends on a divine note

It was a bitter-sweet end to the 44th Pandit Motiram, Pandit Maniram Sangeet Samaroha at CCRT this Friday. As the evening progressed from the soulful prarthana of singer-actress Ashavari Joshi to the soulful bhajans of Anup Jalota, the audience was aware that the three-day music festival that had them ecstatic was inching closer to its end.
After Ashavari got the ball rolling, Ankita Joshi, who trained under Pandit Jasraj himself, took to the stage and won the hearts with melodious rendition on raga Jog.After presenting various amalgamations and permutations of musical notes on the pentatonic raga set in Kaafi, she wrapped up her recital with a soulful abhanga, a form of devotional poetry sung in praise of god. Accompanist Kedar Pandit shone on tabla as he kept the pulse of the concert at its peak.
The highlight of the evening was the ghazal and bhajan samrat Anup Jalota. The veteran presented his catalogue of hit ghazals and bhajans. The maestro opened his concert with what is presumably his most celebrated bhajan, Aisi lagi lagan meera ho gai magan. He followed it up with other popular hits like Shyam Teri Bansi Pukare Radha Naam, Achyutam Keshavam, Tere Man Mein Ram, Honton se Chhoo lo Tum among others. When he realised that the audience had joined him singing Shyam Teri Bansi Pukare, he joked, “Thank you for singing the duet with me,” which jerked the audience out of the trance and cracked them up. He later encouraged them to sing with him, to which they happily complied. As he played with the harmonium reeds and swaras, he was complemented by Amit Choubey on tabla, Dhiren Raichura on guitar and Rohan on santoor. The cheerful man that Anup Jalota is, he kept cracking jokes in middle of his renditions. After an extraordinary display of dam saans (breath control) which got many ‘wah wah’s from the audience, he said, “Yeh jo lambi saans hai, iska raaz main kisiko nahi batata. Magar aapko main bataunga. Iske peeche baba Ramdev ka haath hai.”
The mellifluous evening as well as the three-day confluence of celebrated musical riches came to a close with a standing ovation.