Saturday, 17th April - It was an evening for one more drown into classical music. It was also an evening where I decided to get hypnotized.
Aditi Upadhya, my Guru who changed my perspective of listening to Hindustani classical music, was performing at Canara Union in Malleshwaram.
I also went to this concert in anticipation that I could meet my Sunaad friends after a gap of around 4 years. I was not dissappointed of course. I met shankar, Lalli, Ashok, Tara Kini (she is my another Guru), Revathi, Niyati, Raji, Ram, so many of them. It was a nice re-union in Canara Union. :)
It was quite a good audience and the ambience was more like an intimate theatre where the space between the audience and the performer will be less. This provided more live wire interactions. Aditi, before beginning the concert, mentioned this as well. Aditi also dedicated that evening as a mark of respect to her father and Guru, Pt. Dinkar Kaikini who passed away a couple of months back and also to Sri. Prabhakar Rao who also passed away few days back.
Shankar Prasad, one of my very senior friend, introduced the artistes to the audience . Pt. Ravindra Yavagal, one of the brilliant Tabla artistes of the country and Dr. Ravindra Kaatoti, one of the fantastic exponents of Harmonium were accompanying Aditi for the performance. along with them, Priya, another upcoming extremely talented desciple of Aditi and Lalitha Shankar (we affectionately call her Lalli) was on Tanpura.
And the hypnotism began.
The first round of hypnotism was Raag Purvi which is an evening raag (specifically during sunset). This is a sampoorna raag which has Ga and Ni as Vaadi and Samvaadi sur. Aditi set the mood of the raag so beautifully that literally we could feel the evening. The effect of Nayya mori paar... was simply brilliant. I always wondered what is that these artistes have with which they make these renditions so brilliant. Aditi was weaving the magic with the sur and all of us were trapped into it. The rendition started giving us a kind of a graphical representation of the raag and the lyrics.
The second round of hypnotism was Bhupali. This is again an evening raag which is generally used for melonchalic moods. This raag does not have Ni (Nishad) in its structure. Aditi created the magic in this piece which is about worshipping this raag itself. The notes were connected so brilliantly that Aditi made it look very fluent. But one could realize that she was delivering an extremely tough composition with such ease. In the dhrut, she sang Nahi Maane Jashoda Tumharo Kanhaayi which took all of us Sunaadians (ex and current) into our flashbacks of Bhaav Yaatra. The wonderful aspect of Aditi's singing was that the creativity was flowing in instantly. Overall , rendition was a total "man lubhaavan"
The third round of hypnotism was sadaa suhaagan raag Bhairavi. This raag generally is rendered as a grand finale . Particularly the composition by Pt. Dinkar Kaikini "saajan ghar aaye, bhirmaaye...." wov... what a composition and singing it was. Amazing.
Aditi also performed another composition of her another Guru, the legendary Shobha Gurtu. Shobhaji is a highly respected artiste across the globe and Aditi was trained under her for up-shaastriya gaayan. It was a composition about Lord Krishna
We were all in the deep state of trans during this performance and I totally forgot that I had to leave by 8:15 PM. I refused to, as it was so enchanting and exceptional perofmance that I did not want to miss out the completeness.
One point which I must mention here is about Priya. This little girl who has come all the way from abroad to learn music under Aditi's guidance is proving to be a brilliant performer. I still remember Priya performing at the auditorium of Indian Institute of Science, NIAS, sometime in 2005 or 2006. Priya has come a long way. Even during this concert, it was very interesting and heartening to see the Guru-Shishya communication live on the stage through the sur. When Priya was singing Aditi was advising her to touch the higher note and come back. Aditi was suggesting Priya to expand the rendition a little bit to create that ambience which that Raag is supposed to create. It is these kind of Gurus who create wonders and allow their shaagirds create the wonder. Priya is already on this path.
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