An ode to the master

Even if the much awaited 59 th Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav started on a grim note,this being the first year that the festival is being organised without the maestro,Pandit Bhimsen Joshi,the performances that followed on Day 1 had an audience of close to 7000 captivated.

Even if the much awaited 59 th Sawai Gandharva Bhimsen Mahotsav started on a grim note,this being the first year that the festival is being organised without the maestro,Pandit Bhimsen Joshi,the performances that followed on Day 1 had an audience of close to 7000 captivated. At the outset,a two minute silence was observed as a tribute to the late Panditji.

The New English School grounds were lined with people of all ages sitting on the ground on bedsheets. As long as we get to listen to this kind of music,who cares about whether we got a chair to sit or not, said Anil Shinde.

The evening began with Tukaram Daithankar’s shehnai recital on raga Madhuwanti. This was followed by a performance by vocalist Sanjay Garud,a disciple of late Shrikant Deshpande,who mesmerised the audience with his ‘khayal gayaki’ in the raga Patadeep. The performances that made up everyone sit up and listen was Pandita Ashwini Bhide- Deshpande’s graceful singing,followed by Satish Vyas’ and Pandit Ajay Pohankar’s captivating performance.Deshpande’s serene expressions hardly gave away the fact that her voice was comfortably touching the highest octaves. She presented a khayal in Raga Marwa and ended her recital by singing an abhang,’Aataa kothe dhave mana’,one of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s most sung and most loved abhangs.

Satish Vyas presented another vilambit in Raga Rageshwari,which left the audience wanting for more. Pandit Ajay Pohankar of the Gwalior gharana,best known for his thumri singing,presented a bandish in the raga Kaushi Kanada.

Day 1 also saw the release of two calenders,’Singing strings and stringing maestros’ which comprised photographs of acclaimed musicians by photographer Sateesh Paknikar. Another calender with paintings of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi in different moods by artist Anil Uplekar was also released. A crowd puller was the caricature stall which had caricatures made by Prabhakar Wairkar of artists,right from Bismillah Khan,Ustad Allarakha to Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Ustad Zakir Hussain. Two short films which took the audience to Panditji’s musical journey were also screened,leaving many in the audience teary-eyed and wanting to come back the next day for more.

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