The Bhaskar Rao Nritya Sangeet Sammelan is a meeting point of gharanas

A festival that celebrates musical styles

Pt. Bhaskar Raghunath Bakhale (1869-1922), the legendary Hindustani vocalist, composer and teacher , popularly referred to as Bhaskarbua Bakhle or Bhaskar Rao, had command over the gayaki style of several gharanas including Gwalior, Agra and Jaipur-Atrauli. He was not just a competent vocalist of musical, who could sing dhrupad, dhamar, khayal, tappa, thumri and natya sangeet, but was also an exponent of the Rudra Veena. As the Principal of Bharat Gayan Samaj in Pune, he trained many disciples including Krishnarao Phulambrikar and Tarabai Shirodkar, the noted musicians of the early 20th century. For the past 50 years, Pracheen Kala Kendra (PKK) in Chandigarh has been organising an annual music and dance festival in the memory of Bhaskar Bua.

The 53rd All India Bhaskar Rao Nritya Sangeet Sammelan was held for ten days this year at the Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh. Each evening opened with dance performances by the students of Pracheen Kala Kendra, followed by concerts of the invited artistes.

Though there were several moments to cherish at the festival, some concerts stayed in mind. For instance, the sitar concert by Pt. Kushal Das and the vocal recital by Shalmali Joshi. Kushal Das trained under stalwarts such as Pt. Sanjoy Banerjee of Vishnupur Gharana, Ajay Sinha Roy (a disciple of Baba Alauddin Khan), and Manas Chakraborty. His sitar playing had the flavour of Pt. Radhika Mohan Moitra of Shahjahanpur Gharana.

Commencing the concert with raag Shuddha Vasant with a rigorously conceived alap-jod-jhala, Kushal Das played two gat compositions in vilambit (slow) and madhya laya (medium tempo) Teentaal. The raga passages were conceived so logically that every variation made a complete yet subtle statement. The fast taans were admirable. . Kushal Das, concluded with a melodious dhun based on Mishra Pahadi. He was accompanied by Parimal Chakraborty on the tabla.

Vocalist Shalmali Joshi, of Jaipur gharana was initiated into music by her mother Madhuri Kulkarni. She initially learnt from Chintubua Mhaiskar of Sangli, and later trained under Pt. Ratnakar Pai.

Shalmali chose ‘Bhup-Nat’, a special jod-raag of her gharana, and explained how the unusual combination of Bhupali and Nat come together in this raag. She demonstrated the characteristic features of both Bhup and Nat, before presenting the jod-raag. Her voice resonated with bhava while presenting the two structurally significant Khayals — vilambit in Jhaptaal of ten matras and the Chota Khayal set to Drut Ektaal of a 12-beat cycle. . Shalmali concluded with a Hori set to the Drut Ada-Chautaal, a challenging time cycle of 14 beats.

Mumbai-based Deepak Pandit opened his violin recital on the inaugural evening by thanking Pracheen Kala Kendra. “This Manch (stage) is like a temple for me because this is from where I started my music career, when I was just eleven years old.” This also proved that it’s skill not age that matters at this festival. His detailed alap-jod-jhala in raag Kirwani was followed by a Raagmala comprising 12 raags. He was accompanied on the mridangam by Shridhara Parthasarathy and on the tabla by Devajit Patitundi. Deepak concluded with a Dhun in ‘Pujab ang ki bharavi’, which had both the madhyams, gandhaars and rishabhs and used sensitively.