How Pt. Vishnu Digambar Jayanti continues to uphold the Hindustani music tradition

A musical meeting point

The annual Pt. Vishnu Digambar Jayanti music festival is always an eagerly awaited event in Delhi’s cultural calendar. One of the reasons in the impeccable choice of artistes. This year, young musicians, who are always featured in the festival, stole the show. Despite limited time, they impressed with their performances.

The festival opened with a sarod-sitar jugalbandi by Kolkata-based Kaushik Mukherjee and Kalyanjit Das, both exponents of the Senia Maihar gharana. Kaushik is currently learning from Pt Tejendra Narayan Mazumdar, while Kalyanjit from his father Pt. Kushal Das. The alap in raag Puriya Kalyan was calming, and was presented in a systematic and an unhurried manner. Kaushik, the elder of the duo played more impactfully in this section, slowly moving into the higher octave from the bass kharaj. In the jor section, Kalyanjit impressed with his gamak-laden phrases. Pt. Ram Kumar Mishra, sitting between the two, provided excellent accompaniment. Kalyanjit’s bolkaari and clarity of taans and Kaushik layakaari were notable In the drut section, Ram Kumar’s ‘na dhin dhin dha’ played with one finger, a speciality of his grandfather Pt. Anokhe Lal Mishra, drew appreciation. 

The evening ended with Bhuvanesh Komkali’s vocal concert. His Indore-based disciple Varshita Bansiwal provided vocal support. On the tabla was Delhi’s Shambunath Bhattacharya, and on the harmonium, Abhishek Shinkar. Bhuvanesh began with raag Nand, a minor raag that he deftly secured from other similar raags. The vilambit Ektaal khayal was a traditional composition — ‘Govind been bajaye’. His leisurely exposition gave way to a faster Teen taal khayal composed by his grandfather Pt. Kumar Gandharva. Next, he played Jaldhar Basanti, created by his grandfather. This was followed by raag Basant. He ended with a Kabir bhajan. Bhuvanesh as always sings with an infectious passion; it is hard not to be taken along on his journey of music. 

The next evening began with a concert by Bengaluru-based Siddhartha Belmannu, a disciple of Pt. Vinayak Torvi. His performance was excellent in terms of content and presentation. Appropriately, he sang a composition in raag Mian Malhar ‘karim naam tero,’ inextricably linked with Pt. Bhimsen Joshi, a legend of the Kirana gharana to which Siddhartha belongs. Singing with adaa, Sidharath’s brief auchar was impressive and set the tone for the concert. Gamaks, good aakar taans, soulful meends, clear enunciation, open-throated singing, a hint of drama, a fine sense of proportion — he has it all. ‘Bijuri chamake, barase megh’ was his drut khayal, followed by Ati Drut Ek taal’ composition.

On the tabla was Pune-based Pranav Milind Gurav, whose playing was empathetic. Vinay Mishra (harmonium) was at his usual excellent self. Siddhartha sang ‘Kahe ko ab tum aaye’ in Sohni. The influence of the Agra style of singing was clearly visible in his vision of the raag. His ‘pukar’ reminded one of Ustad Faiyyaz Khan. His breath control in the tarana, composed by his guru Pt. Vinayak Torvi, added a dramatic element to his singing. He concluded with a thumri in Kafi, ‘Ab to piya maanat nahi’, ending with the notes of Mian ki Mahar, beautifully linking to where he began. 

The evening concluded with a flute recital by Shashank Subramaniam. He was accompanied on the mridangam by Patri Satish and on the violin by L. Ramakrishnan. Shashank has performed many times at this festival, and he dedicated his concert to his guru in Hindustani music Pt Jasraj, whose anniversary it was. Shashank understands audience expectations. He only played the longer bass flute that audiences in North India prefer. Some find the tone of the smaller flute shrill.

He began with a brief racy varnam, a Tyagaraja composition in Raga Hamsanada. It came as a warm up piece. He moved onto raga Vagedeshwari, a beautiful combination of Jog and Khamach raags,  to explain it in the context of Hindustani music tradition. After a ragam tanam pallavi, Shashank moved on to his compositions with excellent support from the accompanists. He ended with a tillana in Sindhu Bhairavi, that he had composed. His concert was lyrical, and exciting, in turn.