Classic Revisited

Classical music and Kolkata had been held in an enriching association for a long time now. And the Dhrupad Utsav,organised by Krishnayam,a social welfare organization,just reconfirmed the fact. However,though most forms of classical music these days find very few takers among the hip hop-happy youngsters,the decline of Dhrupad,post-Independence has been alarming. A sea-change in the relevance of music in the society is solely responsible for that,feel experts. So,the music festival,organised between April 24-26,becomes even more relevant. The attempt at reviving Dhrupad music in the city was acknowledged by Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi,who attended the inauguration of the event at Town Hall on April 24.

The festival treated the city to the brilliance of Dhrupad maestros like Ustad Zia Fariuddin Dagar who is the director of the Dhrupad Centre at IIT Bombay and former departmental head of Rabindra Bharati University Santosh Kumar Bandyopadhyay. Pushpraj Koshti,Falguni Mitra,the Gundecha Brothers and Uday Bhawalkar were among the others who performed.