Reviews
Festival in memory of Pt Kumar Gandharva - Kaalajayee

Pt Kumar
Gandharva’s 100th birth year is celebrated across the country in
various cities. In addition to music concerts, the trail-blazing musician’s
immense contribution to music is remembered by scholars from various
disciplines, and not just musicians.
The first
festival, organised by the Kumar Gandharva Pratishthan, was held in Mumbai to
coincide with his birthday, 8 April; the 2nd festival was held in
Pune in June. There are plans to hold commemorative festivals in Chennai,
Bangalore, Sholapur, Delhi, Dewas and other towns.
The event in
Pune connected all participants, artists and audience alike, with a wave of
nostalgia, shared memories and music. It opened with the release of two books
on Kumar Gandharva for children. One was in Marathi by Madhuri Purandhare, and
the other, completely different, was in English and Hindi by Sopan Joshi. Both
authors have no deep connection with music and have approached their subject
with a fresh perspective, uncoloured by an intimate knowledge of the maestro’s
revolutionary music. Kalapini Komkali, daughter of Kumar Gandharva,
explained,”I wanted the younger generation to be given fresh perspectives of my
father and his music, so I asked two people from different streams of expertise
to analyse his life and work.”
After the book
releases, Madhup Mudgal from Delhi presented his music. He heads the Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in Delhi
and has a decades-old relationship with Kumar Gandharva; today, he is among his
senior disciples. He started his early evening concert with raga Bhimpalasi,
with a mellow vilambit Ek taal composition, Jaanu re, immortalised by
his guru Kumar Gandharva. His carefully worked out progression (badhat)
revealed the extent of his mastery; the contours of the raga were presented in
full, and the mood was maintained with flair. He moved onto an unusual tarana’
in drut Teen taal. The next raga was composed by Kumar Gandharva, Shri Kalyan.
A unique combination of the dusk raga Shri and Kalyan, the raga combines both
the lament of Shri and the pleasant structure of Kalyan. Incidentally, Kumar
Gandharva, like many other older musicians, never referred to the raga by its
later name, Aiman or Yaman. Madhup Mudgal sang this expertly, briefly, moving
onto another traditional raga Kamod. Here he sang the familiar Aeri jaane na
doongi also sung as Kari jaane na doongi, with an interesting twist.
Instead of stopping on the pancham at doongi, he halted on the madhyam, moving
onto the rishabh, giving the composition a refreshing novelty. Madhup’s concert
established his stature as one of today’s senior meditative vocalists, with a
singing style hugely dependent on his guru’s but today quite distinctive. He
was accompanied by the maestro Aravind Thathe on harmonium and an equally adept
Bharat Kamat on tabla.
Violin maestro
N. Rajam took the stage with her two granddaughters, Ragini and Nandini. As a
reminder of her age, she used a small stand to rest the end of her violin; in
no other way could one believe she is past 80 years. Indeed, one could say the
vigour of her playing was matched by the younger violinists, not the other way
around!
The trio played
raga Jaijaiwanti with their usual grace, the muted mellow strokes creating a
soothing ambience. Following the vocal tradition rather than that of the
instrument (with aalap-jor-jhala), they went straight into the
compositions.They played three before concluding with a favourite of Rajam -Jab
Janaki nath sahay karein, in raga Khamach. On the tabla was Banaras
gharana’s redoubtable Arvind Kumar Azad.
The concluding
item was Jaipur Attrauli gharana’s Ashwini Bhide Deshpande. Immensely popular
with the audiences, the late timing did not deter anyone who stayed till the
end. She sang raga Khambavati; this relatively unusual raga was handled with
expertise. Indeed, one looks forward to hearing rare ragas sung with insightful
knowledge by her.
She explained
that the second composition (Ye imaipiya) was sung by maestro Alladiya
Khan, after whom the gharana was named. The unusual use of the rishabh in the
composition established that one cannot take current conventional note usage in
ragas for granted. Ashwini’s effortless voice throw, wonderful raga
delineation, and mature soch were always impressive. Her second piece in raga
Gaud Malharwas was another true delight, both compositions taking her audience to
ecstatic heights, combining unusual laya with beautiful note patterns. Proof
that she is a wonderful teacher as well, there were her two accompanying
disciples – Rutuja Lad and Swarangi Marathe. On the tabla was Bharat Kamath, a
favourite of most vocalists today (including the late Kishori Amonkar) and the
masterly Suyog Kundalkar, another hugely popular musician.
