It was 3 years ago that New Zealand lost a legendary Samvadini (harmonium) player and Indian Classical Music audiences were left with memories of late Shri Jayant Bhalodkar. On the occasion of his anniversary, year, his son, Samir Bhalodkar himself an accomplished Samvadini player, has been organising a musical tribute. This year he wanted to bring to music lovers something on a bigger and better. Swar Tarang was all that and more.
Being a tribute to Jayantji, it was decided that the theme would be based on his favourites – Classical ragas and bandishes.
He also liked Marathi Natyasangeet and thumris. In order to achieve this complex blend of singing and music, Samirji decided to bring in artists who had seldom performed classical music on stage in Auckland, though all were trained singers.
In addition he had a surprise jugalbandi with mandolin as the grand finale featuring Ashok Thakore.
The evening started with soulful bhajans sung by Virend Prakashji. He is known for his wonderful renditions of Anup Jalota’s bhajans and he was his usual best, setting the ambience and tone for the evening. He was followed by the young couple Hemant and Shweta Shirsat who have trained under Shree Krushnarao Karekar of Kirana Gharana. They performed a bandish in Raag Yaman and a marathi Natyasangeet. The audiences were getting warmed up to an excellent evening.
Following them was Manasi Kulkarni a protégé of late Mrs Shailaja Kurlekar and Mrs Ranjana Bhide. She presented a vilambit Khayal in Raag Puriya Dhanashree and a famous marathi natya sangeet. It was one of the finest rendition of the raag in a long time in Auckland.
Samirji then presented the Samvadini solo. While traditionally the harmonium has been an accompanying instrument of choice of Classical singers, rendering it solo requires great application and understanding. Samirji was able to harmonise musical chords by producing melodious ‘Mindh and Shrutis’ with flawless precision, delicacy, sensitivity and rhythm. This brought a much deserved break to the audience as they were mesmerised by the vocal and instrumental presentations of the evening.
The second half started with Raghunath Pawar who had the enviable task of keeping up with the standard of the first half. He da surprise up his sleeve when he followed the bada Khayal in raag Bhup with a medley of raags – known as raagmala, a composition of 18 different raagas in 1 bandish. The audience were left spell bound and stunned.
Kishori Telang, a disciple of Smt Aarti Anklikar, and born in a musical family is bestowed with a wonderful voice and fantastic presentation skills. Both these were in ample demonstration when she presented a bandish in Raag Malkauns, and a tarana. She followed this up with a Thumri in Raag Heman/Bhinna Shadaj – Yaad piya ki aaye! This had the audience in awe!
The grand finale arrived when Shri Anand Thakore took the stage with Samir for a jungalbandi between Mandolin and Samvadini. Both the instruments have a different base and it was an interesting combination.
The audiences were left spellbound for the next half an hour when both the artist took them on a journey of finest classical music. Accompanying them was the equally talented Avirbhav Verma on Tabla.
He was the silent force behind all the singers throughout the evening. However, during the instrumental jugalbandi, he came into his own and added a different flavour to the event. A real talent, and son of legendary tabla maestro late Pawan Kumar Verma of the Punjab Gharana.
It was a fitting tribute to the legendary meastro Shree Jayant Bhalodkarji and the full house audience experienced an evening of sublime music. Dr Neelima Upadhyay summed up the evening in a wonderful poetic rendition which was probably the feeling of all present there.
Earlier, a hand drawn potrait of Jayantji was revealed by his grand-daughter Tanvi Bhalodkar. The sound for the evening was handled by Virend Prakashji and managed by Prashant Belwalkar.