The third day of the 56th Sawai Gandharva Music Festival belonged to young vocalist Arshad Ali Khan of Kirana Gharana. Twenty three-year-old Arshad was the youngest artiste to perform this year. Khan is the great grandson of legendary vocalist Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. His first performance at Sawai was in 1993 as a seven-year-old. This time, however, it was a different scenario as the expectations were high. Sudheer Nayak on harmonium and Bharat Kamat on tabla accompanied him. Incidentally, Kamat had accompanied him in 1993 also.Arshad, a resident of Kolkata says Pune is his second home. “I remember when I had performed for the first time in the festival, Pt Bhimsen Joshi was very caring and he made me feel like his family member. I missed him today,” he said. Madhup Mudgal, who performed after Arshad, enthralled the audience by singing raga Shree followed by a bhajan. A jugalbandi by violinists Ganesh and Kumaresh was another attraction of the day 3. They started with traditional Varnam in raga Shree followed by compositions in Carnatic music. Pt Rajan and Sajan Mishra were to perform in the night.