The second
session of the festival was in the morning, giving the Pune audience the
opportunity to hear morning ragas. Starting the session was Mewati gharana’s
Sanjeev Abhyankar, prime disciple of Jasraj. Despite having a voice not known
for its power, Sanjeev has infused impressive fluidity, tunefulness and
dexterity in it—combined with an awesome chintan, and of course, impeccable
talim, his music today is truly memorable. He sang raga Mian- ki-Todi; the
vilambit composition was Ab to harayiyo. One of the finest presentations
this author has heard recently of Sanjeev Abhyankar, the Miyan-ki-Todi had
everything – emotion, layakari, pleasing delineation of raga, a plethora of
fantastic taans combining unusual note patterns with speed, traversing the
three octaves with ease. After the heights he attained, his concluding piece in
raga Charukesi felt a slight letdown. He was accompanied on the tabla by Punjab
gharana’s Rohit Majumdar and on the harmonium by Abhinay Ravande.
After such a
magnificent concert, it took Kalapini Komkali a while to settle the audience.
Although laudable, her choice of the esoteric raga Saheli Todi, composed by her
father Kumar Gandharva, did not make her task easy. Her powerful voice and
style so akin to her legendary father, held sway, and her rendering of both
compositions took her listeners down memory lane. Both the beautiful vilambit
compositions, Kaahe e jagava, in Ek taal and the drut Chandaasa mukh
banaara were composed by Kumar Gandharva.
The second raga
was another rare one, Shukla Bilawal, in which Kalapini sang a Jhaptaal
bandish, the traditional Kalana paratmohe. In a tribute to her vocalist
mother, she next sang another traditional, but rarely sung, tarana that had
been taught to her mother by Kumar Gandharva, though he himself never sang it.
Showcasing the diverse musical tradition in which she was taught, Kalapini
concluded with a lok sangeet, Rangeeli ghangor sawariya. As the host of
the festival, Kalapini gracefully kept her renderings short, so as to give more
time to the other artists.
The concluding
artist of the festival was the veteran Kirana and Gwalior gharana vocalist,
Vinayak Torvi. Blessed with a wonderful bass voice, the doyen sang raga
Jonpuri, a somewhat unusual choice, as one would have expected a raga of a
later time slot. The traditional vilambit khayal, Baje jhan jhan payaliya
was a treat; he was accompanied most ably by his senior disciples Dhananjay
Hegde and Siddharth Belamannu. The concert was most enjoyable, sung without
haste and an evident enjoyment by the maestro. The next ragas were Surdasi
Malhar and Mian Malhar, on request, which were superlative. The composition in
Surdasi Malhar, Badarwa barasan ko aaye was by the ascetic musician
Kunwar Shyam and the drut composition in Ek taal Ayi badareeya by Delhi
gharana’s Tanras Khan. On the tabla was Prashant Pandav, harmonium Arawind
Thatte. Overall, the excellent ambience created was one that will be remembered
for long.
The concluding
session of the festival was memories and tributes by artists and admirers of
Kumar Gandharva. Sadly, they were conducted in Marathi, leaving some bits
incomprehensible to this writer. Eminent vocalist Alka Dev Marulkar shared a
close association with the maestro; she shared how she gained so much as a
young girl listening to Kumar Gandharva’s insightful analogies of everyday
occurrences with music. One that struck this writer was how leaving berries to
ripen on a bush is akin to letting your gayaki mature and become both sweeter
and thus palatable. Avid fan Judge Mukul Mudgal learnt from the doyen that one
should never seek favours for oneself. A wonderful audio and film presentation
on Kumar Gandharva by Srijan Deshpande presented the humorous, witty side
of Kumar Gandharva; when asked why he
never sang with a swarmandal, he replied why do you wear tight pants!
The impact
of Kumar Gandharva was summed up by a
video of his singing at a private concert.
The closeup images of his intoxicated eyes and total involvement in his singing
elicited this comment from a young listener – “Imagine, if the effect of his
video is so enormous, what it must have been to hear him live!”
SHAILAJA KHANNA
(Writes on music, musicians and matters of
music)